The Trinity Western Spartans used a staunch defence, holding the UFV Cascades to 27 per cent shooting, in winning 65-51 in Canada West women’s basketball action.
The Spartans won on Saturday night in the Langley Events Centre, avenging a 60-47 loss to the Cascades the night before in Abbotsford as they played a home-and-home series.
TWU held the Cascades to just 19 points in the first half in Saturday’s victory.
“I thought we represented ourselves better for a 40-minute game,” said Spartans coach Cheryl Jean-Paul.
“I thought we really lost our tempo yesterday and we know that to have success, we have to play with tempo. I challenged some of our key performers and reinforced that we can’t have gaps where they collectively don’t make things happen on offence.”
“They fought hard. They stood their ground. They didn’t get distracted by everything else that was going on and I’m just really proud of them,” she added,
“And I’m not proud of them just because of the score. I’m proud of them because it was a complete team effort from start to finish. I think anytime we are able to do that, we’re going to give ourselves a chance to win the game.”
Jessie Brown led the team with 15 points while Kayla Gordon had 13 points and six rebounds and Tessa Ratzlaff had 12 points and nine rebounds. Luca Schmidt chipped in with six points, eight rebounds and five assists.
The Spartans held a 42-26 rebounding advantage.
In Friday’s loss, TWU was down one point after three quarters but the UFV out-scored the Langley visitors 19-7 over the final 10 minutes to win by 13.
Brown (13 points) and Gordon (12 points) were the only two Spartans to hit double digits.
The Spartans, who are 3-1 on the season, are in Prince George this weekend for a pair of games against the UNBC Timberwolves.
