On Thursday night, the SFU men’s basketball team had everything going their way as they hosted the University of Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks. Shots were falling, the defence was stellar, and the Clan won the rebounding battle, an area where they’ve struggled all season. N’Kosi Kedar Salam out-did what we’ve come to expect from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference’s (GNAC) leading scorer, and Jordan Muir-Keung contributed one of his strongest games of the season. Eventually, the Clan would win 83–51, in a game in which they dominated from start to finish.
Forward Tyrell Lewin scored the first basket of the game 30 seconds in, and the Clan had the lead from then on. The team pulled away by the nine-minute mark in the first half, as they took a 13-point lead off a fastbreak layup by Salam. SFU would hold a double-digit lead for the rest of the game, in what was undoubtedly their most impressive performance of the season. The teams would go into the break with a score of 41–31, after a last second three-pointer by Alaska’s Davis Kimble.
At this point, Salam and Muir-Keung had already made a major impact in the game, leading the contest with 14 and 11 points each, respectively. Salam did it on 6–9 shooting from the field, while Muir-Keung was a perfect 4–4 from the field, including three three-pointers. The team as a whole was shooting lights out, going 16–29 from the field (55.2%) and 7–13 from three (53.8%).
We have seen many games this season in which the men’s basketball team has had a solid first half, but struggled in the second. The difference in this one was that they put the pressure on their opponent even more in the second.
The Clan put the game away by the 14:23 mark in the second half, after Salam hit a three to give the team a commanding 21-point lead. As the final score suggests, the team never looked back from there, having a dominating 30+ point lead for long stretches of the game, where they won by 32 points, 83–51.
As we’ve come to expect, N’Kosi Kedar Salam led the game with 31 points. He currently leads the GNAC with 21.1 points per game. Muir-Keung also built on his strong first half, finishing the game with 19 points.
With the blowout victory, SFU made history, as it is their largest win in the team’s National Collegiate Athletic Association history. The win becomes more impressive when comparing where the two teams are in the standings, as Alaska entered the game in sixth place in the GNAC, a playoff spot. The Clan, on the other hand, now sit at 4–13 in GNAC play this year, only above of the winless Concordia University Cavaliers. SFU is now 10–15 overall this season. If anything, this win shows that the Clan are able to play competitive basketball in the conference, and could of been looking at a playoff race if they were able to pull off a few more wins in close games this season.
The team will next play on Saturday as they host University of Alaska Anchorage in their last home game of the season. The game is also Senior Night, where Salam, JJ Pankratz, and Iziah Sherman-Newsome will be honoured for their time in the SFU uniform. Tipoff is at 7:30 p.m.
