Men's basketball kicked off 2019 with two heartbreaking losses to the Algoma Thunderbirds in Sault Ste. Marie, dropping the games by a combined six points.
On Friday, Waterloo fell by a score of 94-90 with the two teams going toe-to-toe from start to finish. Both finished with an identical shooting percentage of 47.8% but Algoma turned Waterloo's turnovers into 14 points which proved to be the difference.
Nedim Hodzic (Waterloo/Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary) kicked the New Year off on the right foot with a game high 31 points and 12 rebounds while
Simon Petrov (Waterloo/Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary) was also solid with 26 points.
Jeff Baradziej (Grimsby/Wasatch Academy (Utah)) rounded out Waterloo's offence with 12 points.
On Saturday, Algoma got the best of Waterloo again winning the game 80-78. Nathan Riley hit a layup with 0.8 seconds left to put his squad up by two points.
Justin Gunter drew up a nice play off the inbound as
David Ramon Prados (Madrid/Virgen de Atocha (North Platte College)) tossed up the ball to Hodzic who caught and released the ball before the buzzer but the shot came up just short. It appeared Hodzic had been fouled on the play but no call was made.
Hodzic again had the game high with 29 points and 14 rebounds while Petrov had 22. Three other Warriors had nine points in the loss.
Waterloo will return to the PAC on Thursday for a school day game with Guelph at 11am.
