The playoff hopes of the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men's basketball team took a stumble on Friday.

The WolfPack fell to the Mount Royal University Cougars 89-79 at the Warner Rentals Court at the Tournament Capital Centre.

Thompson Rivers saw their record fall to  9-8 while Mount Royal moves to 8-9.

"Defensively we were not very good," said Thompson Rivers coach Scott Clark. "When you give up 89 points and shoot 54 per cent it makes it tough to win.  We didn't do a good job individually or collectively defensively."

The WolfPack were up 16-13 after the first quarter but were outscored 33-19 in the second quarter. They were behind 46-35 at the half.

Mount Royal was led by Deng Awak with 35 points.   Other players for Mount Royal in double figures were James Lefebre with 16 and Manok Akwl with 11.

Top scorer for TRU - who were without Josh Wolfram (fourth year, forward, Kamloops, BC) - was  Reese Pribilsky (fourth year, guard, Victoria, BC) .  He had 21 points.

Luke Morris (second year, guard, Mission, BC) added 19 points while Brett Parker (fifth year, guard, Langley, BC) added 18.  

Parker was named the TRU Bookstore/McDonald's Leader of the Pack Player of the Game.

Victor Aguero (third year, guard, Vancouver, WA) added 10 points.

Clark admits that the team's playoff hopes did suffer a setback.  "There are three games left and we are battling. Every game is important.  There is nothing we can do about it but just move on."

The teams play again Saturday (Feb. 7) at the TCC starting at 7 pm.

The 'Pack will honor fifth year players: Parker, Brett Rouault (guard, Vernon, BC) and Tallon Milne (forward, Vanderhoof, BC) before the match.

You can catch it on CanadaWest.TV.