TORONTO - The Ryerson Rams men's basketball team dropped their second straight game of the season against the Lakehead Thunderwolves 79-77 on Friday night.

After failing to complete a comeback against the Brock Badgers in their last match, losing 65-62, the Rams once again managed to fight their way back into the game but came up short in the end.

The Thunderwolves came out playing extremely quickly off the first pass and pushing the ball up the court at full speed. Thunderwolves guard Isaiah Traylor, NCAA DI transfer, made his presence felt early with 10 points in the first quarter. Rams forward Keevon Small (Montreal, Que.) scored seven of the first 10 points for Ryerson.

Early in the second, the Thunderwolves continued to impress with shot-blocking and 24 paint points to Ryerson's 14 in the first half. Later in the quarter, the Rams took advantage of Traylor being on the bench and clawed their way back to a three-point game at the half despite being down by 11 earlier in the quarter. 

To start the third, Traylor scored 13 points out the gate and the Rams called a timeout after the Thunderwolves went on a 9-0 run. There were no easy drives for Ryerson, with Lakehead being a big team on defence and in the paint. The rest of the quarter saw a shooting contest between Traylor and Jayden Frederick (Scarborough, Ont.), who both saw many of their shots go in during that stretch. 

In the fourth, the Rams managed to earn a collection of crucial stops and brought the game back within two on multiple occasions at the end of the game, including with 10 seconds left and the ball in their hands. In the end, the Thunderwolves, who led almost the entire game, came out with the victory to see the Rams drop 1-2 on the season. Frederick and Traylor both finished with 29 points.

"We played hard, but we should have started playing hard earlier. So I don't know if we deserved tonight's game," said Frederick. 

Rams head coach Borko Popic spoke on the team's heart and will to fight, saying, "We kept fighting and showed resilience. We continue to be up and down, sometimes we manage to find and summon some energy, but we got to work on finding it on a more consistent basis." 

The Rams will play a rematch against the Thunderwolves on Saturday night once again on home court at 8 p.m.