BURNABY, B.C. — The quest for the complete game remains an elusive one for the Simon Fraser Red Leafs' men's basketball team.

SFU equalled its largest lead of the game at nine points midway through the fourth quarter on what seemed at the time to be back-to-back momentum-changing buckets.

Yet its inability to maintain that aggressive, attacking nature was quickly sensed by the visiting Hawaii Pacific Sharks (1-2), who mounted a game-changing 11-0 run en route to a tight 67-64 victory over the Red Leafs (1-5) in a non-conference game played before a boisterous crowd of 730 fans at the West Gym.

Junior forward George Lefebvre's lay-up was followed in quick order by freshman guard Tate Christiansen's three-pointer, and with 9:58 left in a grinding, defensive-minded contest, the Red Leafs seemed to have gotten over the hump behind a 49-40 lead.

But that's when the Sharks' leading man took matters into his own hands.

Sophomore guard Melo Sanchez, on his way to a game-high 26 points, poured home the final nine points of Hawaii Pacific's 11-0 surge to give the visitors its first lead of the game at 51-49.
 

Simon Fraser managed to regain the lead at 52-51 on a Nigel Hylton three-pointer, and they hung tough by tying the game at 56, 59 and then 62 points.

They even led 64-63 with 1:52 remaining when Lefebvre caromed the ball home on a blind lay-up deep under the rim.

Sanchez, however, scored his team's final four points to decide the game as Red Leafs' rookie Irish Coquia made a valiant effort to sink the game-winning shot as time expired.

"I just think in the first (six) games, we haven't played a full game…we haven't executed for 40 minutes," said SFU head coach Steve Hanson, who in the post-game expressed the need for his backcourt leaders to carry out that dictum on a nightly basis. "Tonight was about 32 minutes of really good basketball for us."

It was a night where the Red Leafs might have played their best opening-half of the season, building a 31-25 lead by putting forth the kind of complete effort defensively which limited the Sharks to a paltry 8-of-26 shooting performance from the field. Hawaii Pacific, however, shot 15-of-22 (68 per cent) in the second half, the greatest majority of which came over the final 10 minutes of play.
 

"Overall we played really tight down the stretch, and their best player got going," said Hanson, tipping his hat to Sanchez.

"We didn't execute… I think we executed the scout really well for about 32 minutes." added Hanson, who explained that Sanchez was able to keep his offensive game thriving whatever his team tried to do. "That gave them a lot of momentum and then they got to the line (15-of-20). We didn't get to the line at all (3-of-7), and that is the effect of their 7-foot-4 guy (Matthew Van Komen). Our guys were just not attacking."

Dominique Winbush added 13 points for the Sharks.

Lefebvre played his best game of the season and led the Red Leafs with 15 points.

"Everyone knows about our struggles last year as a unit," said Lefebvre, "but with the games we've played this season, we feel like we're getting one step closer to the team we want to be. It was disappointing it was on our home opener, but we're going to take this lesson and learn from it. We're going to build from this."

Simon Fraser returns to action Saturday (12 p.m.) when it plays host to Nanaimo's Vancouver Island Mariners.

For the latest information on SFU Athletics, visit athletics.sfu.ca. You can also find us on social media at @SFU_Athletics.

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