KAMLOOPS – They might not have picked up the win, but there will be plenty of positives that the Thompson Rivers WolfPack men's basketball team can take from an 83-60 loss to the Boise State University Broncos on Thursday night.
Facing a team that has advanced to the NCAA March Madness Tournament for the past two straight seasons, the WolfPack hung tough with one of the best collegiate programs in North America.
"I thought our guys competed and that was our main goal going into the game was to compete for 40 minutes," said WolfPack head coach
Chad Jacobson. "I don't think we competed for all 40 minutes but I thought we did a pretty good job for the majority of the game. We ran into a really good team that is well coached, but it was a lot of fun."
The exhibition contest saw nearly 1,000 fans pack inside the TCC and will send the WolfPack into the rest of their preseason preparations on a high.
"It shows me as a coach and shows our players that the community cares, these people care about the WolfPack so a big shoutout to the fans that supported us," said Jacobson of the crowd support. "It was a great energy in here and this is an experience these guys will remember for a long time."
Fifth-year guard
Daniel Bost led the way for TRU, finishing with 16 points while going 4-5 from beyond-the-arc.
"He's a fifth year guy so wants to have a really good experience in his last year and what a great way to kick off that fifth year," said Jacobson. DB is DB, he's going to make plays for us, keep fighting and all in all he played really well."
Asher Mayan (9),
Cyrus Harrison (9),
Denys Bachurin (7) and
Simon Crossfield (7) rounded out the high scorers for TRU. Bachurin, the fourth-year product of Cherkasy, UKR, added six rebounds and five assists on the night.
Tyson Degenhart (29) and O'Mar Stanley (16) were the high scorers for a Boise State team that finished the two previous games of their Canadian tour with wins of 134-70 over Trinity Western and 93-57 over UFV.
TRU begins their Canada West campaign on November 3 against TWU.
