LONDON, Ont. - Though they nearly led wire-to-wire, the Sheridan Bruins men's basketball team (20-7, 8-3 OCAA) had to battle to pick up a hard-fought win against a gritty Fanshawe squad, 85-79.
"That's a very big win for us," head coach Jim Flack said. "Fanshawe runs such a good program and they are so well coached that any time you can come home from London with a win you have to be pleased."
The game opened with a quick pace, as the Bruins lead 18-11 six minutes into the contest and carried that to 26-18 first quarter lead.
They also led 46-39 at the half, but an 8-2 Fanshawe run trimmed the lead to just one, 48-47 early in the third.
The see-saw battle continued as the double-blue kept the home side from re-claiming the lead and pushed it back to double-digits, 61-51, late in the third before another Fanshawe mini-run (7-2) made it a five point (63-58) game going to the final period.
The double-blue once again compiled a double-digit edge early in the fourth quarter, but Fanshawe was able to slowly start clawing back.
With less than 90 seconds on the clock, Fanshawe hit a pair of free throws and after a quick turnover drilled a three-pointer that made it 79-75.
They had an opportunity to make it a two-point game with less than a minute to play, but could only hit one of their two free throws.
From there, Fanshawe was forced to put the Bruins on the free throw line to try and extend the contest, but the visitors were able to close it out.
After scoring just seven points - on 2-11 shooting, with no points in the second half - against Mohawk, Khalid Abdel-Gabar bounced back in a big way with a career-high 37 points, which included a pair of clutch free throws in the final 15 seconds that iced the victory.
Denmark McDonald had a double-double, pouring in 20 points to go with 11 rebounds.
The club will play their third game in eight days when they travel to Redeemer on January 28.
Blue notes: Abdel-Gabar's 37 points gave him 803 in his Sheridan career, making him just the ninth player to crack the 800-point mark in a career. The win was the 20th of the season for the Bruins, marking the 30th time in 44 years of Sheridan basketball that the team has cracked the 20-win plateau. In the last 20 years the only time they did not record at least 20 wins was 2006-07 when they won 19. The Bruins have now won five straight against Fanshawe and 10 of the last 11 (including playoffs) since the return to the East/West format. The games have all been close though, being decided by an average of six points with only three being decided by more than seven.
Source: Sheridan I.T.