LANGLEY, British Columbia – The Mount Royal Cougars outscored the Trinity Western Spartans 37-19 in the third quarter on their way to a 95-77 victory over the Spartans Friday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The loss drops the Spartans to 2-13, while the win moves the Cougars to 6-9.
 
TWU trailed 48-39 at the half.
 
Third-year guard (Delta, B.C.) with 14 points, and eight assists, second-year guard Marcus Shankar (Campbell River, B.C.) with 13 points, and four rebounds, second-year forward Aristote Kalala (Langley, B.C.) with 10 points, and five rebounds, and fourth-year guard Josh Belvin  (Long Beach, Calf.) with 10 points, and three rebounds led the Spartans. Keivonte Watts with 31 points, and five rebounds, Mawien Mawien with 16 points, and 10 rebounds, and Holt Tomie with 12 points, 12 assists, and six rebounds led the Cougars.
 
AS IT HAPPENED
The two teams were even after the opening quarter, with MRU leading 21-19. But the Cougars started to control the game in the second quarter outscoring the Spartans 27-20 to take a 48-39 half-time lead.

The third quarter was all Mount Royal. The Cougars scored the first 13 points of the second half to take a 61-39 lead. MRU finished the quarter outscoring TWU 37-19 to lead by 27 points, 85-58, at the end of 30 minutes. The Spartans had the better of the Cougars in the fourth quarter outscoring MRU 19-10 to make the final 95-77 for Mount Royal.
 
QUOTABLE
Trevor Pridie, TWU Head Coach
"It was certainly a disappointing night. We started really well in the first few minutes, but then turnovers hurt us a ton. They made some big buckets in transition and Mount Royal was obviously really good from 3-point range. We need to be a whole lot better defensively and make better decisions in key moments. It's hard to lose games like this, but I'm still confident that we have the guys who can turn it around and put together a much better performance tomorrow."
NOTABLE

• TWU finished the night shooting 37 percent (26/58) from the field, 17.4 percent (4/23) from the three-point line, and 65 percent (13/20) from the foul line. MRU finished shooting 51.3 percent (29/53), 44 percent (11/25), and 57.1 percent (4/7) respectively.
• MRU had a 55-41 edge in rebounding.
• The Spartans finished with 13 turnovers, while the Cougars finished with 20.
• Last week the Spartans dropped two road games to No. 10 Calgary, 110-70, and 110-94 in overtime, in Calgary, Alta.
• Last week Mount Royal lost twice to the Regina Cougars in Regina, Sask. 76-61 on Friday night and 89-84 in overtime on Saturday.
• The Spartans are 5-8 lifetime against the Cougars.
• In preseason play this season the Spartans defeated the Cougars 105-72 on October 15 in Kelowna, B.C.
• The last time the Spartans defeated the Cougars in conference play was 71-54 on February 4, 2017
• TWU is 4-5 in conference play against MRU.

UP NEXT
The Spartans and Cougars will finish up the two-game weekend series tomorrow at 6 p.m. (PT) 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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