Saturday night, the SFU Women’s Basketball team held their annual Pink Game in support of Breast Cancer research. With the team and a huge crowd decked in pink, the Clan were able to come away with the 66–59 victory over the Western Oregon Wolves. However, Head Coach Bruce Langford wasn’t looking at the game through rose-coloured glasses afterwards.
“I [think] we find ways to make games closer than they necessarily should be,” explained Langford. “We missed a lot of easy [shots], I thought our posts were really tentative with the ball inside, [and] we were spotty with the three point shot. When it was all said and done, we pulled it out but we got beaten on the boards. I think we can play better than that.”
The first half started off with a easy bucket for Rachel Fradgley, set up with a nice assist from Elisa Homer. However after that, SFU struggled hitting easy shots, and what could have been a huge lead turned into a very close first half. Ellen Kett and Alisha Roberts hit deep threes that sent the crowd into a frenzy, but a bucket with less than a second left gave Western Oregon a slim two point lead heading into the second half.
Once play resumed, SFU went on a seven point run to reclaim the lead. However, some questionable officiating — especially towards Sophie Swant — helped the Wolves get back the lead. From them on, the Clan was able to drive to the net effectively to draw foul shots, even if the team wasn’t able to get any buckets. Some timely threes from Kett and Roberts sealed the game, as SFU won by seven over the visitors.
SFU at game’s end took a total of 26 three point shots compared to Western Oregon’s 14. This was a concerted effort, according to coach Langford.
“Do we rely on the three? Well, if we don’t have a three, we don’t have a game, [because] we don’t have a post game. So we need to hit threes. Do we need to take smart ones? Yeah [. . .] today we shot better than the league average, we didn’t shoot our average. We shot 38 percent from the three, which is more than adequate. We certainly live and die by the three.”
So what the team need to improve on heading into their next contest Thursday against Northwest Nazarene?
“Everything. We need to rebound better, we need to offensively rebound better, we need to talk better [. . .] we need a couple more people to play a bit more consistently. We have trouble with certain people on the floor at the same time because their skillsets don’t necessarily mesh very well.”
The team’s next home game is February 11th, when they take on St. Martin’s University. Game time is at seven.
