Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
KAMLOOPS, B.C. – At least they had their defence to rely on when their offence went cold on Friday night.
Sadly, that wasn't the case a day later for the MacEwan Griffins men's basketball team.
After giving up 35 first-quarter points, they trailed by 27 at the half and never could recover in a 99-61 loss to the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack to close out the first semester.
"We just didn't come out well, didn't play well from the beginning," said MacEwan head coach Mike Connolly. "They jumped on us and we got down 30.
"We just weren't ready to play – youthful mistakes. They're a veteran team, they executed and they kicked us, just a good ol' fashioned kicking."
With the result, the Griffins fall to 0-10 and the WolfPack improve to 3-5.
Milan Jaksic led MacEwan with 13 points and seven rebounds, while Taylor Cook chipped in 12 points off the bench and Job Janda had 10 points and eight boards.
TRU had five layers in double digits as Daniel Bost (19 points), Asher Mayan (17), Cyrus Harrison (15), Tyler Schilling (11) and Denys Bachurin (10) combined to lead them to a huge victory.
"We didn't start off well defensively and that was the difference," said Connolly, whose team also couldn't hit buckets for a second-straight night, shooting just 34.9 per cent from the field and 21.7 on threes.
The Griffins now head into the break to regroup and get ready for the second semester, which they'll kick off at home against Trinity Western on Jan. 6-7.
"With a young group, we've got to keep moving forward," said Connolly. "We're going to go through these growing pains and we know that. That's part of learning. I think we understand what we need to do and how hard we have to work.
"We're just going to take our break and get ready, do well on exams and keep ourselves together, and keep growing and learning. Everyone we're playing against is fourth and fifth-year teams and we're a first and second-year team. So, we've just got to keep going.
"We took it on the chin, so now we have to see how we respond and deal with it. We'll watch tape and correct it."
