Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
-With files from TWU Athletics
LANGLEY, B.C. – It was a second quarter to forget for the MacEwan Griffins women's basketball team.
Trailing by only three points entering it, they quickly found themselves down by 21 after the nightmare 10-minute period ended, never recovering against the Trinity Western Spartans in an 82-52 defeat in Canada West women's basketball action on Friday night.
"Kind of a similar story in that turnovers let us down," said MacEwan head coach Katherine Adams. "Our inability to win possessions and maintain possessions with some careless turnovers that led to easy scores for them, gave them momentum and kind of broke things open there. We had a tough time recovering."
Rookie Noelle Kilbreath led the Griffins with 12 points but no one else hit double figures on the team.
TWU was led by Lana Shypit's 24-point effort on 9-for-12 shooting, while Nicole Fransson added 17 points.
"This was a great way to make a statement at home," said TWU head coach Cheryl Jean-Paul. "We've been talking needing more players to step up offensively and we definitely got that from two first years, which is really exciting. This is one of the most efficient games we've played this year. Every weekend we've been getting better, and it was really nice to see this as a culmination of the last few weeks."
With the result, both teams are now 2-5 in the Canada West standings.
"It's certainly disappointing because it's all things that are within our control and an area that we've really been working hard to grow at," said Adams. "It's definitely disappointing that we had that one little slip and lapse in concentration and focus to lead us down this unfortunate path again."
The Griffins will try to regroup with a stronger effort in the rematch on Saturday (6 p.m. MT, Canada West TV presented by Co-op). If their last weekend before this one is any indication when they rebounded after a tough loss to Thompson Rivers on Friday night with their best effort of the season in a victory on Saturday, they're certainly capable of it again.
"We have to respond," said Adams. "We don't have a choice. It's something we've shown we can do well, so I expect that we will make the adjustments we need to make, and the girls will come out fired up ready to compete tomorrow again."
