SFU continue to slump as season end fast approaches
By Bryan Scott
As basketball season is winding down, SFU’s men’s basketball team finished off their home schedule, and then shipped off to Alaska for a pair of games last week.
The first game of the week was also the final home game for the Clan. In honour of this, they celebrated senior players: Anto Olah, Matt Raivio and Tallon Milne before they took the court against the Saint Martin’s Saints. It took a few possessions from both teams to warm up and get the ball moving. After the Clan tied the game at a bucket apiece, SMU decided to go a bit of a run. They scored the next six points on their way to an eventual 10 point lead seven minutes into the game.
SFU was getting good opportunities around the rim but they had trouble finishing the play and getting the points. They were outscored 22–14 in the paint in the first half, and trailed 41–30 when the halftime buzzer sounded.
The Clan managed to cut the difference to eight over the first four minutes of the second half, but that is as close as they got. SFU was much better in the paint in the second half, and out-rebounded SMU, but it was the Saints who kept putting points on the board. The game ended 80–60 for SMU.
Olah did all he could in his final career home game scoring 19 points and contributed seven rebounds. Raivio was also solid, knocking down 10 points. Olah reflected on his time at school in a press release after the game, “I love it at SFU.”
The Clan headed north for their next battle, taking on the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves in Anchorage. They started the game with an 11–5 run, before the Seawolves eventually tied it at 13 a few minutes later.
AAU outplayed the Clan to finish the half with help from a 12–3 run to give them a 32–19 lead with just over five minutes to play in the first half. SFU could not gain enough traction and were behind 44–26 heading into the locker rooms, and left themselves a high mountain to climb in the second half if they wanted to get the win.
SFU worked hard in the second half but could only make up eight points on the Seawolves by the end of the game. At one point, they closed the gap to nine thanks to a 20–10 run, but it was not enough. Olah led the team once again with 20 points.
