WOLFPACK DROP DECISION TO #1 TEAM IN CIS

For immediate release: November 12, 2008

Kamloops—When you are a growing program, quite often the advances you make are small ones.   Such was the case in CIS Womens Basketball Action at the Tournament Capital Center Wednesday (Nov 12) night.  The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack ran into the CIS’ top ranked team and learned why.  The Simon Fraser Clan dismantled the young ‘Pack 97-50.

“We started a little slow, but after the first quarter we were pretty good.” Stated Clan Coach Bruce Langford, now into his 14 th year at the helm at SFU.

The WolfPack, with five first year and three second year players on their roster, actually led 10-8 early on before SFU got on track.

“ Today, we came out a bit flat.  I think we did a great job of refocusing and coming back, “ said 3rd year center Laurelle Weigl (Stony Plain, Alta).  She had19 points to lead all scorers.  “ We got a lot of stops on defence….we eliminated their  point shooting and trying to get it in on offense.  A big part of that was boards. We needed to crash them and we did”. 

SFU led by 23: 44-21 at the quarter and were up 69-35 at the half.

“ We need to shoot the ball better…we need to take of it, we can’t turn it over every time we touch it.” WolfPack coach Scott Reeves (2-5) reflected.  “ We have to get rebounds against a very good team.”

To TRU’s credit, their young squad didn’t give up. “They aren’t allowed to,” said Reeves.  “Competing and building a young group. That is one thing that they want to do. They know that the game was out of reach at a certain point.  But we can’t play that way.  Even though it was out of hand, they had other goals which they attained.”   Reeves pointed to a reduction in turnovers in the fourth quarter.

Jess Franz (1st year, forward, South Surrey, BC)  led the TRU offense with 17 points. “ We did better on the boards in the second half,” she said  “Even in the dying stages, we were still diving for balls and not giving up. That was a plus”.

SFU moves to 5 and 1 on the season and hosts the University of the Fraser Valley on Saturday (Nov 15).  TRU entertains Trinity Western on Saturday.