ABBOTSFORD, British Columbia – The Trinity Western Spartans saw their season come to an end with a 63-57 loss to the UBC Okanagan Heat in their opening round play-in game in the Canada West play-offs at the UFV Athletic Complex Thursday night in Abbotsford, B.C. The No. 8 TWU finished at 12-8 in Canada West, while No. 9 UBC Okanagan is 11-9.

Fourth-year guard Jayden Gill (Abbotsford, B.C.) with 18 point, and five rebounds, and third-year forward Gracie Corneau (Abbotsford, B.C.) with 13 points, and four rebounds led the Spartans. Jaeli Ibbetson with 21 points, and 16 rebounds, and Kelsey Falk with 14 points, and 12 rebounds led the Heat.

AS IT HAPPENED
Third-year point guard Shemaiah Abatayo (Vancouver, B.C.) got No. 8-seeded TWU off to a solid start, scoring five points in the opening frame as the Spartans held a 14-12 lead at the end of the first quarter. The run of play began to tilt the Heat's way in the second, though — Rachel Hettinga poured in five quick points to spark a 7-0 UBCO surge, and they took a 26-22 advantage into the half.
 
The Heat continued to cook in the third quarter — late in the frame, Sofia Aubsa Lluch found success picking apart the Spartans' D in the pick-and-roll, frequently finding Kelsey Falk and Ibbetson for shots at the rim. UBCO led 46-35 heading to the final frame.
 
The Heat stretched the lead to 15 early in the fourth, but Jayden Gill kept her squad in the fight. Given precious little room to drive to the rim, Canada West's fourth-leading scorer during the regular season stepped out and drained a pair of clutch three-pointers as TWU cut the deficit to 52-45 with five minutes left in regulation.
 
Ibbetson — like Gill, a CW second team all-star this season — answered with a triple of her own to seemingly restore order, but the Spartans kept coming. 
 
With just over a minute remaining, fourth-year guard Hailey Van Roekel (Langley, B.C.) got a steal at half court and went the other way for a layup to cut Heat cushion to 57-52. After Lluch and TWU's Corneau exchanged two-point baskets, the Spartans forced a turnover and Lluch was assessed a clear path foul, sending Gill to the line for a pair of free throws, which she calmly swished with 29.5 seconds left.
 
TWU retained possession, and Gill drove and kicked out a pass to second-year guard Sydney Bradshaw (Langley, B.C.), who had a wide-open look from beyond the arc to tie it. Her shot was online but a little too strong, clanging off the back iron. UBCO took it home from there, finishing off the game at the free throw line.
 
QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Cheryl Jean-Paul
"I'm really proud of our team, proud of our younger ones for stepping up into some really big roles, proud of our seniors for leading all of those little ones really well through this game and the year."
 
"I thought they fought really hard today.  I think we didn't handle one or two key things well today, but again we've been holding teams to this score consistently, 63 points for a team that's averaging quite a bit more is a solid defensive effort. It's just trying to manufacture offence when we needed it and it's hard to finish the season not being able to score to win a game. But at the end of the day, I thought we defended well enough in certain moments and those are just some things that we need to grow from. We just ran out of time and ran out of space. We made some really good pushes in the second half but every time we pushed back, they punch us back and that's where experience comes from. Just learning how to maintain good momentum pushes so that you can go on an eight or nine point run instead of just a three or four point run. Those are things to learn for younger, we talked about wanting to be proud of our effort today and I think that we should be proud of our effort and the effort that we've had all season long."
 
"At the end of the day you had your moments you know we got some free throws at the end there that we needed to make and those are going to be some learning and growing moments for some of our younger players. We've talked a lot about be able to handle the moments and if you don't handle it well then you learn and grow from it and I'm confident that everyone will learn and grow from this. I'm just really proud of this group like they just they worked hard for each other, and it just wasn't enough today."
 
Jayden Gill:
"It's so full circle," she said, reflecting on having played potentially her last university basketball game in her hometown. "I played in this gym growing up, so it's cool to have my last game here, and it was nice to have my family here. It was really special, for sure."
 
Gill is one of five Abbotsford products on the TWU roster, along with fellow Robert Bateman Secondary grad Jenna Gill, and Mennonite Educational Institute alums Kailey Reimer, Gracie Corneau and Jazmin Avila. Jayden Gill as one more year of eligibility remaining, but "as of right now" she plans to hang up her high-tops and retire from university hoops. 
 
NOTABLE

• The Spartans shot 34.9 percent (22/63) from the field, 18.8 percent (3/16) from the three-point line, and 71.4 percent (10/14) from the foul line. The Heat shot 31.3 percent (20/64), 26.3 percent (5/19), and 81.8 percent (18/22) respectively.
• UBC Okanagan had the edge in rebounds 51-38.
• The Spartans had an 11-8 edge in steals.
• TWU entered the post season having dropped their last two games to the UFV Cascades, after
• UBC Okanagan entered the post season on a four-game winning streak, sweeping MacEwan and Manitoba.
• TWU has now lost their last two games to UBC Okanagan. Prior to that TWU had won nine straight conference games against the Heat.
• TWU is 19-6 lifetime against UBC-O.

UP NEXT
The Spartans are now finished for the 2023-24 season. UBC Okanagan will now match up with the No. 1 Saskatchewan Huskies in the quarter-final match Thursday night at the UFV Athletics Centre in Abbotsford, B.C. Game time is 8 p.m. and can be seen live on Canada West 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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