In front of a record crowd of over 1,700 fans at TWU's new gym in Langley, 6'2" Josh Whyte took the game over immediately, leading the Birds to a 19-5 start, garnering leads as large as 18 points in the first quarter and UBC cruised to an easy win over the Spartans. Reminiscent of their early-season visit last year to Vancouver, Trinity Western turned the ball over 34 times on the game, setting up numerous easy breakaway layups for the Birds.
Whyte had 12 of his 23 points in the first half and, although the Spartans did cut the lead to 9 late in the second quarter on back-to-back 3's by Tristain Smith and Tyrell Mara, UBC coasted into halftime up 10 and then iced the game early in the third, using a 15-0 run led by Whyte and 6'5" Kamar Burke to grab a 63-35 lead and the game was decided for all intents and purposes.
6'6" Jacob Doerksen led the Spartans with 23 points on the night while 6'3" Calvin Westbrook, with 14 points, and Tyrell Mara, with 11 points were the only other players to hit double digits for TWU. T-Birds had four other players get 10 or more points in Burke (18 points), Nathan Yu (13 points), Brent Malish (12 points) and Doug Plumb (10 points).
1 comment:
As that great American poet Chuck D once said...
Don't Believe The Hype!
For some reason, a lot of people were touting TWU as the next big thing, a top 3
CIS poll team even though they were barely .500 last year.
Going into last night's game, Trinity hadn't played anyone of any consequence (Laurentian, Lethbridge...Columbia Bible College?).
So the Spartans finally got their first real test, their old nemesis UBC.
And the T Birds abused them like they almost always do...a 22 point drubbing in their new crib.
I suppose Trinity could bounce back from this hammer job like the Huskies did last week, but frankly, I don't think it is in the cards.
Saskatchewan is a tough, veteran laden team that has the ability to shake off a bad loss.
I am not sure the Spartans are cut from the same cloth.
For one thing, I am not sold on Scott Allen as being a CIS caliber coach.
Oh sure, he can recruit up a storm...23 players on the roster last year...but as a game day bench boss, he might be the worst this side of Jim Charters.
The Spartans can have all the size they want, but if there is no A grade PG to run the show, it doesn't matter.
Maybe this game was just a case of opening night jitters.
I strongly suspect, though, that TWU has been oversold...again.
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