LANGLEY, B.C. – Trinity Western defeated UFV 99-84 at the Langley Events Centre on Friday night.
The Spartans (5-4) got a combined 75 points from
Mason Bourcier (Kelowna, B.C.),
David Mutabazi (Delta, B.C.),
Connor Platz (Langley, B.C.), and
Tre Fillmore (Amarillo, Texas). On the other end of the floor, Cascades (3-4) forward Dario Lopez dropped 28 points to lead UFV in the loss.
Platz and Mutabazi rebounded exceptionally well too, with each of them earning double-doubles in TWU's fifth victory of the season. Platz also a game-high of three blocks while Mutabazi chipped in with three steals and five assists to cap off some impressive TWU stat-lines.
AS IT HAPPENED
A muddy first quarter of play led to a 17-14 line in favour of TWU before UFV found their footing in the second quarter. The first half wrapped up at 44-42 for the Cascades, who outscored the Spartans 30-25 in the second frame of play.
The Spartans ran away with the game in the second half, outscoring UFV 57-40 in the second half of play (28-17, 29-23), ending the game at a 99-84 win for TWU.
QUOTABLE
Trevor Pridie – TWU Head Coach
"We struggled to bring the energy early, and some of our guys couldn't get in a groove. [David] Mutabazi and Connor [Platz] both played unbelievable in the second half, Tre [Fillmore] continues to hit big shots in this gym, and [Dan Lybbert] had a really big game for us in limited minutes. He was hitting timely shots. [
Mason Bourcier] is such a warrior too. You can't count him out – he's going to battle every day.
"It was another big second half for us. We get off to these slow starts for some reason – we need to figure that out. Still, the guys battled, and UFV is a tough team. [The team] came out and put them away. Overall, I think that was our best team of the year."
NOTABLE
- With 16 made 3-pointers on 44 attempts (36.7%), the Spartans have tied their second most single-game 3-pointers attempted of all-time.
- Platz is now one block away from tying TWU's single-season block record. With 24 through nine games (2.7 per game). Platz set TWU's single-season blocks per game record in the 2021-22 season, averaging 1.3 per game. His current average of 2.7 puts him atop the conference leaderboards with the closest competitor averaging 2.0 per game.
- Bourcier is second in the conference's scoring leaderboards (23.6 PPG), first in assists (5.9 AST), and first in steals (3.8 per game).
- TWU is 17-23 all-time against UFV, winning two of their last three games against the Cascades.
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 13 U SPORTS team championships and 32 Canada West team championships.
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