WOLFPACK MBB FALL TO UFV FOR 2ND STRAIGHT NIGHT October 31, 2009
Posted by lread in Men's Basketball.trackback
Jeff Friesen was the leading scorer for TRU (A. Snucins)
The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men’s basketball team played “Jekyll and Hyde” this Halloween weekend. Although they had a split personality on the court, the result was the same: a loss. The WolfPack saw their Canada West record fall to 0 and 2 following a 74-58 defeat at the hands of the University of Fraser Valley Cascades at the Tournament Capital Center on Saturday night (Oct 31).
“We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well,” said Wolfpack head coach Thom Gillespie. “ I have to give them credit for their pressure defence getting us out of our rhythm a little bit. We scored 82 points last night and were unable to get a victory because our defence wasn’t at the level it needs to be. Statically if you look at it: we cleaned up their offensive rebounding and did a much better job defensively but our offense didn’t come to the game. My message to the guys was if you want a championship type program you need to have that defence each and every night. We could have come away with the split but we didn’t.”
The Cascades led it 43-32 at the half. Sam Freeman (2nd year, guard, Burnaby, BC) had 12 of his game high 18 points in the first half. UFV wound up with four players in double figures. Jasper Moedt (2nd year, post, Abbotsford, BC) had a double-double (10 rebounds and 10 points). Guard Zeon Grey (3rd year, Los Angeles, Ca.) had 16 points while Joel Friesen (1st year, guard, Abbotsford, BC) had 14 points.
“ I thought we hit some shots that helped us with the momentum a little, “ said UFV coach Barnaby Craddock. “But mostly I thought we played better team defence. We sent some goals before the game and the score was indicative of that. I thought we did a better job of our roles and our defensive assignments. We wanted to stay a little closer to Sean Garvey than we did on Friday. “ The Cascades limited Garvey to five points.
For TRU: Jeff Friesen was named the “Leader of the Pack” player of the game with 16 points. Greg Stewart (4 th year, forward, Kamloops, BC) had a double-double (10 rebounds and 14 points). He scored 11 of those points in the first half. Drew Bleth (5 th year, guard, Ridgefield, Wash) had 10 points.
The WolfPack turned over the ball 16 times to UFV’s 11.
Both teams now have the next week off before heading off to Lethbridge (TRU) and Calgary (UFV) on Friday November 13 th.
“We certainly don’t mind the bye week,” stated Craddock. “We are a little banged up injury wise and it’ll be nice for us to regroup and reflect on the things that TRU gave us problems with.” He pointed to TRU’s size and execution on offense. He felt his team needs to be more intense with half court defence.
For Gillespie and the WolfPack they will go into a ‘mini training camp’. “We are going to have eight solid practices where we are going to be able to do new things to prepare us for our next set of games.”
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