LANGLEY, B.C. – Not all preseasons are created equally.

Sometimes they are all about minor tweaking and fine-tuning in advance of the conference campaign.

Bruce Langford has had a few of those over his 23 seasons at the helm of Simon Fraser women's basketball.

But he's also had a few that mirror the way this current 2023-24 edition of the Red Leafs is coming together, and that is through a patient but purposeful brand of team building, role defining and bonding.

That latter process is almost sure to be filled with tough moments, and Simon Fraser's latest outing clearly fell into that category.

On Sunday, the Red-and-White wrapped up play at the inaugural CCA Division II Canadian Tip-Off Classic at the Langley Events Centre with another disappointing finish, this time as part of an 82-75 loss to the Texas A&M International Dustdevils.

The setback saddled the Red Leafs with an 0-3 record at the three-day event, which officially opened the team's lengthy 11-game non-conference schedule.

Yet one of the Red Leafs' veterans was showing her leadership in the postgame as she looked ahead to the next leg of the journey which resumes this weekend in the San Francisco Bay area.

"It's tough but we learned a lot," explained SFU junior forward Gemma Cutler of North Vancouver, who was outstanding in the loss, falling a block shy of a triple-double with 15 points, 12 rebounds and nine rejections. "For us, we are going into a month of away trips, so this was a good experience for us to learn who we are and how to play with each other."

Her nine blocks ties the school record for most in a single game. The only other player to do this is Julia Wilson, who recorded nine blocks twice during the program's U SPORTS era, against Acadia on Oct. 17, 2003 and Trinity Western on Feb. 13, 2004.

SFU plays at San Francisco State and Cal State Monterey Bay this Friday and Saturday.

There's also two more separate two-game roads swing through California, with home non-conference contests sandwiched in against Minnesota State Moorhead and Biola (California) back home at the West Gym, all in advance of the GNAC season-opener Dec. 2 at Western Washington.

On a team that is not exactly shy of returning talent with the likes of Jessica and Sophia Wisotzki (Langley, B.C.), Cutler, Grace Killins (Coquitlam, B.C.) and Makenna Gardner (Langley, B.C.), there is nonetheless a plethora of both returnees being asked to fill much greater roles, and highly-touted freshmen looking to find fit and define identity.
 

On Sunday, against an A&M International team which had full-court pressed with regularity over the first two days of the event, Langford witnessed his team handling the tougher parts with grace, yet struggle with a multitude of errors when not under the same level of duress.

"I thought we had some rookie mistakes out there today, some of them which came from our veterans," the coach said. "But I thought we were our own worst enemy at times. We handled their press, but then we just turned it over in silly ways, like trying to force passes that weren't there."

The Red Leafs set the tempo early, taking a 36-28 lead into the half behind 16-of-35 shooting from the field.

Then came a third quarter in which the Dustdevils outscored SFU by 11, dropping home 33 points in a frame which shifted the game's direction.

Jessica Wisotzki supplied 22 points and six rebounds while Sophia Wisotzki added 14 more points and seven rebounds.

Killins and Gardner added six points apiece, the latter also counting seven rebounds and three steals.

Ngozi Obineke and Malea Jackson led Texas A&M International with 25 and 20 points respectively.

Langford was also encouraged by the play of the team's 6-foot-1 freshman forward Rilyn Quirke (Gresham, Oregon), who in spot minutes this weekend embraced the willingness to be counted as a presence in the paint.

"I thought over the weekend Rilyn's play showed us that maybe we have a post that can relieve Gemma for a little while against certain types of players," he said of the all-important role of being able to spell Cutler and keep the team's star post as fresh as possible throughout a grueling conference campaign.

But, of course, he wasn't ducking the bottom line.

"I thought there were a lot of positive signs that we can build on and be proud of," he said. "But there are some wrinkles to work out, and we've got to work them out. We've got to get better. We've got to get better."
 

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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