Enrico Diloreto poured in a career playoff-high 32 points to help the Windsor Lancers brush aside the visiting Brock Badgers 88-80 at the St. Denis Centre and advance to the OUA West Conference Semi-Finals against the #1 Lakehead Thunderwolves.
Lien Phillip added another double-double with 17 points and 14 rebounds. Lancers steady point guard Josh Collins buried a wide open baseline three-point to put the game out of reach and finished with 20 points and three assists.
The Badgers saw four players reach double digits paced by Didi Mukendi’s 18 points and seven rebounds. Forward Mark Gibson played well, finished with 14 points and 17 rebounds but missed a wide-open two-handed dunk in the close minutes of a very entertaining game.
Diloreto scored 13 straight first quarter points for the Lancers to finish with 15 and Badgers connected on four consecutive three-pointers as both teams were tied at 27-27.
The back and forth affair continued in the second quarter until the Lancers exploded on 17-4 run in less than three minutes to break open a tight affair and take a 53-44 lead at the break.
The second half started with another early Diloreto three-pointer to take the Lancers lead to a game-high 13 points at 61-48. The Badgers behind solid shooting responded with a 15-5 run on their and took a 67-66 lead after three quarters.
With everything up four grabs, Diloreto quickly restored orders by canning seven of his quarter-high 10 points and put Windsor in front at 73-70, a lead they would never relinquish.
