For the second straight Friday, the second half turned out to be the demise for the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men's basketball team.
Last week, TRU blew a half time lead and lost to the University of Regina Cougars in overtime. This Friday (Jan 25), another yellow clad team beat TRU with a strong second half. This time it was the University of Manitoba Bisons.
The Bisons erased a two point deficit to down the WolfPack 64-54 at the Tournament Capital Centre. That loss put a major crimp in the Pack's playoff hops as they fell to 6-11 on the year. Manitoba won its fifth in row moving to 8-9.
Manitoba had four players in double figures led by James Wagner with 16. TRU's main scorer was Mike Rouaullt with 14.
SYNOPSIS
The WolfPack were down by two (14-12) after the first quarter and outscored the Bisons 18-14 to take that two point lead (30-28) into the half led by Rouault and his 11 points. He was named the TRU Bookstore/McDonalds "Leader of the Pack" Player of the game. Manitoba's top scorer was Wagner with 10 points.
In the third quarter, Manitoba outgunnet TRU 23-6 led by Arruda who had 5 points.
KEY STATS:
Thompson Rivers :
Mike Rouault (4th year, guard, Vernon, BC): 14 points, 7 rebounds (6 def), 2 steals, 1 assist: 38 mins
Joe Davis (4th year forward, Kamloops,BC) :11 points, 9 rebounds (5 def), 1 steal, 1 assist: 34 mins
MANITOBA:
James Wagner (3
rd year forward, Winnipeg, MB):16 points, 5 def rebounds, 1 assist: 30 mins
Kieran Zziwa (3
rd year guard, Winnipeg, MB): 13 points, 3 def rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals: 32 mins
Andrew Arruda( 3
rd year forward, Winnipeg, MB):11 points , 4 rebounds (2 each way), 4 steals, 3 assists: 28 mins
Isaac Miller-Jose (2
nd year forward, Wellington, NZ): 10 points, 9 rebounds (5 def): 19 mins
Turnovers:
TRU 18 MANITOBA: 12
Score by Periods:
Manitoba 14 14 23 13 ---64
TRU: 12 18 8 16 --54
RECORD:
TRU: 6-11 Manitoba : 8-9
THEY SAID IT! (post game quotes):
TRU Head Coach Scott Clark:
On the Contest: "I thought we defended pretty well except for a stretch in third quarter. Credit to Manitoba, they increased the level of intensity and we didn't do a great job of responding. They got tough and defense and we turned over the ball. They got some easy baskets. We didn't get many easy baskets and normally we are a pretty good shooting team."
Manitoba coach Kerby Schepp (10 th year):
what was the difference for his team: "I thought our defensive energy was really solid. There was that one stretch in the third quarter when we extending things a bit . We got a number of consecutive stops in a row. That really built our momentum. We didn't have the best shooting night but I thought defensively we were really solid."
UP NEXT:
The WolfPack and Bisons will wind up their weekend series tomorrow (Sat Jan 26) night at the Tournament Capital Centre. Tip off will be 7 pm. Thompson Rivers will honor their lone fifth year player:
Derek Rhodes before the contest. Rhodes has played for the WolfPack for the past three seasons.
The Pack close out the 2018-19 Canada West regular season the following weekend (Feb 1-2) at the Jack Simpson gym at the University of Calgary against the Dinos.
All of these games are webcast on a pay per view basis on Canada West TV.
