On Thursday night, the SFU women’s basketball team hosted Western Oregon University at the West Gym on Burnaby campus. For a game in which the Clan could not buy a bucket, the score was probably more favourable to SFU than it should have been. Western Oregon managed to come away with the victory, on a night where the home team did not do themselves many favours.
While the Clan didn’t shoot well throughout the game, the first quarter was where their struggles were most apparent. SFU managed just seven points in the opening frame, with an Emma Kramer three-pointer being the team’s only basket for nearly eight minutes, and they found themselves down 16–7 after one quarter of play.
SFU didn’t lose a quarter after the first, but still couldn’t overcome the deficit. They got their shooting stroke back in the second quarter, going for 20 points in the frame. Sophie and Georgia Swant traded buckets at the beginning of the quarter, a pretty cool moment, while back-to-back threes from Kramer was another highlight. Going into the half, the Clan were down 34–27, with 20 minutes to make up the deficit.
The contrast in styles of play could not have been more apparent when looking at the box score. The Wolves shot 14–21 in the half, while attempting zero three-pointers. The Clan, on the other hand, shot 11–30 from the field in the half, while attempting half of their shots from behind the arc.
SFU struggled with scoring again in the third quarter, only getting 13 points in the frame, the same as their opponent. While they managed to get the deficit down to two points, they went into the final quarter still down by seven.
While the game ended by a score of 69–65, the fourth quarter really wasn’t that close. The Wolves went up by as much as 15 points with only three points left, and were still up by 10 points with only 10 seconds left. An and-one from Jessica Jones and three free throws from Sophie Swant cut the lead down to four points, but it was too little too late.
“We played without the effort we need to have success,” said head coach Bruce Langford to The Peak in an email interview post game. “We need to execute our offense better and we need some shooters to hit their shots.”
Peak player of the game: Emma Kramer
The freshman was really the only player that had their shot going for the Clan, scoring a team high 13 points on 5-6 shooting from the field. She also knocked down three triples and came away with two steals in the game.
What’s next:
The Clan will hope for a quick turnaround as the host Concordia University on Saturday night at 7 p.m. Concordia have a 1–4 record in the GNAC so far this season. There’s also a $250 halfcourt shot on the table for a lucky fan.
