BRANDON, Man. – The Trinity Western Spartans and the Brandon Bobcats were in a back-and-forth contest Friday night which saw the home-town Bobcats take advantage of TWU turnovers and use a strong fourth quarter to defeat the Spartans 85-74 at the Healthy Living Centre in Brandon, Man. The loss drops the Spartans to 1-4, while the win moves the Bobcats to 6-1.

TWU trailed 44-35 at the half but were tied 57-57 after three quarters. With 2:40 remaining the Spartans only trailed by two pints, 73-71. But the final minutes belong to the Bobcats as Brandon outscored TWU 12-3 to run away with the Friday night win.

Fourth-year guard Josh Belvin (Long Beach, Calf.) with 17 points, third-year centre Connor Platz (Langley, B.C.) with 16 points, and eight rebounds, fourth-year guard Vlad Mihaila (Surrey, B.C.) with 14 points, and third-year guard David Mutabazi (Delta, B.C.) with 10 rebounds, and nine points led the Spartans. Khari Ojeda-Harvey with 23 points, six assists, and five rebounds, Sultan Haider Bhatti with 18 points, and nine rebounds, and Elisha Ampofo with 16 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists led the Bobcats.

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Trevor Pridie
"It felt good to get our shooting numbers back. Another positive was that it feels like we're never out of games, we have grit to fight back into games when we're down. 26 turnovers hurt us badly obviously. So many of them were just weird too. Liked our defense effort at times tonight. We had a couple of key stretches in the game where they made timely plays and we didn't. Harvey was fantastic for Brandon down the stretch."

NOTABLE

• TWU shot 45.2 percent (28-62) from the field, 44.4 percent (12-27) from the three-point line and 54.5 percent (6-11) from the foul line. While Brandon shot 40.5 percent (32-79), 30.3 percent (10-33), and 84.6 percent (11-13) respectively.
• The Spartans had a 46-38 edge in rebounding.
• TWU had 26 turnovers on the night, while Brandon only had 10.
• The Spartans are currently 1-3 in Canada West, while Brandon is 5-1.
• The Spartans are currently 13-14 lifetime against the Bobcats.
• The last time TWU defeated Brandon was 87-78 on January 30, 2016, in Langley, B.C.

 
UP NEXT
The Spartans and Bobcats will match up again tomorrow night at the Healthy Living Centre. Game time is set for 7 p.m. (CT) and 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 14 U SPORTS team championships and 34 Canada West team championships.
 
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