Bengals Tame Varsity Reds

(FREDERICTON, NB) Despite playing on home court, it was a frustrating weekend for the UNB Varsity Reds.

The Varsity Reds fell 85-81, Sunday afternoon, to the University of Maine-Fort Kent Bengals, in the finale of UNB's Eric Garland Tournament.

Joe McCloskey(Howland, ME) and Roosevelt Smith Jr.(Fairfield, CA) scored a combined 48 points to lead the Bengals.

Jamaal Potopsingh(Brampton, ON) and Donnavan Hastings(Brampton, ON) each had 16 for UNB.

Potopsingh believes the Varsity Reds are still working on their collective identity.

"It's a new team," he said. "We need to learn how to play together on the court, get a feel for each other, it's simple."

"Three losses in a row, at home, is tough to handle," said fourth year forward Dylan Baker(Narre Warren South, AUS). "There's building blocks there, we're getting there slowly. Game by game you see improvements, but at the end of the day there's a lot of work to be done."

The Varsity Reds went 0-3 in the exhibition tournament, while the Bengals went 2-1.

"We were slow to start, so I figured I'd get us going," said McCloskey, who scored a game high 26. "My point guard got me some good looks early, and I was able to feed off that and continued scoring."

The senior forward admits, the Bengals almost let a hard-charging UNB back in at the end.

"They definitely gave themselves a chance at the end," he said. "With their outside shooting, making contested three pointers… when you can do that you're, obviously, a good team and you're going to give yourself a shot, but we hung tough at the end."

Varsity Reds head coach Brent Baker was pleased his team rallied. He says he saw a better UNB team in the second half.

"We had 16 turnovers today. I think we had 11 of those in the first half. We took care of the ball a little better, had a little bit better execution and got back in the game."

McCloskey was named the Summit Dodge Player of the Game, while Smith was named to the tournament all star team.

UNB's Dylan Baker was also named to the tournament all star team.