Freshman Ozi Nwabuko began the game with an air-ball, but everything after that was letter-perfect as the forward lead the Simon Fraser University women’s basketball team to an 80-58 win over Concordia University on Burnaby Mountain last week.
A Port Coquitlam native, Nwabuko led all scorers with 18 points on 9-of-10 shooting in just 22 minutes of play as the Clan improved to 12-2 overall and 3-1 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play.
Simon Fraser opened the contest on a 15-2 run and never let up, building up a 27-14 lead after the first quarter. The Clan maintained a double-digit advantage throughout the game, up by as many as 27 in the fourth quarter before settling in for the 22-point victory.
The Burnaby squad outscored the Cavaliers 42-20 in the paint but it was an unrelenting defence that proved to be the critical key in this game. SFU forced Concordia into 23 turnovers and scored 20 points off those turnovers.
SFU senior guard Ellen Kett finished with 14 points and added nine assists. Elisa Homer chipped in with 12 points while senior forward Meg Wilson had 10.
The Clan hit 31 of 64 overall shots and went nine-of-21 from behind the arc.
Simon Fraser heads out on the road for a pair of games, including one against the conference-leading Northwest Nazarene Falcons before returning home to face nationally-ranked Seattle Pacific University on Jan. 12.
l It wasn’t the home opening they had worked towards.
The Simon Fraser University men’s basketball team fell 107-66 to Montana State University-Billings in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference home opener last Thursday on Burnaby Mountain.
SFU got 14 points from junior guard Kedar Wright, and 13 from J.J. Pankratz.
They’ll look for their first GNAC win tonight (Friday), when they host Western Washington, 6 p.m. at the West Gym.
