Friday night pitted the York University Lions men's basketball team against the Toronto Varsity Blues. In a high-energy city rivalry game, the Lions looked to find the edge and move up in the standings after a slow start to the season.

Toronto found the momentum early, going on a 11-4 run to open the game. However, the Lions were able to crawl back off the efforts of Nickele Harris in the paint, who had six points in the first five minutes of action. Guard Jeremiah Kwarteng added seven more in the quarter to cap off a strong run for the Lions, who only trailed 24-19 after the first.

The Varsity Blues jumped out to another opening 7-0 run, but yet again Kwarteng helped the Lions get back, with a high-flying layup through contact, adding a point from the line after the foul. The Varsity Blues were able to pour it on after though, outscoring the Lions 29-11 in a dominant quarter. When the dust cleared and the buzzer sounded, York was in a hole of 53-30, needing to improve going into the second half.

The Lions were able to keep pace with Toronto in the third, with the scoring 21-14 in slight favour of the Varsity Blues but struggled to put together large runs on offence. Kwarteng and Jonathan Rivera were the Lions that were able to get into double digit scoring at that point, dropping multiple buckets respectively in the quarter.

Down thirty at 82-52 midway through the fourth quarter, the Lions had no room to mount a comeback, despite blowing out the Varsity Blues 34-18 in the quarter. Play featured buckets from Gilian Mavoungou (including two back to back threes) and more from Kwarteng. Nathan Carr also got hot in the quarter with multiple buckets of his own, but it was too little too late, as the Varsity Blues took Friday night's game by a score of 90-78 despite a breathtaking run by the Lions near the end.

LOOKING AHEAD:
The Lions will look to shake off tonight's loss and focus on another in-city matchup with the TMU Bold tomorrow night. Tipoff is scheduled for 8:00pm, with coverage on OUA TV.