On Saturday, Jan. 20, fans gathered to watch their 11-2 Golden Hawk men’s basketball team take on the Lakehead Thunderwolves at the Laurier Athletic Complex.
None of the attendees could’ve anticipated the dazzling performance both teams would display. Despite a pedestrian 7-8 record, Golden Hawk’s head coach, Justin Serresse, wasn’t looking past the Thunderwolves.
“We have to make sure we don’t let them take wide-open shots. They’re one of the best shooting teams in the country, so it’s going to be very important to guard the three-point line,” Serresse said prior to the game.
This plan was executed well in the first half, as the Golden Hawks limited the Thunderwolves to 2-13 shooting from behind the arc.
Unfortunately for the Golden Hawks, their first-half three-point shooting wasn’t much better. They went 3-20 shooting the three-ball despite entering the game ranked first in both three-point attempts and makes.
Despite a memorable dunk by Majok Deng over an unfortunate Thunderwolves defender and a buzzer-beater three from Benhur Gebrekidan, the Golden Hawks entered the locker room down 29-31.
The expectation for a high-flying shootout was met in the second half. The Golden Hawks, after initially looking sluggish in the first half, came out of the locker room full of fire. They opened up the third quarter on a 19-6 scoring run.
“The worst feeling is to lose [while] not playing your style of basketball. Let’s go out there playing our style of basketball and see if we can win,” said Serresse on his locker room speech.
It looked as if the Golden Hawks were about to put the game out of reach, but a scrappy Lakehead squad managed to slowly crawl their way back over the course of the second half.
The players settled into a rhythm as both teams would shoot well over 50 per cent for the remainder of the game.
Down the stretch, the Golden Hawks would find themselves down by two with 43 seconds on the clock.
The hero of the game, DeAndrae Pierre, would get fouled and hit two clutch free throws at the line to send the game to overtime.
After a jumper from Lakehead’s Tyler Sagl, the Golden Hawks faced defeat once again, down three with only 21 seconds left to play. The ball made its way to Gebrekidan in the lefthand corner.
“We go through it every shootaround, the end-of-game scenarios,” Gebrekidan said after the game, “ I just told myself to shoot that shot with confidence; if I get that shot, just shoot it with confidence.”
In an unbelievable moment, Gebrekidan hit a contested three to send the game to double overtime.
During the final five minutes, Pierre took matters into his own hands.
He scored his team’s final eight points, including a drive to the hoop to put the game on ice. With some last-second drama from Lakehead’s offense, the game ended 110-109 Golden Hawks.
Pierre had his best game of the season, ending the night with 31 points on efficient shooting.
Team star Taye Donald, after a slow start, would prove key in their victory, accumulating 25 points, six assists, five rebounds, and three steals.
After the game, Coach Serresse had praise not only for his team but for a very game Lakehead opponent: “We knew with those guys that if they get hot, it’ll be a problem. If you let them score, you’ll be in trouble. We let them score and we were in trouble.”
Ultimately, Coach Serresse surmised that it was his team’s offensive efficiency that allowed them to win the game eventually.
This was the Golden Hawk’s first overtime game of the season as they improved to 12-2. Their next game is against the 9-6 Charlton Ravens.
