Milan Jaksic battles for a rebound with UNBC's Josh Gillespie on Friday night (Rich Abney photo).
Milan Jaksic battles for a rebound with UNBC's Josh Gillespie on Friday night (Rich Abney photo).
November 18, 2023

Defensive details lacking in Griffins' loss to Timberwolves

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Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics

PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. – Too many turnovers and too many fouls led to a rough night for the MacEwan Griffins men's basketball team in a 97-66 loss at the UNBC Timberwolves.

Head coach Mike Connolly chalked it up to a lack of attention to detail.

"We had poor focus all around," lamented Connolly. "Poor focus on our part led them to jump out to an early lead and we couldn't recover."

With the result, UNBC improves to 2-1 on the young Canada West season, while the Griffins fall to 0-5.

Milan Jaksic led MacEwan with a strong 21-point game, narrowly missing his fourth double double of the season, adding nine rebounds. Matthew Osunde added 13 points.

"Milan was our player of the game," said Connolly. "He played one of his best offensive games of the year."

Defensively, though, the Griffins weren't nearly good enough, giving up their second-most points against this season.

"There weren't really any positives tonight," Jaksic told UNBC Athletics after the game. "We came out kind of sluggish. Offensively, I'd say we played good, but defensively, it was terrible for us. We could do way better as a team.

"Defence is what we need to shore up," he continued. "That's what wins games. We could score all the points we want, but if they're scoring on us, too, that's not winning."

Connolly would like the team to clean up some key details in Saturday's rematch (8 p.m. MT, Canada West TV).

"We had poor execution, leading to 25 turnovers," he said. "Then lack of attention to details defensively that led to undisciplined fouls sent them to the free throw line 34 times. 

"When we did our jobs and paid attention to details, we had success."