Saturday night, SFU’s men’s basketball team played their last home game against Colorado Christian University before they open up their GNAC season December 3. Despite looking good for some stretches of the game, the Clan wasn’t able to put any solid runs together, and ended up losing 89–79.
“They’re a team that doesn’t make mistakes, and we’re still a team that makes those mistakes,” said Head Coach Virgil Hill after the game. “We keep shooting ourselves in the foot. Whether that’s missed free throws, turnovers, missed box outs, [or] rebounds [. . .] until we can complete those, we’re going to find ourselves in the same [situation].”
SFU dug themselves an early hole in this one, as the visitors ran out to a 7–4 lead which quickly turned into a 14–8 lead. The Clan was missing easy buckets, and just couldn’t defend the three. The half ended with the team down 38–34. SFU’s Michael Harper had a strong half with eight points as well as four defensive rebounds.
In the second half, SFU came out with renewed purpose and desire. Hidde Vos was able to hit a big three early on, and a bucket by Michael Harper gave the Clan their first lead of the game. However, they weren’t able to hold on to it for long. Colorado was deadly from behind the arc, finishing the game over 50 per cent from behind the three-point line. Despite junior Max Barkeley’s attempts to drag SFU back into the game — at one point boasting four straight threes — the Clan was subjected to their second straight loss the in two nights to the same team.
A big player in the Clan’s defeat was Colorado Christian’s Stefan Hackethal. Playing like a young Steph Curry, he finished the night with 28 points, and a ridiculous 70 per cent three point percentage.
“He didn’t do anything [in the previous game] that was noticeable,” explained coach Hill. “Today, he comes out and all of a sudden he doesn’t miss a shot. We probably didn’t play him as well as we could.”
So what does Hill think needs to be improved the most heading into GNAC competition?
“I think it’s going to be guarding the ball in terms of penetration. The GNAC teams are probably a little more athletic, so we have to be able to, one: stop them in transition, which most of the team are very good [at]; and two: get them to play five on five. Just keeping people in front of us and then hopefully get the rebound.”
The team’s first game against GNAC competition will be against Seattle Pacific at 5:15 p.m. on December 3 in the West Gym.
