Kwantlen Eagles claim victory in last game of tournament
October 20, 2008 by Rachelle Ashe · Leave a Comment
Kwantlen's Mike Davis (11) and Omid Davani (21), battle to score for the Eagles. (Rachelle Ashe photo
Full-on body-checks, fouls galore and a neck-and-neck race on the scoreboard made for an intense final game for the Kwantlen Eagles, who bested the Vancouver University Island Mariners 92-86, at the Douglas College basketball tournament that ran from Oct.17-19.
Eagle’s head coach Bernie Love was more than pleased. “This is the first time we’ve actually played basketball all year,” he said. “We came up, we scored. We haven’t scored more than 73 points and we scored 92 today.”
Trying to pinpoint problem areas in previous games, Love watched the team’s game tapes and finally came to a conclusion. “Today we shot the basketball — rest of the weekend we would never shot it. We’d be wide open … we were turnin’ the ball over carelessly.”<
Love commends his players for putting their full effort into Sunday’s game. “All the guys played well,” said Love. “Today, Omid (Davani) was fantastic. He had 28 points; he had nine rebounds; he had four assists.”
Davani began to emerge from the blur of red jerseys when he took his third free-throw at the end of the second qurater, which helped bumped the Eagles (who had been lagging a few points behind since the end of the first period), past VIU by a score of 39-34.
Kwantlen Eagles' Nick Lafleur (9), propels the ball towards the basket, during the final tournament game on Sunday, Oct. 19. (Rachelle Ashe Photo)
The Mariners lagged by a steady 10 points until the final quarter when, at two and a half minutes left, with a score of 88-76, the Eagles started to rack up fouls and the Mariners cashed in effortless free-throws.
With 47 seconds left on the clock, the Mariners had closed the gap considerably and VIU’s Jacob Thom smoothly stole ball from Davani and sank it, closing the score to 89-86 Eagles.
With frequent glances at the score clock, and needless passes, the Eagles were visibly biding their time, as the clock fell under half a minute.
Davani was awarded three free-throw shots, virtually in a row, bringing their score up by three points. The Mariners then took control, and as both teams flew down the court, Kwantlen’s Brighton Gbarazia managed to wrench the ball free from his opponent. With four seconds left, his coach and team members yelled for him to hold onto it as the game slowed to a stop and the timer buzzed.
Bringing tennis to the table
September 20, 2008 by Alexander Nkrumah · Leave a Comment
A selection of photos from Saturday’s Canadian Chinese Table Tennis Federation tournament, held at Kwantlen.
Michael Jin of the Tri-Star Seafoods Mavericks sets himself to return a smash from his opponent.
Ten-year-old Michael returns a volley to win his first game in the first round of competition.
Tri-Star Seafood manager instructs his team on the game plan.
A warm-up serve before the competition.
The young and the old were there to compete and to have fun.
Appreciative spectators paid close attention as their favourites launched their quests for a championship.
B’ball teams prepped for Sept. 26 openers
September 18, 2008 by Sandy Buemann · Leave a Comment
The Kwantlen Eagles are getting ready to hit the court on Friday, Sept. 26, when both the men’s and the women’s basketball teams will play the first games of the new season, at the Kwantlen gymnasium in SurreyÂ
The women will play an exhibition game against the Douglas Royals at 6 p.m., and the men will be playing a Blaze exhibition game at 8 p.m.
It is coach Gary Pawluk’s and assistant coach Ivan Adrian’s first season coaching the women.
“It’s been a terrific situation so far and hopefully it will continue,†said Pawluk in a phone interview.
The women have played some competitive teams in the off-season, said Pawluk. “Competition in the league is strong and getting the girls to compete is always a challenge.â€
Pawluk has been coaching basketball for three decades, and is enjoying the challenges of coaching a new team.“We’ve got a good blend as far as personnel wise,†he said and one of the challenges is to “get that team work and team chemistry to get to the point where we are growing and developing and getting better.â€
The women’s team has 13 players, five of them rookies and eight returning players.
The men’s team is also looking forward to the season.
Hugh Lynn has been the assistant coach of the men’s team for four years, along with head coach Bernie Love, who has been coaching for seven. Gino Missana and Kevin Van Buskirk are first-year assistant coaches.
Lynn said he would like the team to come together with a “winning, positive attitude and realistic expectations.â€Â
He would like the team, who he said was in the lower half of the league, to try and “move up the ladder,†so they can “make the play offs and do the best that we can.â€
He said the first week and a half of practices have shown some pleasant surprises, such as returning forward Mike Davis and new-to-the-team guard Omid Davini, who is “looking awful good awful early.â€
Davis, who is returning to the team after taking time off to travel, said so far the team has great chemistry.
“We are a young team…we are fairly new to each other still, and I think over time it will come together really well, there might be some growing pains, but we’ll be okay.â€
Only three of the 13 players on the team are returning players.
Davis says he is looking forward to playing Capilano College. “They play a fast-paced game and it’s a lot of fun to play that way,†and that he would like the Eagles to make the playoffs.
The season will culminate with provincial championships, Feb. 26-28, 2009, at Capilano College for both the men and women.
Setting the table
September 1, 2008 by mark · Leave a Comment
The Canadian Chinese Table Tennis Federation is coming Kwantlen, hosting a tourney Sept. 20 and the invitation has gone out to students and employees to form a team and get in on the action. E-mail Xing Liu or Hasan Pasha for details.
