Queen’s Golden Gaels suffered their first Ontario University Athletics men’s basketball road defeat this year, 85-84 to the Toronto Blues in a game played Friday night at Toronto’s Goldring Centre.

It was just the second loss in eight games for the Gaels, who still sit atop the East division standings. Toronto improved to 3-4.

Queen’s took a 14-point lead in the first quarter but after holding the Gaels to just six points in the second, Varsity led 37-31 at halftime. With 34 points in the third quarter, the Gaels took a 65-60 lead into the final period. Queen’s led by as many as eight points in the fourth quarter, at 75-67, but the Blues tied the game at 80, and completed an 18-7 run to take a 85-82 lead in the final minute.

Sukhpreet Singh drained a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to a single point but the Gaels were unsuccessful in getting anything from a last-gasp shot off an in-bounds play with 0.8 seconds remaining.

Singh had a game-high 24 points for Queen’s, while Andrew Mavety came off the bench to score 11. La Salle Secondary School grad Tanner Graham scored 10 points for the Gaels, and had a game-high 12 rebounds.

Devon Williams scored 23 points for Toronto, 12 of them coming from four three-point baskets. Devin Johnson and Manny Sohota each scored 16 points for Varsity, which sank 38 per cent of its three-point shots and was guilty of just five turnovers.

Queen’s lost despite shooting successfully from the field 44.3 per cent of the time.

The Gaels resume play Saturday night when they visit the Ryerson Rams, at 5-1 the second-place team in the OUA East and the fifth-ranked team in Canada.