LANGLEY, B.C. – Trinity Western made their return to the Langley Events Centre on Friday, falling 104-66 to Victoria.
 
UVIC (1-0) dominated from the start, pitting the Trinity Western Spartans (0-2) at a 35-15 deficit at the end of the first quarter. Using size and physicality against the small-ball Spartans, the visiting Vikes were able to pound the paint to move to a big lead over TWU.
 
The second quarter saw TWU pick up the pace as Ja'Qualyn Gilbreath (Amarillo, Texas) and Vlad Mihaila (Surrey, B.C.) fill up the basket with a flurry of 3-pointers in transition. UVIC still refused to hold back as Diego Maffia sunk audacious shots while Matthew Ellis bullied the Spartans down low.
 
The Spartans were able to slowly chip away at the Vikes' lead, bringing it down to 11 after Mason Bourcier (Kelowna, B.C.) surged to the basket for an and-one, bringing the home crowd off their feet as the crowd, and Spartans bench erupted. Bourcier's bucket wrapped up TWU 29-point second quarter, bringing the game's score to 57-44 in favour of UVIC.
 
The start of the second half saw both teams constantly battle back-and-forth as UVIC's lead was constantly fiddled with throughout the entirety of the quarter. The Spartans were finally getting valid opportunities to shoot, but UVIC's Diego Maffia continued to answer back with a barrage of his own buckets to keep bump the Vikes' lead to 79-62 heading into the fourth.
 
The fourth quarter of action was owned by UVIC.
 
NOTABLE

• First-year Connor Platz (Langley, B.C.) showed promise in Friday's game. Standing at a towering 6-foot-10, Platz had two massive blocks in Friday's game.
• The first quarter set the tone for the entire game. With a 20-point deficit off the jump, the game was never able to come back into TWU's control.
• Mason Bourcier was very impressive for the Spartans on Friday, scoring 19 points across 28 minutes of play.

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Trevor Pridie
"We played against a really good team tonight, but we just couldn't execute.

"Connor Platz looked great tonight. It was really good to see him perform against strong competition."

UP NEXT
The Spartans head to Victoria to play the Vikes two more times on Nov. 12^th and 13^th.

About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 13 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, cross country and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes as an independent team in men's rugby. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 12 U SPORTS team championships and 29 Canada West team championships.

-TW-