Scheduled Game: SIMON FRASER*

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GAME RESULTS 1 2 T SFU Clan 23 43 66 TWU Spartans 42 37 79 « FINAL

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Game Recap

Men's Basketball (Conference game)
Thursday, January 06, 2005
TWU Spartans (79) vs. the SFU Clan (66)

Stormy Night

Langley, British Columbia - TWU's Steve Janzen (5th yr, guard, Burnaby, BC) completed the three-point play in the opening seconds of Thursday night's New Year's opener and the Spartans never looked back, defeating the visiting SFU Clan 79-66 on a snowy night in Langley.

A Trinity Western team that struggled somewhat through the fall portion of the 2004-05 season looked more like the Spartans of old in their rematch with SFU tonight, riding some sizzling 7-9 shooting to open a ten-point lead five minutes into the contest.

With this weekend's games having playoff implications for both teams, emotions were riding high in an already charged rivalry and players left it all out on the floor tonight: bodies, emotions, sweat, and maybe even a little blood.

Things got a little more exciting in the dying seconds of the half when Janzen and SFU's Brent Charleton were called for a double foul after wrestling each other to the ground while battling for a rebound. It appeared that the buzzer had gone, but the officials ordered one second on the clock and Charleton was fouled on the ensuing inbounds play. He hit one of two free throws to slightly trim the Spartans' halftime lead from 20 to 19.

Not about to be defeated so easily, the Clan literally came out firing in the second half, hitting six straight three-pointers to cut the home team's lead in half, 52-42. SFU kept chipping away, but the closest they would come was five points, 60-55, with ten minutes remaining.

Five minutes later, and despite losing both Michael Brouwer (1st yr, forward, Victoria, BC) and Logan Kitteringham (5th yr, forward, Langley, BC) to fouls, the Spartans were back up by 12 after a jumper by Janzen, and the Spartan Faithful were breathing a little easier.

Named Husky Energy Spartan of the Game, Janzen finished with a team-high 22 points on 8-11 shooting. Four of five Spartan starters finished in double figures, including David Bron (2nd yr, forward, Richmond, BC) (18 points, 7 rebounds), Adam Friesen (4th yr, guard, Abbotsford, BC) (16 points, 7 assists), and Kitteringham (11 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals).

Smothering defense by Janzen and newcomer Terry Neufeld (3rd yr, forward, Surrey, BC) held SFU's Charleton to 4-15 (27%) shooting-with 14 of his 25 points coming from the charity stripe. The Clan's Aaron Christensen (16 points) and Raj Mander (12 points) also hit double figures.

Trinity Western will look to tie up the season series with another win over the Clan on Saturday, January 8th. Tipoff is at 8:00pm and the game will be broadcast live on Spartan Web Radio. Check www.twu.ca/athletics for the link.

Game Notes: former team trainer Neufeld recorded his second start in just his fourth game with the Spartans, finishing with 6 points and 6 rebounds in 35 minutes, and contributing some gritty defense...TWU was whistled for 21 fouls to SFU's 14...while SFU shot 25 free throws to TWU's 10...the Spartans' aggressiveness paid off on the defensive end of the floor as they out-rebounded the Clan 34-23...the win improves TWU's record to 4-5 and drops SFU to 2-7...

-TW-

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