McNee scores team-high 18 points in win

Esteban Castellanos
Sports Reporter

The men’s basketball team upped its record to 4-0 on Nov. 13 with a 66-61 squeaker against defending OCAA champions, the Fanshawe Falcons.
Trailing by 16 and shooting just 25 per cent from the field at the half, the Hawks’ undefeated streak appeared at an end.
“We were absolutely terrible in the first half, almost like a junior high school team,” said assistant coach Ajay Sharma.
Head coach Darrell Glenn expressed his displeasure with the sluggish start.
“We have a recurring problem here,” Glenn said. “We don’t play like this when we’re on the road.”
A bright spot for the Hawks during an otherwise bleak first half was the play of Jadway Hemmings, who finished the game with 15 points and a team-leading 7 rebounds.
“Jadway Hemmings answered the call,” Sharma said. “Jadway raised the level and with that everyone else came along.”
The second half saw Glenn change his team’s defensive attack to apply full-court pressure, a move that stifled the Falcons’ attack. “Basically it was just a man-to-man defence,” said Jeremy Alleyne, a first-year Hawk guard. “We just out-hustled them.”
Bolstered by the tenacious defence, the Hawks broke out on an 18-7 run to start the third quarter.
With the Hawks still trailing by 2, Mike Dvorak got an opportunity to even the score at 49 from the free-throw line. The second of two shots rimmed out, only to be grabbed by Mark McNee, who stepped back and drained two of his team-high 18 points, giving the Hawks their first lead since the score was 3-2.

“We were absolutely terrible in the first half, almost like a junior high school team.” Ajay Sharma, assistant coach

“He picked it up and started to compete much better,” Glenn said of McNee’s 18-point performance, 13 of which came in the second half.
The Falcons bounced back one last time before Jose Araujo, held scoreless throughout the game, drained a shot from beyond the arc with fewer than four minutes to play.