Trojans suffer season's first loss
CALGARY, (Jan. 25, 2019) — A poor night shooting gave the SAIT Trojans men's basketball team their first loss of the season.
Trojans head coach Marty Birky could only shake his head as his players walked off the court following their 81-80 loss to the visiting Olds College Broncos in their Friday night Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) game played inside the confines of SAIT's Campus Centre.
"We couldn't hit anything," he said. "Twenty-three per cent (from the 3pt line). Wow. That was pretty much the game. Olds packed it in, we had good looks, but we couldn't hit."
SAIT falls to 13-1 on the season. Olds College moves to 5-9.
"It was a matter of time," Birky said about the first loss. "This is a good league, and you're going to get caught at some point."
It didn't take long to recognize that something was off with the Trojans on Friday. Despite leading 21-17 after the first quarter, SAIT made good on just 2-of-11 shots from behind the three-point line.
In the second quarter, the Broncos cut into the lead as SAIT's shooting woes struggled. By the time the halftime buzzer went, the Trojans lead was just five – 42-37.
The third quarter was where all the momentum changed. While SAIT shot just 26 per cent from the field, Olds College hit on seemingly everything, as seven points in the quarter from Landon Parrington put his Broncos up 62-57 going into the final 10 minutes of play.
In the final quarter, SAIT chased for five minutes, finally taking back the lead with 4:54 left when Ian Tevis (5th year, Kent, Wash., Office Professional) hit a three to put SAIT up 71-69.
The teams traded the lead back and forth for the next few minutes before SAIT looked as if they were going to pull away when John Smith (4th year, Lacey, Wash., Business Administration) hit a three to go up 80-76 with 52 seconds left.
Olds College got a three in return from Linden Jackson to cut the lead to 80-79 before Terence Crisostomo hit a pair of free throws to put the visitors up one with 8.9 seconds left.
Birky called timeout, drew up and play and sent his team out to try and win it. Instead, the Trojans bobbled the inbounds pass and then threw up a last-second desperation shot that did not connect.
"Try and get a good shot," Birky said his message was. "And then we made a bad pass out of it, and that screwed everything up."
Smith led the Trojans with 18 points, while Jackson paced the Broncos with a game-high 22 points.
SAIT will look for revenge Saturday night when the teams wrap their weekend set in Olds, Alta., in an 8pm start.