Scheduled Game: BRITISH COLUMBIA*

130

GAME RESULTS 1 2 3 4 5 T British Columbia 50 47 12 9 12 130 « FINAL Trinity Western 40 57 12 9 10 128

128

Game Recap

Men’s Basketball (Canada West)
Friday, October 27, 2006
UBC (130) TWU (128) 3OT

SPARTANS AND THUNDERBIRDS IN TRIPLE OVERTIME THRILLER TO KICK OFF CANADA WEST
TWU loses in record high-scoring game 128-130

LANGLEY, British Columbia – The Trinity Western Spartans nearly closed out the upset in triple overtime against the UBC Thunderbirds in the highest scoring game in TWU history.  Ironically, the shocking part isn’t that they took UBC to triple overtime, it’s the fact that UBC goes away with a victory.  The Spartans had three opportunities to win the game, but couldn’t find the finishing touch, allowing the Thunderbirds to push through in the third frame of overtime.

The Spartans’ leading scorer, Brian Banman (4th year, Kelowna) scored 16 points in just 11 minutes before fouling out with 9:32 left in the game with the score 81-65 in favor of UBC.  Without their leading scorer, the Spartans went on a run to tie the game 89-89 with 2:39 to go.

“I felt it was a really important game for us with Brian Banman in early foul trouble, and then actually fouling out in the second half at the ten minute mark,” said TWU Head Coach Stan Peters.  “Brian is a great leader – we love what he does for our team – but just because we lose him, doesn’t mean we lose focus.”

The Spartans appeared to gain some focus and stayed fiercely persistent in there backcourt pressure, which really started to pay off.  Freshmen guards Daniel Damian (Coquitlam) and Drew Slaght (Coquitlam) demonstrated great discipline in what Coach Stan Peters refers to as a “pressure, pursue, punish” mentality.

“What I loved was our training, all the running, all the conditioning played a huge role [in the game] and we just kept enduring,” Peters commented further. “I was very proud of the guys.”

At the end of regulation, the end of the OT, and the end of 2nd OT, the Spartans had the ball in a tie game with the shot clock off and a perfect chance to win.  UBC came up with critical stops and forced turnovers when it mattered most.  David Bron (5th year, Surrey), who finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds had a shot to win right before the buzzer and missed.

Jon Schmidt (4th year, Rosedale), Luke Robinson (4th year, Ahousat), and Trevor Nerdahl (3rd year, Caronport), Slaght and Damian all hit timely threes for the Spartans, Robinson with two of them.  The Spartans broke a record for 3-pointers attempted in a game with 40, hitting on 12 of those attempts, while the Thunderbirds were 11-25 from behind the arc.  Schmidt and Robinson each poured in 23 points.

There is something to be said for the intangibles in a game like this, being that UBC was the same or more efficient in nearly every statistical category than TWU except free throw percentage (72.2% TWU vs. 51.1% UBC) and offensive rebounds (20-14 for TWU). The Spartans managed to get 14 more shot attempts than UBC over the course of a whole game while only taking 5 less shots from the free throw line.

“Anytime you can play a top five team in Canada and push them to their limit, it shows that there’s something good going on,” said Peters. “But we can’t rest on what we did today.  Every game is a new game and we have to be ready.”

The Thunderbirds had two key performances from guards Casey Archibald (Salmon Arm) and Jason Birring (Richmond) who each scored 28 points.  Birring dropped 15 of his 28 throughout the three overtime periods.  Adam Friesen had a team-high 7 assists.

Additional records set in the game were field goal attempts by TWU (98), TWU highest scoring game (128), combined score (258), and threes attempted in a game by TWU (40).  Player of the game honours went to David Bron for TWU and Casey Archibald for UBC.

The Spartans face the University of Victoria Saturday night in their home gym at 8:00 pm in what should prove to be another up-tempo, high-energy game.

Game notes:  TWU records set: FGA (98) [previous record was 82 at Waterloo Oct.14, 06]...3PTA (40) [previously 33 set versus University of Colorado Sept.4, 05]...points in a game (128) [previously 104 at Simon Fraser Jan26, 06]...combined points (258) [previous record was 206 at Simon Fraser Jan.26, 06]...longest game played (3OT) [previous record was 2OT at Waterloo Oct.14, 06]...

-TW-

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