Scheduled Game: SIMON FRASER*

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GAME RESULTS 1 2 T Simon Fraser 35 42 77 Trinity Western 47 33 80 « FINAL

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Game Recap

Men’s Basketball (Canada West)
Friday, February 2, 2007
TWU Spartans (80) vs. the Simon Fraser University Clan (77)

SPARTANS DEFEAT CLAN IN HARD FOUGHT GAME
-TWU gets strong performance from David Bron

LANGLEY, British Columbia – The Trinity Western University Spartans defeated the Simon Fraser University Clan, 80-77, Friday night to improve their record to 9-13 and split the double header with SFU at one game a piece. The win also snaps a five game losing skid for the Spartans while the Clan drop to 10-12 on the year. David Bron (Surrey, B.C.) stepped up with a huge performance tonight for the injury riddled Spartans as he went an impressive four for five from the three point line on his way to finishing with a game high 18 points.

The Spartans, looking to right the ship from their loss to the Clan the previous night, started the game off quickly going up 7-0 in the opening minutes, but that lead was diminished in the following minute as Clan guard, Alex MacIver (Orillia, Ont.) hit back to back threes. Rather than backing down though, TWU went on a 12-2 run to take a 19-9 lead at the 12:09 mark of the first.

TWU went on to take control of the first half going up 47-35 by the time the horn sounded to end the first. “Coming into today we just made some minor adjustments to what they were doing and I thought in the first half we attacked them hard and neutralized their offensive rebounding,” commented TWU Coach Stan Peters.

The Spartans maintained a double digit lead for the first four minutes of the second half before the Clan started to chip away at the lead. SFU pulled to within four (54-58) on a jumper by Greg Wallis (Victoria) at 12:04 but back to back threes by David Bron put TWU back up by eight (64-56) with just under nine minutes to play.

The final seven minutes of the second half featured scrappy play from both teams as the emotion from the previous night’s game was very much evident. “Both teams are battling for the third spot in the division and both teams want to try and get on a roll heading into playoffs and so there is obviously going to be some emotion and scrappiness in the game,” added Peters.

The Spartans went up by double digits again, 71-60, at the 6:09 mark but they could still not shake the Clan as the Clan battled back once again to cut the lead to five (69-74) off of a steal by Jeff Dolan who fed Sean Burke (North Vancouver, B.C.) for the jumper.

SFU continued their come back attempt as they brought the game to within two (74-72) at 3:02 when Burke hit two for two from the foul line. The two teams exchanged fouls and free throws in the final minutes and the Spartans hung on to take the 80-77 decision over the visiting Clan.

“I thought in the second half we had a little sputter down the stretch. I thought that David Bron and James Powell (Lynden, Wash.) were outstanding on the offensive boards which gave us second and third shots when we desperately needed it and we hit just enough fouls shots to win the game. It was a total team effort,” concluded Peters.

David Bron led all scorers with 18 points and also added four rebounds. The Spartans also double digit scoring from Joe Vroom (Abbotsford, B.C.) with 13 points and Luke Robinson (Ahousat, B.C.) with 12 points to go along with his four assists. SFU was led by their fifth year, forward Aaron Christensen who had 15 points and eight rebounds while teammate Sean Burke contributed 13 points and a game high eight assists.

Next up, the Spartan Men host the SFU Clan again on Saturday, February 10, 2007 at 8 p.m. for the last regular season game of the campaign. Both the men’s and women’s teams will be celebrating their graduating athletes during a special brief ceremony.

Game Notes: TWU held the lead for the entire game, the closest SFU came was within two...SFU shot 47.9% from the field while TWU shot 40.0%...the Clan out-rebounded the Spartans 34-31 but the Spartans had the edge on the offensive rebounds at 15-7...SFU went 27 for 39 (69.2%) compared to TWU’s 14 for 25 (56.0%).

-TW-
-Jamie Born, Sports Information Assistant

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