(Garden City, NY) The Nassau Men's Basketball Team hosted the Queensborough Tigers at home on Tuesday night for their grand home opener of the 2017-2018 season.

Queensborough took an early lead from the beginning. Going into the half, Nassau trailed by 9 points, leaving the score 32-41. The Lions got scrappy in the second half as they knew they had to defend their home court. They fought tooth and nail to pull within 2 points of the Tigers with 9:23 left in the game.

Nassau's Patrick Gardner shot a 3 point jumper to clench the lead, but just missed. Queensborough snatched the rebound, drove down the court, and fired off a 3 pointer of their own, extending their lead to 58-63. Try as they might, the Lions weren't able to make a come back. Queensborough was victorious 80-70.

Nassau shot 10% from the 3 point arch, finishing 3 of 30, while Queensborough was 45%, making 9 of 20. NCC was led by Freshman Center Patrick Gardner who posted his first collegiate triple-double finishing with 27 points, 21 rebounds, and 10 blocks. Sophomore forward Cameron Winston contributed 17 points total. 15 of those points were scored in the second half to help the Lions rally.

This was the first ever opening season loss in Head Coach Wynder's career. However, he commented post-game, "I don't expect this to be an indicator of how the season will go. We took a lot of great shots, we just need to harness some of our energy, and get the ball in the hoop. We will get there."

The Lions will return on November 10th to take on Chesapeake College on the road.