The losing streak continues for SFU men’s basketball. On the road to Western Washington, just a short drive over the border in Bellingham, the Clan fell 100–56 to the Vikings. It is the team’s largest loss this season, and the deficit — 44— is the largest since they lost by 44 on January 26 of last year, which was also against Western Washington.

What made this one so disappointing, however, was how close these two teams played the first time at the West Gym this season.

In that home game on December 30, SFU lost by only five points to a Western Washington team that was nationally ranked. After trailing by as much as 19, the Clan came roaring back in that one — actually outscoring them in the second half — and tying it up at 93 with 3 minutes left. They ended up losing by five, 103–98.

To pile on top of that, their last two games were relatively close. They lost by six to Northwest Nazarene on Saturday, January 21, and by 12 to Central Washington on Thursday. Still losses, but they were competitive — at points, SFU was leading or trailing by just a couple of points.

That was not the case at all in this one. After trailing by one at the 14:44 mark of the first half, the wheels fell off. SFU proceeded to score two points in the next 10:23 — in that time, Western Washington scored 26, effectively finishing off the game before the first half could even come to a close. At the end, the deficit was 21.

The second half wasn’t any better. By the 15-minute mark, the lead was 29 for Western Washington. With five minutes left, it had ballooned to 41.

SFU went just one for 10 in three-point shooting, compared to Western Washington who went 12–26, good enough at around 42%. They were just as dismal from the field, going just 33.3% while Western Washington went exactly 50%.

Kedar Wright once again led SFU in scoring with 15, and also led the Clan in minutes played with 31. The next highest was Lewin, who had just eight in 19 minutes. Michael Provenzano had seven points and two assists in 27 minutes.

Aleks Vranjes and Bowen Bakken both recorded season high in minutes with 11 and 10 respectively. Bongani Moyo played three minutes, his first action since December 29, while Vinnie Safin played five minutes, his first since January 14.

With 11 conferences losses, it’s safe to say the playoff dream is over for SFU men’s basketball. In the previous four seasons, only one team has made the playoffs with 11 losses, and even then they had an overall winning record. With SFU’s 2–17 overall record, winning their last nine games won’t put them near .500.

That’s not to say it was a goal or even likely this team was playoff bound — even the biggest optimist would have said it was very, very unlikely — but for the rest of the season, the stories surrounding this team will be individual. Which players will step up and bring hope for the future? Who can improve and contribute more heading into next season? Because like it or not this team is playing for next year, for the rest of this season.

Next Game: SFU will lick their wounds and try to bounce back against Montana State University Billings on the road. Last time these two teams played, SFU suffered their biggest loss up until this game, a 107–66 loss at home in the West Gym.

Montana currently sit fourth in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference with a 6–4 conference record. They’re also the fourth-highest scoring team in the conference, averaging 81.8 points per game. They average 9.4 three’s per game, good enough for third in the conference. Shutting down Preston Beverly will be the key defensively, as he’s fourth in conference scoring, averaging 17.8 points per game.

Tip-off is at 6 p.m. PDT.

Down by 12 at the end of the first half Saturday night, it seemed like a recipe for a boring second half that would see SFU double that deficit.

Instead, in front of 650 fans in the West Gym, the Clan came back with a vengeance in the second half and made a game out of it. By the 11:04 mark, SFU had tied the game. From that point on, they were neck-and-neck with the Northwest Nazarene Crusaders, and even took the lead once.

However, a 47–41 second half victory wasn’t enough to take the game, and SFU fell 80–74 to the Idaho-based rivals for their 14th straight loss.

The game started off slow, with Northwest Nazarene putting up the first points on the board 3:18 into the game.

Northwest Nazarene was able to slowly build up a lead in the first half, ending the frame with a 39–27 lead.

Three-pointers were the story in the second half for SFU. After going one for eight in the first, Clan shooters sank seven threes in the second half. Redshirt senior Hidde Vos continued a hot streak, putting in four threes and putting up a season-best 16 points, beating Thursday’s 15 against Central Washington.

Vos’ three marked the tying score at 49–49.

Tyrell Lewin got the Clan the lead at 55–53 with a layup at the 8:31 mark of the second. However, Northwest Nazarene responded with a seven point run, which padded their lead. For a span of just over three minutes, SFU couldn’t get closer than five points to Northwest Nazarene.

With 59 seconds left, JJ Pankratz put SFU within two, but with the remaining time, Northwest Nazarene outscored SFU 10–5 to hold on to the win.

SFU went six-for-15 (40%) from the free throw line, and only sunk two in the second half.

“We played a good 30 minutes tonight, [. . .] but we’re just not at 40 yet,” head coach Steve Hanson told SFU Athletics. “[Free throws were] really the difference. We didn’t turn the ball over much, but we turned it over in crucial times.”

Kedar Wright led the team in scoring with 25 points in 32 minutes played, and also had eight rebounds. Michael Provenzano also put up double-digit points with 11 in a whopping 38 minutes played. Vos, who came from the bench, played a season-high 32 minutes (he averages 18.3 minutes per game).

Redshirt freshman Graham Miller played his first game since December 19, returning from an injury sustained in practice. He played 12 minutes, and collected three rebounds and a point on a free throw attempt.

Andrew Williamson, Vinnie Safin, Bowen Bakken, Aleks Vranjes, and Bongani Moyo did not play.

TONIGHT: The Men’s Basketball team make the short drive to Bellingham, WA to take on Western Washington University.

Western Washington has the best record in the conference with a 9–1 Great Northwest Athletic Conference record and 15–3 overall record. They are also the best offensive team in the conference, averaging 90.7 points per game.

However, they are seventh in scoring defence, allowing 78.8 points per game.

In the last matchup at home, SFU found the strong offence-weak defence combination to be a favorable matchup and came out with their closest conference loss, falling by five points to a score of 103–98 — their best offensive output.

Tip-off is at 7 p.m.