The York University Lions men's basketball team remained neck-and-neck with the University of Toronto Varsity Blues on Friday night as they beat the Blues by one point in overtime to take the 88-87 win, which was their first of the season.
 
After a tight fourth quarter which saw 18 points by the Lions and 17 points by the Blues, the teams went into overtime tied 80-80. From there it was the DeAndrae Pierre show as he scored all eight Lions points in the extra frame to secure the victory.
 
The Blues took the lead to 85-80 halfway through the overtime period but the Lions managed to claw their way back. With 1:35 left, Pierre was fouled and went to the line. He made two successful free throws to bring the score to 85-82 with the Blues still leading.
 
With the win still looking like it might belong to UofT, Pierre made two jump shots to give the Lions the lead again at 86-85. He was then called for a foul on UofT's Evan Shadkami, who made both of his free throws to get ahead by one point at 87-86.
 
It was then Pierre whose last jump shot of the game with four seconds remaining gave the Lions their first win of the season.
 
The game started out close as the Lions led the Blues by just one point, at 23-22, after the opening quarter. The Lions dominated the second, outscoring the Blues by six points to lead 46-39 at the half. The script flipped in the third quarter as it was the Blues who took control, and ultimately the lead by a single point heading into the fourth.
 
The Lions and the Blues tied a total of 10 times throughout the game, however, it was the Lions who were able to fight until the end and make all the shots and rebounds necessary to beat the Varsity Blues.
 
The Lions had four players score in double digits during the game. Guard Tyler Pryce had a career high of 21 points this game, which was the second most points scored throughout all players as he was one point behind UofT's Eric Rwahwire, who poured in 22. York's Nick Russell and Connor Laronde both had incredible games, firing 19 points each.
 
The Lions will be playing the Guelph Gryphons on Saturday night in Guelph, Ont., in their next game, which will begin at 8pm.