KAMLOOPS – Leading for most of the night, the Thompson Rivers WolfPack men's basketball team was unable to keep pace with a Trinity Western Spartans squad that caught fire late in a 78-73 loss on the road.
The 'Pack held the lead for 27 minutes on the night compared to just 10 for the Spartans, but a 17-5 Spartan run to open the fourth quarter swung what was a 58-52 WolfPack advantage to a three-point Spartan lead with five minutes left to play. TRU managed to rebound from that run and kept the game to within two points for much of the remainder of the contest but were unable to ever regain their advantage from then on out.
It was Trinity Western's offence that sparked the comeback. As a team TWU knocked down 9 of their 17 shots from the floor and went 5-10 from beyond-the-arc in the fourth quarter.
Brad King led the WolfPack with 18 points and nine rebounds in his 30 minutes of action.
Asher Mayan scored 17, 14 of which came in the first half and
Brendan Sullivan added 13.
Ja'Qualyn Gilbreath and Tre Fillmore were the focal points of the Spartan's offence, scoring 24 and 21 points respectively. Gilbreath, who also added ten rebound on the night played all 40 minutes of the game.
The WolfPack shot 50 per cent as a team in the first quarter and then held the Spartans to just 12 points in the second to take a 42-30 lead into the halftime break. Trinity Western managed to cut that lead in half in the third quarter before their offensive explosion to start the fourth swung the result in their favour.
TRU will get the chance to split the weekend tomorrow when these teams meet one again inside the Langley Events Centre with a scheduled start time of 5 p.m.
