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The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's basketball team fell 89-75 to the No. 4 Windsor Lancers in their 2014-15 home opener on Friday, November 14 at the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport.

With the loss, the Blues drop to 1-2, while the Lancers improve to 3-0 in the early goings of OUA action.

"We started with a lot of energy in the first three or four minutes and I think we were rewarded for that," said John Campbell, now in his second season as Blues bench boss. "After that we stopped taking care of the basketball. I think their physicality bothered us a little bit and then we committed a lot of fouls and that created a pretty big deficit. I think against good teams like that you can try to make runs to close the deficit, but I think it's really hard to overcome and that was the case tonight."

Fourth-year guard Julian Clarke led the Blues with 19 points, nine rebounds and three assists, while third-year forward Devin Johnson had 14 points and seven boards. Denis Ankrah added 12 points in the loss.

Toronto got out to an early 11-2 lead in the first three minutes of action, but the Lancers battled back and led 30-14 after the first quarter. Windsor maintained a comfortable lead and were up 46-31 at halftime.

A Devin Johnson three-pointer and great second effort basket from Clarke brought the game within three (59-56) with 1:25 to go in the third but the Lancers led 65-58 heading into the final frame.

Windsor pulled away through the fourth quarter, thanks to 11 points from Evan Matthews, en route to the 14-point victory.

Fourth-year guard Rotimi Osuntola led all players with 26 points and 15 rebounds, while Matthews ended the game with 16 points and seven rebounds. Bradford Parker notched 15 points and Khalid Abdel-Gabar had 14 in the victory.

The Varsity Blues return to the court tomorrow night as they host the Western Mustangs at Goldring Centre. Tip off is set for 8 p.m.

U of T then hosts the Nipissing Lakers next Friday, November 21 in their Grand Opening event at Goldring Centre. Two lucky contestants will have a chance to shoot for tuition, as well as two $500 travel vouchers from Merit Travel. The event is free and open to the public and the first 1,000 fans will receive a free Varsity Blues rally towel. Visit www.varsityblues.ca/grandopening for more information. 

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