On Monday, December 4, the Loyalists faced off against the Eastdale Eagles, in front of a home crowed of staff and students, for their first game of the season. RLA was hoping to begin the season with a victory on home court as they’d done in last week’s pre-season match up against DSBN where they managed to steal a 28 to 26 victory in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter. 

In the first quarter of Monday’s game our team of mostly new players started off on shaky ground but managed to survive the more experienced Eagles to close out the first quarter with a small deficit on the scoreboard. In the second quarter the Loyalists struggled defensively and gave up several costly turnovers.

 Mitchell Ritzema (with a timely pass from David Cheung) dropped a 3-point bomb from deep inside the right corner over the Eagles’ guard in the last minutes of the first half. He then went on to drop two more 3-point bombs, however the Eagles still outscored the Loyalists in the first half.

After half time, the coaching staff decided to focus the team’s efforts on making more defensive stops. RLA’s centre, Bryant Ogoh came up with two gigantic blocks and four defensive rebounds after switching a 2-3 zone defense. The Loyalists struggled to protect the paint and the lower left block from the Eagle’s penetration.

The Loyalists were able to make some key fixes to both their offensive and defensive struggles in the third quarter with better positioning in the paint and fewer turnovers. Chubee Ihedioha made several defensive stops as RLA transitioned to a man-to-man defense, which limited the Eagles to only 6 points in the entire fourth quarter. Both Stephen Paterson and Bryant Ogoh’s presence in the back courts are to be credited for stabilizing the Eagle’s attack in the paint. 

Eastdale took the victory 63-31

Overall, a good start for this young team and with many more growth-milestones to come. Contributing scorers for RLA were Tom Zunik 3 points, Aiden Perez 5 points, David Cheung 9 points, and Bryant Ogoh 5 points, and Mitchell Ritzema with 9 points…all 3-pointers.