BURNABY, BC ---

On Saturday night, the Simon Fraser Men's Basketball Team got things back on track with a 72-61 home victory over the visiting Concordia University Cavaliers.

Simon Fraser got off to a fast start, and capitalized on offense rebounds and three-point opportunities which propelled them to an early 16-10 lead. Concordia struggled in the rebounding department, but made up for their lack of physicality down low with fast break opportunities and aggressive team defense. 

As the half went on, SFU built up a ten-point advantage, but a late basket for the Cavaliers saw the game go to halftime with SFU leading by just eight at 35-27. Leading the way for SFU at the half was Othniel Spence with 9 points, SFU also dominated on the boards in the first half, out-rebounding the Cavaliers 26 to 14.

Concordia played well to open the second half, but SFU responded with a surge of their own. With 12:50 remaining in the final half, Graham Miller hit a layup which put SFU up by a game-high 16 points. 

Not to be deterred, Concordia continued to drag themselves back into the contest, and through strong post play from Dakota Ayala, the Cavaliers closed the lead back down to ten with 5:27 remaining.

Over the next 2 minutes, SFU struggled mightily to take care of the ball against the Cavaliers high pressure defense, and with 3:30 left to play, Concordia had the SFU lead down to just four points at 63-59. 

Not wanting to let the visitors any closer, SFU's Jasdeep Singh came up with two clutch shots in quick succession, as SFU re-took the lead by eight. From that point onwards, Simon Fraser took good care of the ball and converted their free throws down the stretch to hold on for a 72 to 61 victory on home court.
 
Leading the way for SFU was Othniel Spence with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Othniel is now also only 4 points away from the 1000-point career milestone. Jasdeep Singh added 16 points and 7 rebounds of his own, while in total SFU out-rebounded Concordia a whopping 51 to 30.

Head Coach Steve Hanson added his thoughts post-game: 

"Concordia has battled all year and it was no surprise they battled until the end tonight. Wil, Othniel, Julian and Jas dominated on the boards tonight. We finished plays when we needed to on defense. Concordia switched defenses a lot and kept us off balance, but we found our spots and came away with an important win."

Up next, Simon Fraser will be taking on Western Oregon in the West Gym on Monday, game time is set for 12:30PM.