LANGLEY, British Columbia – The Trinity Western Spartans lost 64-54 to the visiting Regina Cougars in a preseason contest Wednesday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C.
Second year forward
Nicole Fransson (Edmonton) with 14 points and eight rebounds and second year forward
Jolene Vlieg (Leduc, Alta.) with 13 points and eight rebounds led the Spartans, while Faith Reid with 17 points, Emily Dewey with 12 points and Michaela Kleisinger with 11 points led the Cougars attack.
The Cougars started well and led the Spartans 20-7 at the end of the opening quarter. In the second quarter TWU cut into the lead slightly to trail by eight points 37-29 at the half time break.
TWU had a strong third quarter, outscoring Regina 15-7 to tie the game at 44 heading into the fourth quarter. With five minutes remaining the Spartans had extended their lead to three points, 54-51. But the Cougars' defence was able to shut down the Spartans' offence over the final five minutes to outscore TWU 13-0 to earn the 10 point victory.
QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Cheryl Jean-Paul
"We spent a lot of time this week focusing on who we were as a defensive group and I thought that this game was a huge improvement over what we have seen in the last few games defensively. So now that we have given ourselves an identity on defence we can focus on what happens offensively."
"Do we still need to be better on what happens at the end of the game? Yes, but that is going to come. But I'm really excited that we are taking some big strides forward."
NOTABLE
• The Spartans had a 46-36 edge in rebounding
• Trinity Western finished the night with 16 turnovers, while Regina finished with nine turnovers.
• The Spartans struggled from the foul line shooting 52.4 percent (11/21), while the Cougars shot 76.9 percent (10/13).
• TWU finished the night shooting 25 percent (3/12) from the three point line and 35.4 percent (17/48) from inside the arc, while Regina shot 35.7 percent (10/28) and 38.7 percent (12/31) respectively.
UP NEXT
The Spartans will now head to Calgary to play in the Dinos tournament. TWU will open with Lethbridge on Saturday at 8 p.m. and then follow up with Mount Royal on Sunday at 1 p.m. TWU will open up Canada West conference play on November 1-2 in Kamloops, B.C. against the TRU WolfPack.
About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 11 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, cross country and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes in the British Columbia Intercollegiate Hockey League (BCIHL) in men's hockey and as an independent team in men's rugby. The men's and women's hockey programs will begin playing in Canada West and U SPORTS in 2020-21. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 12 U SPORTS team championships and 27 Canada West team championships and two BCIHL championships.
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