Burnaby, BC – In a high-scoring affair that saw 32 three-pointers fall, the Simon Fraser University men's basketball team suffered their first loss in three games, falling 115-98 to Alaska Anchorage Saturday night.
Sango Niang led the Clan with 24 points and five assists, including shooting 4-for-9 from three-point range, but the Seawolves guards stole the show sinking 20 shots from beyond-the-arc as Travis Thompson earned 30 points and Brian McGill had 29 for the visitors.
"Our game plan was to not let them have the open three-point shot, and I believe we failed at that tonight," said head coach James Blake. "I think we came out a bit hot coming off our two game win streak and forgot about the defence that got us here."
The Clan was coming off their first two-game win streak since joining the Great Northwest Athletic Conference after victories over Saint Martin's and Alaska, but with the loss tonight fall to 3-8 in conference play.
Roderick Evans-Taylor opened the scoring right off the tip, as the Clan started strong from the gates keeping pace with the Seawolves through the first fifteen minutes of the match.
However, trailing 40-35 with five minutes remaining in the period, the Clan fell flat as the visitors took a 22-8 run to close the half, spearheaded by Thompson and McGill.
Down 62-43 at the midway buzzer Simon Fraser knew they needed to regroup, but their efforts to open the half with intensity were stymied as Anchorage scored seven consecutive points to open, forcing Blake to call a time-out.
From there the Clan found their groove on offence, improving from 18.8 percent to 60.0 percent from three-point range between halves, but the damage was already done as the red-hot Seawolves, who shot 60.3 percent from the floor in the game, were all-but able to maintain their 20-point lead through the remainder of the game.
"We've had a bit of a roller-coaster this season with the guys committing to the system, and obviously when we have players making shot after shot on us it's easy to get down out there," Blake continued. "The tempers and frustration came out a bit tonight, and that will be something we look to address in preparation for next week."
Evans-Taylor had 15 points and three steals while Justin Cole put up 13 points in the loss. Freshman Denver Sparks-Guest added nine points for the Clan, shooting 3-5 from three-point range.
With the loss the Clan fall to 3-8 in GNAC play and 7-11 overall, a mark they will look to improve on when they travel to Montana and Seattle next week.
Simon Fraser faces the MSUB Yellowjackets Thursday night, before visiting the SPU Falcons on Saturday. Fans can follow live at portal.stretchinternet.com/sfu.
