KINGSTON, Ont. (November 26, 2014) – The Gaels men's basketball team (1-4) got their first win of the OUA season on Wednesday night against the York Lions (2-4) beating them 86-84 at the final buzzer.
 
The Gaels were led by Greg Faulkner (Kingston, Ont.) with 23 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Queen's saw strong performances from Ryall Stroud (Toronto) with 13 points and Mike Shoveller (Arnprior, Ont.) with 12 points as well as both rookies Jesse Graham (Kingston, Ont.) and Tanner Graham (Kingston, Ont.) who chalked up 10 points each. Despite the loss, Nick Tufegdzich from the York Lions led all scorers with 25 points followed by Nathan Culbreath with 24 points, both of whom grabbed nine rebounds.  
 
It was a fast first quarter with both teams struggling for the lead. The Gaels pulled away thanks to Shoveller's offensive dominance as he contributed 10 points to their 27-21 first quarter lead. York kept it close throughout the rest of the half but the Gaels maintained their lead feeding the ball into the Lions key. Stroud topped off the half, receiving a steal from Sammy Ayisi (Toronto) under the basket and completing it as the second ran out putting the halftime score at 52-43 for the Gaels.
 
It was a sloppy start to the second half with York getting the first points on the board starting to close the gap. The Gaels found their footing and hit a 6-0 run with Jesse Graham getting ahead of the Lions defence to sink two consecutive shots. Going into the final quarter the Gaels held onto the lead, ahead by a three point margin.
 
The final frame saw the Gaels struggle to maintain their lead as York turned up the heat. Both teams traded shots from the floor as the Lions pushed ahead only to have the Gaels regain the lead not long after. York didn't let Queen's get comfortable shrinking the gap to a two point lead with 48 seconds left. With 11 seconds on the clock the Lions had a chance to inbound the ball and grab the win with a three pointer. The Gaels shut down their attempts and secured a 86-84 win.
 
"It's a learning experience." said head coach Stephan Barrie regarding the struggle the Gaels faced. "There are a lot of things that didn't go well enough but at the end of the day, they hung around and it's good to finally be on the other end of one of these games. Knowing that we didn't take the game, but rather both teams left it wide open, we need to take care of things right away on Friday."
 
The Gaels will try to win their second game of the season on November 28 when they host Algoma University at 8:00 pm in the ARC Main Gym.