The Trinity Western Spartans men’s basketball team is still in search of their first victory after losing 94-69 and 85-75 to the UBC Thunderbirds in Vancouver over the weekend to fall to 0-4.
The second quarter was the team’s downfall as TWU was out-scored 28-15 over those 10 minutes.
Despite trailing by 14 at the half, the Spartans cut the lead to three points in the third quarter but could not get any closer.
“I thought we played a much more well-executed game at both ends of the floor and competed consistently,” said Spartans coach Aaron Muhic.
“Our defence was sparked by the play of Matt Hayashi, Dean Richey and Eric Rogers off the bench.
“On offence, Vartan Tanielian and Lucas Mannes were very aggressive and made some great shots for us.”
The coach was also pleased with the play of Kelvin Smith.
“I really thought Kelvin attacked the rim much better and was able to get himself into the good spots on the floor to score,” Muhic said.
Tanielian and Smith each hit four three-pointers — they shot a combined eight-for-13 from beyond the arc — and led the team with 21 and 16 points, respectively.
Mannes also had 16 points while Richey led the team with six rebounds, six steals and five assists.
In Friday’s game, Mannes and Richey led the team with 14 points apiece while Patrick Vandervelden had 10 points.
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The Spartan women were also swept in their two-game set with UBC, losing 77-53 and 73-57 to fall to 1-3 on the season.
“There were a few ‘morals of the story’ we had to work through tonight – it takes four quarters of basketball to win; fighting to get back in a game still requires an additional battle mentality to then be able to win that game, and you can never cut corners on fundamental defense,” said TWU head coach Cheryl Jean-Paul.
“We pushed through three quarters and were within reach going into the fourth but then we became spectators to our teammates struggles on the court and didn’t react fast enough to what was happening, both from a coaching perspective and on-court.”
“Despite that, I thought there was a good response to yesterday’s loss, a more defined sense of purpose and motivation, and we won a few more three minute stretches, but in the end too many untimely turnovers and a bad stretch of rushed shots ended our comeback.”
Tessa Ratzlaff led the Spartans with a double-double, finishing 23 points and 10 rebounds.
Jessie Brown led the team in the first game with 15 points, including going three-of-four from beyond the arc.
The Spartans were only down two points at the half, but UBC out-scored them 23-8 in the third quarter to take control.
