Clan beat up on local colleges to start the season, 3–0

By Clay Gray
Photos by Adam Ovenell-Carter

SFU’s Men’s Basketball team started their regular season with three straight victories over two of the local Lower Mainland colleges, Northwest Indian College and Douglas College.

In the home opener on Nov. 9, the Clan did not give a quarter to the NWIC Eagles, exactly doubling the visiting team’s total at the end of the night 104–52.  The evening’s dominance stemmed from Elijah Matthews and Anto Olah,who both racked up over 20 points. The Clan headed into the locker room at halftime with a 34-point lead over the Eagles. However, head coach James Blake made sure that the court time was spread around, giving at least 10 minutes to 11 different players.

The following evening, the Eagles scored 26 more points than the previous night. They kept it close in the opening minutes of play, and momentarily held the lead. But in the end it was the Clan who came out on top, taking the 112–78 victory.  Taylor Dunn led in scoring, putting up 24 points for the Clan, but Matthews who stole the show. He sunk six two-pointers and five field goals in the game. Making the best of the easy opponent, coach Blake cycled two freshmen, Matt Staudacher and Jahmar Thompson, into the lineup.

The Clan continued thrashing local opponents,putting up a 70-point difference in their 115–45 victory over Douglas College. This game did not have any surprises for the Clan’s point leaders, with Dunn and Matthews once again putting up 20-plus points. Coach Blake hadthe same 11-player rotation take to the court for this game, and all 11 would contribute at least five points.

With three home games in the bag, a 3–0 start, and scores of over 100 points in all three games, the Clan’s offence appears to be firing on all cylinders. However, the Clan wouldn’t attribute the win solely to their offence, with junior Anto Olah saying, “The first two games we played pretty poor defense, but we addressed that . . . and we played a lot better defense.”