This past weekend we traveled to Saskatoon and Edmonton which is probably the toughest road trip our league has to offer.
We ended up with a split by beating the University of Saskatchewan on Friday night (84-81) and losing by two in Edmonton on Saturday night (68-66).
Just to put the trip in perspective for those of you that haven’t made this trip before.
We began our journey on Thursday night.
There are no direct flights into Saskatoon so we flew to Calgary, had an hour lay over and then got into the hotel in Saskatoon at about 9:30pm.
Then the boys had study hall until midnight. It is a two hour time change this time of the year so as best we can, we try and keep the guys on their Vancouver time schedule.
On Friday we had a shooter at 1:00 pm and then game time was 8:00 pm. The next morning we got up at 7:15 am (Saskatchewan time) to get to the airport for our 9:30 flight.
The flight was delayed, but the weather was fine and we landed in Edmonton at 10:45 am. We went straight to the hotel to find out they did not have any rooms ready for us yet.
The women’s team went straight to their shooter and some guys from our team went to eat and some just hung out in the hotel lobby. After a half an hour wait one room was ready so most of the guys went in that room and hung out until other rooms were ready.
The hotel had one cleaner per floor and so it took a while for the rooms to get cleaned. We had a shooter from 2:00-3:00 pm and then back to the hotel for rest.
The clock at the U of A gym kept shorting out during the women’s game so our game did not start until about 8:30 pm.
On Sunday we left the hotel at 8:30 am to catch our flight which was once again delayed for mechanical reasons. All in all it makes for a long road trip.
Friday night’s game we played very well. Our first quarters have been very good this season and this was another good one.
We executed well at both ends of the floor and the guys were very focused and played with a lot of confidence.
We led 23-14 after the first. Our offensive focus for the weekend was to pound the ball inside and attack their posts.
We did just that and got their big post and second leading scorer in to foul trouble. On the defensive side we wanted to double their American point guard when he came off ball screens and limit their dribble penetration.
Their point guard was averaging 25 pts per game going in to the weekend and we did a very good job on him despite him scoring 16 points. He hit a late three in the game from about 12 feet behind the three point line.
We led 40-33 at the half. In the third quarter we played pretty even and they got to the free throw line….a lot. In fact, the free throw difference for the game was 31 attempts to 15 for them.
If you subtract the six free throws we shot when we they were intentionally trying to foul us in the last minute of the game, the attempts were actually 31-9.
In the last few minutes of the game they hit four threes to make the score closer than what it actually was, but we managed to hit our free throws down the stretch to secure the win.
It was great to see Brylle have a outstanding game for us and O’Brian also shot the ball really well.
Overall, we were pleased with the way we played and that was a great road win for us. It was the first time in five years that we had traveled and played at the U of S.
Brylle Kamen – 18 pts, 12 rbs, 2 assts, 3 steals
O’Brian Wallace – 16 pts
Tommy Nixon – 13 pts, 3 rbs
Doug Plumb – 13 pts, 5 rbs, 2 assts
David Wagner – 12 pts, 4 rbs T
hanks to the media department at UBC for the info.
