LANGLEY, British Columbia – The Trinity Western Spartans saw their late seven-point lead disappear as they fell 78-74 to the visiting Victoria Vikes at the David E. Enarson Gym on the campus of TWU Friday night in Langley, B.C. The loss drops the Spartans to 8-3 in Canada West play while the victory improves the Vikes to 2-7.

TWU led 42-41 at the half and 63-59 after three quarters.

Third-year guard Shemaiah Abatayo (Vancouver, B.C.) with 16 points, and six rebounds, fourth-year guard Jayden Gill (Abbotsford, B.C.) with 14 points, and third-year forward Gracie Corneau (Abbotsford, B.C.) with 12 points led the Spartans. Makena Anderson with 24 points, Tana Pankratz with 14 points, and Mimi Sigue with 12 points led the Vikes.

AS IT HAPPENED
The Spartans had a strong start to the game and quickly took control to lead by 14 points, 27-13 after 10 minutes of play. The Vikes responded to the challenge and by the end of the opening half had cut the TWU lead to one point, trailing 42-41 after 20 minutes.
 
The two teams were evening-matched in the third quarter, but TWU was able to create a four-point lead, 63-59 by the end of the third quarter. With five minutes to play, the Spartans were still holding onto the four-point lead, 68-64. TWU expanded the lead to seven points, 68-61 with 7:30 remaining. But Victoria responded with a 13-6 run to tie the game at 74-74 with 1:48 remaining in the contest. The Vikes took the lead with a Tana Pankratz layup with just under a minute remaining. Unfortunately for the Spartans, they finished the game 0/2 from the field with a turnover as TWU fell by four points, 78-74.
 
QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Cheryl Jean-Paul
"We are demonstrating a level of compete that we have been working on all this season. The way that we started the game and the defensive intensity and understanding the game plan on how we had to handle some of their inside threats, I thought that we executed that game plan really well."
 
"I still think that it is just going to keep taking more experiences and more time for us to understand how fine the details get in a close game against a good team. There is another level now that is going to be required to win games. To have three close single digit losses, where you can look at yourself and say I already know what I could have done differently to get that win. Those things are only going to make us better."
 
"It isn't 35 fixes. This is just 5-6 fixes that we are capable of doing. But if we want to be a play-off team, which is something that we are working toward and wanting to win a play-off game, which is what we have set as one of our goals, then we are four or five decisions away from being that team."
 
NOTABLE

• TWU finished the night shooting 40.6 percent (26/64) from the field, 23.8 percent (5/21) from the three-point line, and 89.5 percent (17/19) from the foul line. Victoria finished shooting 50 percent (27/54), 45.5 percent (10/22), and 60.9 percent (14/23) respectively.
• Last week the Spartans had their unbeaten streak snapped with two road losses to the UBC Thunderbirds, 69-64 on Friday, and 66-60 on Saturday.
• Last week Victoria split with the UBC Okanagan Heat losing 73-59 on Friday, and winning 76-63 on Saturday at home in Victoria.
• The Spartans are 19-46 lifetime against the Vikes.
• The last time the Spartans lost to the Vikes was 71-67 this past October 28 in pre-season play.
• The last time TWU lost to Victoria in a Canada West conference game was 63-57 on February 7, 2020.

UP NEXT
The Spartans and Vikes will finish the two-game series Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. 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 14 U SPORTS team championships and 34 Canada West team championships.
 
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