St. Lawrence Vikings moved into a second-place tie with the Georgian Grizzlies Saturday afternoon, when they defeated the Loyalist Lancers 85-78 in an Ontario Colleges Athletic Association men’s basketball game in Belleville.
The Vikings needed overtime to claim their ninth win in a row. In that streak, the run-and-gun St. Lawrence team has scored 84 points or more five times.
Floundering at 2-5 four weeks into the season, the Vikings are now tied with Georgian at 11-5. The Grizzlies have lost two of their last three games, including 84-70 Friday against East division-leading Durham.
St. Lawrence has four games remaining in its regular schedule, starting Wednesday when they host Durham, 14-2 and the No. 14-ranked team in Canada, at 8 p.m.
The St. Lawrence women, meanwhile, remain in sole possession of first place after their 68-49 win Saturday at Loyalist. The Vikings, 12-1, remain half a game ahead of Algonquin, which defeated George Brown 89-36 Friday night.
The female Vikings, for whom Saturday’s margin of victory, 19 points, was the smallest in their current seven-game win streak, will next play Saturday, when they will host Centennial.