Saturday afternoon was the first home game of the season for the men’s basketball team. While it was only a preseason game, it was a good chance to see the new recruits in action as well as new head coach Virgil Hill in his first game. While the Clan weren’t able to pull the win out, they played well for stretches of the match. And though they never led at any point, they were able to come very close to pulling off a big preseason win.
“I thought there were stretches that we showed that we belong in the league,” said Hill. There’s certainly other stretches where we showed our inexperience. We still have to trust in each other and in the system and be able to play solid and organized.
“Five minutes to go I thought we were in good shape. And that’s you would call crunch time [. . .] now you need to be solid at both ends. Good shots, good execution offensively and defensively. And we just broke down more offensively than defensively,” he continued.
The Clan, facing off against Central Washington Wildcats, came out flat. The visitors jumped out to a quick 9–2 lead, which eventually extended to a 21–12 lead. It looked like this was going to be a blowout loss, much like the game against rivals UBC in late October. But the Clan were able to tie the game up at 25, thanks to a long-range three by senior Michael Harper. From there, the Wildcats quickly regained their lead, going on a 22–13 run to end the first half of play 47–38.
At the start of the second half, it looked like Central Washington was going to pull away. They looked good both on the offensive and defensive side of the ball. But the trio of Oshea Gairey, Max Barkelely, and Michael Harper were determined to keep the Clan in it. The three combined for a total of 58 points on the night, and had a number of big buckets throughout game. With 5:07 to play, SFU came close to an upset, inching within four points of the lead. But the Wildcats were able to make some big shots of their own, and the final score was 94–82 for Central Washington.
Oshea Gairey was a standout for the Clan. There were several points during the game where he seemed to dominate the court, but he also had stretches where he all but disappeared, something coach Hill says needs to be addressed.
“When he [Gairey] fires up and he gets to that next level, he’s actually quite good. But he saves himself. He paces himself. That’s what he has to understand, is that he has to play at that kind of feverish, intense, warrior, fire-in-your-eye mentality all the time. But he doesn’t do that. It’s like he’s waiting for something.
“[What we need to improve on] is just defence,” said Gairey postgame. “Stopping the transition. They got some easy buckets in transition, and just finish the easy shots we should have made.”
The Clan’s next game will be Tuesday against Douglas College. Play starts at 7 p.m.
