The SFU Men’s Basketball team suffered a 104–60 defeat to the Western Washington Vikings Tuesday evening. The loss dropped the Clan to 1–16 in the season, 0–11 in the conference, and the losers of 15 straight games.
The first half saw SFU compete and hang with the now 13–7 Vikings. After falling down 22–11 early, the team played almost even basketball the rest of the half, entering the break with a 43–31 deficit after a thrilling buzzer-beating isolation basket by Clan Guard Michael Harper. Celebrating Australia Day, the Aussie native provided several highlight reel finishes at the rim throughout the game.
First half Clan-highlights included several Oshea Gairey gritty drives to the rim to draw fouls and shoot free throws, an athletic drive and finish at the rim by JJ Pankratz followed later by an emphatic blocked shot on defence, and a nifty fast break bucket after a timeout where the Clan employed a full court press.
The closest SFU got was a 25–18 deficit after another Australian player, Andrew Williamson, scored on a runner in the lane. Graham Smith provided a spark off the bench for SFU with a tough offensive rebound where he drew a foul and then calmly sank both free throws. The best example of offensive teamwork in the half was when Gairey drove to the rim and dished to Tyrell Lewin who sunk the basket, was fouled and knocked down the free throw for the old-fashioned three-point play.
The second half saw Western Washington click on all cylinders and essentially run SFU out of its own gym. Six-foot-nine Viking centre Blake Bowen was a force at both ends of the court. Defensively he blocked two shots, altered several more, and even had a steal which led to an easy transition basket. Bowen demonstrated outstanding post skills, scoring easily down low, and also stepped outside and sunk five of seven three-point attempts. In just 21 minutes of action, Bowen scored 24 points on an efficient 12 field goal attempts.
For most of the last 10 minutes of game time, the Vikings had their reserves on the court and continued to score at will on the Clan. Reserve Viking guard Brad Wallace made some dazzling plays later on to keep the lopsided game entertaining.
SFU kept fighting throughout the game and showed no signs of quitting. Four Clan players scored in double figures: Oshea Gairey with 13, Michael Harper with 12, and Tyrell Lewin with 11. However, their offence devolved in the second half to a lot of one-on-one basketball with little ball movement. Defensively, they do not have a centre on the roster and as such they struggle guarding opposing centre and effectively have no rim protector.
The Clan will look to avoid the same fate as the football team for the rest of the season, as they have yet to win a game in conference play.
