Despite their noticeable improvement, the Providence Pilots men’s basketball team lost twice to the Oak Hills Christian College Wolfpack last weekend, in two neck-and-neck matches.

While the game did feature numerous lead changes, head coach Pierre Dubreuil says his team made a few too many errors.

Sunday’s re-match was even closer, with Providence seemingly in control late in the fourth quarter before the Wolfpack forced overtime. The hosts ended up prevailing 99-91 after the extra frame. Lawson once again led the way for Providence with 27 points, and first-time starter Eric Klassen added an impressive 15.

“We put up a tough fight this weekend and made some improvements in the second game,” analyzed Pilots’ first-year centre Waedon Dueck. “We fought hard, so we’ll just have to fight even harder as we move forward with the rest of our season.”

On the volleyball court, both Pilots teams dropped Friday matches at home to the Canadian Mennonite University Blazers and Saturday encounters in Winnipeg against Les Rouges de l’Universite de Saint-Boniface.

The women’s side, yet to win this season, dropped all three sets in Otterburne but bounced back with a narrow 3-2 defeat at USB. Danella Alvaro and Maddie Fehr each executed 22 kills over the two matches.

“It was tough to see our team fight so hard in the comeback effort against USB only to end up losing a tight fifth set,” said head coach Kyle Guenther. “We will try to build off the aggressive game we brought on the weekend and send ourselves into the Christmas break on a high note.”

The men’s team failed to win a set on the weekend, although Brett Foley performed well, scoring 13 points and adding five blocks. Trey Friesen contributed nine kills, 2 digs and an ace.

“In these two games we weren’t able to connect as well as we have in the past,” analyzed Friesen, a first-year left side from Rosenort. “But we’re looking to get back on track in our coming games.”