The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack withstood a third quarter charge by the MacEwan University Griffins and held on for a 79-74 victory in Canada West men's basketball action on Saturday (Nov 16).
The victory upped the Pack record to 5-1 while the Griffins are winless in six starts.
"We were fortunate to win," said WolfPack head coach
Scott Clark. " We didn't play strong enough defensively and our transition game hurt us a bit because we weren't set on defense. They made some quality shots in the second and third quarters that we weren't prepared for. We need to be more disciplined. We were just enough tonight to get a win on the road. I thought we played with more urgency yesterday."
Clark responded to the question on what was the difference down the stretch when TRU grabbed the key points and MacEwan didn't: "We made a couple shots, I guess. They hit some shots. Maybe we did a little bit better job in the last couple of minutes getting back in defensive transition. I thought we were terrible in defensive transition (all game). We weren't really set. To their credit, they pushed the tempo and had us in situations where we weren't back and set defensively, so we were always a step late on things. I thought maybe towards the end there, we did a better job getting back and we guarded them well from the line. They missed a couple free throws."
Thompson Rivers led 17-11 after the first quarter and were up 43-36 at the half. MacEwan outscored the Pack 28-15 in the third quarter and held a 59-58 advantage at the conclusion of that period. But the Pack came out and scored 21 points in that final period en route to the win.
Micheal Rouault (5
th year, guard, Vernon, BC) had 19 points, 13 rebounds, two steals and a block. Anton BIlous (5
th year, guard, Cerkassy, Ukraine) wound up with 18 points, two rebounds, three steals and a block for the WolfPack.
Joe Davis (5
th year, forward, Kamloops, BC) chipped in with 14 points with three rebounds, two assists and one block while
Tyus De Vries (3
rd year, guard, Chilliwack, BC) came off the bench and had 14 points, seven rebounds, a steal and an an assist.
MacEwan was led by Deonte Doslov-Doctor (5
th year, point guard, Edmonton, AB) with 26 points. He was dangerous from three point territory going 6-10 including a buzzer beater from the three quarters out to end the first half. He also had six assists and three rebounds. Mason Hunter (3
rd year, wing, Sherwood Park, AB) had 20 points and was 6-12 from beyond the arc.
The Griffins had 33 rebounds which was one more than the WolfPack. TRU had 20 points off the bench compared to only 10 for MacEwan. The Pack had 40 points in the paint while MacEwan had only 16.
Clark had praise for two second year players:
Brendan Sullivan (guard, Mill Bay, BC) and
Richard Mageto (guard, Surrey, BC) who have seen their court time increase so far this year. " When you recruit a player you hope that they take up the challenge of training, getting stronger and have their basketball IQ increase. That is what these two have done. They got a taste of playing in the Canada West last year and they have earned their increased court time based on their hard work. They should be proud of their development and progress thus far. I am very proud of both of them."
Sullivan had six points, two rebounds and three assists in 26 minutes while Mageto had six points in 25 minutes.
The WolfPack return to home to compete the rest of their pre-Christmas schedule. Next weekend (Nov 22-23), they will entertain the University of Northern British Columbia Timberwolves. The following weekend (Nov 29-30), it will be the defending Canada West champion University of Saskatchewan Huskies making an appearance in Kamloops. Friday night games are at 5 PM PDT with Saturday encounters having a 7 PM PDT tip off
The above games can be accessed on a pay-per-view basis on Canada West TV presented by Co-op by accessing:
https://cw.yaretv.com/.
Results will be available on the WolfPack social media platforms and their website
www.goWolfPack.ca.
(With Assistance from MacEwan Sports Information)
