LANGLEY, British Columbia – The Trinity Western Spartans used a strong start to earn a convincing 25 points, 81-56, win over the UBC Okanagan Heat Friday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The win improves the first place, in the West division, to 11-2 in Canada West conference play, while the loss drops the Heat to 6-8 in conference play.
 
Nicole Fransson with her eighth double-double of the season led the Spartans with 21 points and 13 rebounds, while Kianna Wiens added 15 points and Jayden Gill finished with 11 points for TWU. Surprise Munie with 18 points and six rebounds and Jaeli Ibbetson with 12 points and eight rebounds led the Heat.
 
AS IT HAPPENED
The Spartans started the contest on fire and after five minutes they led Heat 13-2. From there the two teams exchanged baskets for the remainder of the quarter as TWU led UBC-O 21-10 after 10 minutes. Franson led the Spartans with eight points and two rebounds, while Ibbetson led the Heat with two points and three rebounds. TWU shot 60 percent (9/15) in the quarter, while UBC-O shot 21.7 percent (5/23).
 
TWU continued to dominate in the second quarter at the Spartans built their lead to 19 points (33-14) with five minutes remaining in the half. The Heat outscored the Spartans 10-9 over the final five minutes of the second quarter to make the score 42-24 for TWU at the halftime break. At the half TWU shot 52.9 percent (18/34), while UBC-O shot 27.9 percent (12/43). The Spartans also had a 28-19 edge in rebounds. Nicole Fransson led all players in scoring with 14 points at the break, with Surprise Munie leading the Heat with eight points.
 
The teams exchanged baskets through most of the third quarter which saw the Spartans leading 62-44 with 10 minutes remaining in the game. TWU shot 44.4 percent (8/18) in the quarter, while UBC-O shot 46.7 percent (7/15). Wiens led the Spartans in scoring in the quarter with eight points, while Ibbetson led the Heat with eight points and five rebounds in the quarter.
 
The Spartans outscored the Heat 19-12 over the final 10 minutes of play to earn the 25 point victory. TWU shot 50 percent (9/18) in the final quarter, while UBC-O shot 26.3 percent (5-19).
 
NOTABLE

• The Spartans are (10-1) overall in conference games against the Heat. TWU is on a five game home winning streak against UBC-O.
• TWU is now (11-2) in Canada West conference play. The Spartans record in CW conference play was when they finished 16-4 in 2017-18. TWU has had two seasons in which they finished with 12 wins, 12-8 in 2016-17 and 2018-19.
• The Spartans finished the game shooting 50 percent (35/70), while the Heat finished shooting 31.2 percent (24/77).
• TWU outrebounded UBC-O 48-41. The Heat had the edge in steals 10-7.
• The Spartans were one made field goal away from tying the team program record. TWU finished the night with 35 makes. The record currently stands at 36 made field goals, which the Spartans achieved against TRU on January 26, 2018 and again on January 27, 2018.

 
QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Cheryl Jean-Paul
"Today was a really good team effort. Obviously coming off of a split last weekend we needed to make a statement in a few different areas. Our shooting percentage and shot selections were two areas we have been keying on all week in practice. So it was nice to see their ability to create for each other and move out of space and find scoring in transition. Definitely a good turnaround for us."
 
"I think the challenge for us becomes what happens tomorrow. So it's not being satisfied anymore with being able to do this on a single night. We really want to see if we can make a statement two nights in a row. So we definitely got the first half of it done, with contributions from a lot of different people. I thought our second unit did a great job today of coming in and maintaining our lead that the first five had started. And that has been very critical for us moving into weekend number four, five, six and seven. So the more we can get contributions from everybody, the easier it is going to be for us to handle things when they are not going well. So good team effort and excited to see what we can do tomorrow."
 
UP NEXT
The Spartans and the Heat will match up again tomorrow afternoon in a special game on the campus of Trinity Western University. Game time at the David E. Enarson Gym is set for 3 p.m. PT. The game can be seen live on Canadawest.tv.
 
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.
 
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