By Larry Read
TRU Sports Information Officer
KAMLOOPS, BC---For the second straight Friday, the second half turned out to be the demise for the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men's basketball team.
Last week, TRU blew a half time lead and lost to the University of Regina Cougars in overtime. This Friday (Jan 25), another yellow clad team beat TRU with a strong second half. This time it was the University of Manitoba Bisons.
The Bisons erased a two point deficit to down the WolfPack 64-54 at the Tournament Capital Centre. That loss put a major crimp in the Pack's playoff hops as they fell to 6-11 on the year. Manitoba won its fifth in row moving to 8-9.
Manitoba had four players in double figures led by James Wagner with 16. TRU's main scorer was Mike Rouaullt with 14.
SYNOPSIS
The WolfPack were down by two (14-12) after the first quarter and outscored the Bisons 18-14 to take that two point lead (30-28) into the half led by Rouault and his 11 points. He was named the TRU Bookstore/McDonalds "Leader of the Pack" Player of the game. Manitoba's top scorer was Wagner with 10 points.
In the third quarter, Manitoba outgunnet TRU 23-6 led by Arruda who had 5 points.
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS:
THEY SAID IT! (post game quotes):
TRU Head Coach Scott Clark:
On the Contest: "I thought we defended pretty well except for a stretch in third quarter. Credit to Manitoba, they increased the level of intensity and we didn't do a great job of responding. They got tough and defense and we turned over the ball. They got some easy baskets. We didn't get many easy baskets and normally we are a pretty good shooting team."
Video of post game interview: click here
Manitoba coach Kerby Schepp (10 th year):
what was the difference for his team: "I thought our defensive energy was really solid. There was that one stretch in the third quarter when we extending things a bit . We got a number of consecutive stops in a row. That really built our momentum. We didn't have the best shooting night but I thought defensively we were really solid."
Video of post game interview: click here
UP NEXT:
The WolfPack and Bisons will wind up their weekend series tomorrow (Sat Jan 26) night at the Tournament Capital Centre. Tip off will be 7 pm. Thompson Rivers will honor their lone fifth year player: Derek Rhodes before the contest. Rhodes has played for the WolfPack for the past three seasons.
The Pack close out the 2018-19 Canada West regular season the following weekend (Feb 1-2) at the Jack Simpson gym at the University of Calgary against the Dinos.
All of these games are webcast on a pay per view basis on Canada West TV.