TORONTO  — The TMU Bold men's basketball team saw a fourth-quarter lead slip away and fell 88-87 to the visiting Toronto Varsity Blues in their season opener on Saturday night at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.

"We're not a team that is cohesive yet — especially on the defensive end," said Bold head coach David DeAveiro, when asked for his thoughts on the game.

A back-and-forth contest throughout, TMU trailed by one entering the fourth. However, as the final quarter whittled away, the Bold appeared they were coming to play — an Aaron Rhooms jumper put the Bold up four with just 1:50 remaining, but then the Varsity Blues took over. Inaki Alvarez changed the momentum and hit one of his five triples on the evening to trim the visitors deficit to just one. 

Then after a pair of misses on the following TMU possession, Alvarez got off and running, forcing a Bold foul to get to the free-throw line. He went two-for-two from the stripe to give Toronto a one-point lead with just 12 seconds remaining.

From there, with the ball in their hands and the game on the line, the Bold were unable to attempt a go-ahead bucket, as an errand pass led to a turnover — and eventually, the defeat, as from there the Varsity Blues were able to run out the clock and the evening.

"We didn't run the play," said DeAveiro, when asked about what went wrong on the final possession.

Despite the struggles from the team, University of British Columbia transfer Lincoln Rosebush had a strong Bold debut, registering a team-high 23 points on 9-13 shooting, including 4-4 from beyond-the-arc. Lamar Everd chipped in 15 points, five assists and five rebounds.

"I thought Lamar was outstanding. I thought Lincoln was outstanding," said DeAveiro.

Rhooms had 18 points and 10 rebounds of his own, but DeAveiro noted he wasn't pleased with the 2021-22 U SPORTS Rookie of the Year's seven turnovers — noting that can't happen, especially from the team's best player.

The aforementioned Alvarez was instrumental in the win for the Varsity Blues, who moved to 1-0 with the victory.

On a night where 11 of his 29 came in the fourth quarter, Alvarez was 10-23 from the field and 4-4 from the line — including the two clutch makes to put his team up one with just 12 seconds left.

"He made the right read so many times today," said Rosebush.

"I thought U of T did a really good job executing their stuff and made big shots," said DeAveiro.

Next up for the Bold is another meeting with these very Varsity Blues — this time at the Golding Centre on Wednesday night.

"We'll watch film on Monday, get to practice Monday, get to practice Tuesday, then go into Toronto and give them our best effort and hope we come out with the win," said DeAveiro.

Tip off on TMU's search for a bounce-back and their first win of the season is set for 8:00 p.m.