Hundreds of school children will be at the Tait McKenzie Centre on Friday to take in a pair of basketball games as the York University Lions host the Nipissing Lakers in the annual School Day Game.
 
Now in its fourth year, York's annual School Day Game has attracted thousands of local children over the years. The kids are treated to exceptional basketball action, fun half-time performances and contests and giveaways, while the Lions get to play in front of a raucous home crowd. The action gets underway at 11am with the women's game, which will be followed by the men at 1pm. Both games can also be seen live online at OUA.tv.
 
The Lions basketball squads are coming off a bye week and will be looking to continue the strong play they exhibited in their first games of 2020 two weeks ago.
 
The women's squad is riding a three-game winning streak dating back to the end of 2019. They wrapped up the first half of their season with a lopsided victory over the Lakehead Thunderwolves and then had their best weekend of the year, knocking off the nationally-ranked Brock Badgers 66-63 in their first game of the new year before coming back to beat the defending OUA and U SPORTS champion McMaster Marauders 91-84 in overtime.
 
The result is a third-place standing in the OUA Central Division, where the Lions will hope to stay to secure an automatic berth in the playoffs.
 
York's recent winning streak is thanks in large part to the play of third-year forward Lauren Golding. The Windsor, Ont., native earned OUA and U SPORTS female athlete of the week honours last week after a monster performance in which she averaged 30 points and 15.5 rebounds in two games. She is one of only two players in the OUA averaging a double-double this year.
 
The Lions men's team had a tough first half of the season but came out much stronger in their first games of 2020. They pulled out a 79-77 win over the Badgers and then narrowly upset the nationally-ranked Marauders in a one-point loss. The Lions have a 2-12 record and are at the bottom of the Central Division standings.
 
Their leader of late has been third-year guard Prince Kamunga. He had an impressive pair of games two weeks ago, averaging 23.5 points and 14.5 rebounds to earn York's male athlete of the week award.
 
Both Lakers squads have struggled so far this year in the tough OUA East Division and the two teams have matching 3-11 records. The women are coming off a win over Laurentian, their first in seven outings, while the men are looking to stop a seven-game losing streak. Friday's games are the only ones of the season between the Lions and Lakers.
 
After Friday's exciting day games, the Lions will return to playing at night on Saturday when they welcome the Laurentian Voyageurs to the Tait McKenzie Centre. Tip-off in those games will be 6pm for the women and 8pm for the men.