Trojans rebound with big win
OLDS, ALTA., (Jan. 26, 2019) — Back on track.
A night after suffering their first loss of the season, the SAIT Trojans men's basketball team avenged the loss with a lopsided 109-76 victory over the host Olds College Broncos in their Saturday night Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) affair to split their weekend set.
"I didn't have to coach effort today, that's for sure," said Trojans head coach Marty Birky. "We talked about a loss not being a bad thing for this squad. We were fortunate to play a team this weekend that made us do things we're not used to doing. We just made adjustments this time around."
SAIT moves to 14-1 in the ACAC South Division standings. Olds falls to 5-10.
"The guys on this team are competitors; they never want to lose," Birky added when asked if his team looks at the loss as a positive thing. "It wasn't necessarily that we lost on Friday, but the failure to perform that served as a wakeup call for us."
In the loss, the Trojans did not shoot the ball well. A lot of that fell on the shoulders of high-scoring guard John Smith (4th year, Lacey, Wash., Business Administration), who went just 2-for-15 from the three-point line.
Smith made it his mission to come back strong, and did so with a 42-point performance – which included going 10-for-18 from behind the arc.
"It's our third year with John, and I've never seen him shoot the ball like he did Friday night," Birky said. "He flipped the script tonight, and scored the most points anyone has ever done under me."
After leading by just one at halftime, the Trojans exploded in the third quarter, outscoring the hosts 36-18 to take a commanding lead into the final 10 minutes of play.
Karan Gill paced the Broncos with 17 points.
SAIT returns to action this week with a rare Thursday night home game against fellow Calgary school St. Mary's University in an 8pm start.