Lions fall to Concordia

Tony Altobelli

IRVINE - If the infamous “law of averages” actually is true, expect

the Vanguard University men’s basketball team not to lose until 2004.

The drought continues for the Lions following Saturday night’s 72-71

Golden State Athletic Conference loss to host Concordia.

“I pretty much used a lot of cliches in the locker room,” a dejected

Vanguard Coach Stephen French said afterward. “I told them to keep on

believing. This is such a talented group of players. We’ve just got to

hang in there and the close games we’re losing now are going to end up in

our favor down the stretch.”

The Lions (4-12, 0-5 in conference) have lost six in a row. However,

among those setbacks is an overtime loss to eighth-ranked Azusa Pacific,

a two-point loss to Point Loma and Saturday’s one-point heartbreaker.

Dennis Keane scored a game-high 27 points on 11-of-17 shooting. He

also had five rebounds and three assists.

“I’m going to be very depressed when he plays in his last game for

me,” French said. “He can pretty much score 27 any time he wants to out

there. Dennis is a very smart basketball player and he’s a joy to coach.”

Ian Boys chipped in 11 points for the Lions, while Kemmy Burgess added

10 points and seven rebounds.

The Eagles (7-8, 1-4) won the game from three-point range, thanks to

the duo of Brad DeGrenier and Adam Friesen.

Friesen scored 23 points, including five three-pointers, while

DeGrenier added 19 points, including five treys.

“Give Concordia credit,” French said. “They hit the open shots when

they had them. Unfortunately, we gave them too many open shots.”

Included in those open shots were back-to-back threes from Friesen,

which gave the Eagles their biggest lead of the game with 1:04 remaining,

72-67.

Keane hit two free throws and, following a Concordia miss, drained a

basket to cut the lead to one with 12.1 seconds remaining.

The Lions fouled quickly to stop the clock and when the Eagles’ player

missed the front end of a one-and-one, Vanguard had a chance to sneak out

with a win.

But, the Lions’ jumper at the buzzer came up just short, much to the

dismay of Vanguard faithful.

“For a chance to win a ball game, I’d take the shot we were given,”

French said. “The player who shot will make that nine times out of 10.”

When the game got underway, it didn’t look like a buzzer beater was

going to even be necessary as the Lions jumped out to a 17-4 advantage.

The Eagles responded with a 10-4 run of their own and crawled back

into the game.

Concordia stayed in the game with five first-half three pointers and

trailed only by four after 20 minutes of action.

“I believe that’s where we lost the game,” French said. “We didn’t

play any defense late in that first half and they managed to hit the

shots to stay in it.”

Concordia finally drew even for the first time since the National

Anthem a minute into the second half.

From there, the lead changed hands five different times as both teams

refused to give in. A DeGrenier trey with 13:30 remaining gave Concordia

its first lead of the game, but it was erased with points from Keane and

Brandon Cablay (eight points).

The Lions were their own worst enemy at times with 18 turnovers, 11 in

the second half. “We just can’t afford to make that many mistakes out

there,” French said.

With five minutes remaining, Burgess drained a three pointer to tie

the game and a Keane jumper gave the Lions a two-point lead and some

momentum.

But an 8-2 run proved fatal to the Lions’ hopes of their first

conference win. “We got away from our game plan down the stretch,” French

said.

Vanguard will try to bounce back at home against Westmont Tuesday

night at 7:30.