Women’s basketball lose, rebound with fourth win of the season
By Bryan Scott
After starting the season with three wins, the Simon Fraser women’s basketball team were looking for continued success when they traveled to Saint George, Utah to compete in the Dixie State Tournament. They played two games over the weekend, winning one and losing one.
Their first opponent was the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks. The Clan scored the first point of the game but they quickly fell behind after that. They managed to tie the game at 14 in the first half, but they never regained the lead. At half-time they trailed 29–26. Clan forward Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe led all Clan scorers with six points and three rebounds in the half.
Katie Lowen picked up her game in the second half to help out the Clan offense, but her seven points were not enough to help them avoid their first loss of the season. The final score was 62–45 for the Mavericks. Raincock-Ekunwe finished with a team high 14 points and was one rebound shy of another double-double on the season.
Their second game of the tournament was against the host, Dixie State Red Storm. The Clan were determined to win this game to make up for the previous one. “We had a lot more energy to start the game today,” said head coach Bruce Langford, even though the team fell behind early on, the Clan exploded to take a 10 point lead, 32–22 into half-time.
The second half was much of the same, as the Clan continued to pad their lead. Erin Chambers led the way this time for SFU racking up 17 points, and seven rebounds. Other Clan players to break the double-digit mark were Chelsea Reist and Kia van Laare, who had 13 and 12 points, respectively. They were impressive on the defense side of the ball, with 15 steals and 20 points off turnovers in the game. “We were strong defensively and while we didn’t shoot the ball great as a team, we improved from yesterday,” continued Langford.
With the two wins, SFU was ranked number 17 in the initial USA Today Sports Division II top 25 coaches poll. The Clan’s record is 4–1 after five games this season.
