Scheduled Game: BRITISH COLUMBIA*

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GAME RESULTS 1 2 3 4 T British Columbia 23 19 21 15 78 « FINAL Trinity Western 16 14 12 25 67

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Game Recap

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL (CANADA WEST)
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2010
BRITISH COLUMBIA THUNDERBIRDS (78) TRINITY WESTERN SPARTANS (67)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SPARTANS SUNK EARLY BY THUNDERBIRDS

LANGLEY, British Columbia – The Trinity Western women’s basketball team fell behind early, and was unable to recover enough to make up the difference, as the Spartans lost their home opener 78-67 to UBC Friday night.

The loss drops the Spartans season record to 1-2 while the victory was UBC's first of the year as they’re now also 1-2 early in the 2010-11 campaign.

“It’s exciting and it’s frustrating at the same time,” said Spartans coach Cheryl Jean-Paul. “It took us the whole first quarter, if not more, to be convinced that we can play the style we wanted to. The exciting part is we came back and we didn’t lose the fight and I thought we did some great things toward the end of the game. It’s just a matter of following the game plan and if we do that I think we can be a pretty good basketball team.”

The Thunderbirds got off to a quick start as they used their size, largely via Zara Huntley and Alex Vieweg, and speed advantage to pressure the Spartans into a number of early-game turnovers that led to a 15-6 lead before TWU was forced to take a timeout just to slow UBC’s momentum.

“Our starters were not great today at times,” Jean-Paul said. “They started really slow but the girls who came in really provided some extra energy. But most of the turnovers we had weren’t because of necessarily great defensive plays, it’s just we go to panic mode.We’re going to be ready for pressure if we can push the ball.”

After the timeout, the Spartans started hitting their shots as they hung with UBC but were unable to put a dent in the T-Birds lead TWU still trailed 25-15 after the opening quarter.  

The Thunderbirds opened the second quarter with a 7-0 run that gave them a 17-point lead and, a double-digit advantage they would never relinquish.

The Spartans saw spurts of offence throughout the first half, thanks especially to an impressive opening 20 minutes from Holly Strom, but were unable to sustain much in the way of momentum as the larger T-Birds continued to dominate the boards and hit key long balls.

At halftime, UBC led 44-30.

In the second half, the Thunderbirds continued to hit the long-range shots and, after a bit of back and forth action, managed to extend their lead to 63-42 going into the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter, TWU outscored UBC 25-15 but were trying to dig themselves out of a whole that was simply too big. The Spartans Stephanie Carkner and Emily Knauff hit big three-pointers to pace TWU’s solid final frame.

Both teams will be back at the LEC Saturday night to complete the weekend series. Game time is 5:00 p.m.

-TW-

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