After dropping their first game of a doubleheader with UPEI at home Friday night the Varsity Reds were in action for an afternoon game Saturday looking to bounce back with a win.

Both teams came out firing offensively. The Panthers opened up the scoring with a three-pointer by UNB to respond early. The Varsity Reds had up and down moments throughout the quarter, but maintained a slight edge coming out of the first up 25-18.

After such high scoring in the first quarter, it may have been expected in the second quarter, but UNB shut down UPEI holding them to only four, second quarter points, scoring 17 of their own to take a 42-22 lead into halftime.

“We’ve had some pretty good first-halfs this year, but that was probably one of our better ones,” said UNB head coach Brent Baker.

After showing they had the defensive abilities to shut down UPEI, the Varsity Reds came out a completely different team in the third quarter, struggling to stop a relentless Panthers squad.

UPEI opened the third quarter scoring, with a quick response by UNB. With UNB up 45-26, the Panthers went on a 7-0 run, followed by 4-0, and 6-0 runs before the end of the quarter to cut the Varsity Reds 20 point lead at the beginning of the quarter to ten.

Entering the fourth quarter in what was a must win game to make sure a playoff berth was still in sight the Varsity Reds game themselves a scare allowing UPEI to put together a comeback, coming within three.

Baker said that he was not scared their lead got cut to three, rather he worried whether they would continue to play smart.

“We forgot what got us the lead,” said Baker. “Anything can happen. Are you going to get scared? No. I wasn’t worried about whether we were going to play hard. I was worried about whether we were going to play smart enough and make some shots.”

With UNB up 59-56, William McFee dropped a three-pointer and life was pumped back into the Varsity Red squad that pushed forward, eventually coming away with the win 76-66.

Baker says after Friday’s loss there were a few adjustments that needed to be made if his team was going to follow up the loss with a win.

“It was basically gutting out a win down the stretch today that really made the difference,” said Baker. “We made a couple of adjustments this morning and showed them some video. We did a few things, but the biggest thing we changed was our attitude.”

“You don’t get yourself a 20 point lead and out-rebound by 13 by not bringing the enthusiasm we needed and the energy we needed.”

On Friday night the Varsity Reds were shown their push to make the playoffs was in no way going to be an easy battle.

After a low scoring first quarter UNB was on top 17-9 over UPEI. Although things were looking good early, a sloppy second quarter by the Varsity Reds proved to be costly as their lead was stripped away with the Panthers dropping 21 points to UNB’s 12 in the second quarter. UPEI took a 30-29 lead into the half, something UNB struggled to find again for long in the remainder of the game.

The Varsity Reds came out in the third quarter flat footed, with UPEI continuing to have the slight edge, outscoring UNB by four in the quarter to take a 49-44 lead into the fourth.

Although UNB made a final push to beat the Panthers, they came up just short, losing 65-63.