Sports the other press Royals Victorious over CBC | Douglas 100 | CBC 91} Royals Leading Scorers - lan Hogan 18 Dan Jakovljevich 12 Bijan Jiany 12 Jordan Cripps Taylor Cherris-Wilding 11 Sports Editor In their final tune-up for the upcoming season, the Royals men’s basketball team faced a quick and dangerous offensive team in the Columbia Bible College Bearcats. Watching the two teams warm up, it was quickly apparent that the Bearcats would be relying on their outside game to overcome the big size disadvantage they faced. Early in the game, the Royals exploited this size advantage as the 6’9” Ian Hogan parked himself in the paint and rattled off a number of quick baskets, scoring 10 of his team’s first 12 points and helping them get off to an early lead that they would never relinquish. For most of the first half, the Royals kept the lead at a comfortable 10 points, but couldn't extend it much beyond that point. Even when Hogan left the game the Royals size advantage was still obvious as it was the reserve forwards and post players that stepped up. Bijan Jiany was a key player off the bench for the Royals in the first half, giving one of his better pre-season perform- ances. He involved himself both offensively and defensively and was the recipient of a few fast break opportunities, helping establish a 46—35 lead at the half. The Royals first-half performance was far from perfect, though, as coach Dave Munro was visibly upset with some of the decisions made by his team. After the game, he described how the Royals were guilty of “doing some pre-season things,” especially on the defensive end of the court, saying “we really need to improve ourselves defen- sively.” He feels that his team “cannot allow 90 [points] and expect to win too many more games.” Once league play starts, “every one’s [game's] a war” and giving up 90 points will likely result in a Royals loss. Soccer Update Jordan Cripps Sports Editor By the time this edition of The Other Press hits newsstands, the BCCAA soccer season will be complete, with only the national championships remaining for the men’s and women’s teams that are good enough to come out on top at the Provincial Championships. Unfortunately for the Douglas College women’s soccer team, there will be no oppor- tunity to battle for the provincial championship. On the very last day of the season, a Royals 1-0 loss to Langara, coupled with a UCC tie against BCCAA powerhouse Capilano, left the team on the outside of the playoffs as UCC passed Douglas in the standings. This was, I’m sure, a disappointing way for the season to end, especially given that they had battled so hard the day before to defeat Langara, overcoming a 1-0 deficit late in the game, to win 2-1. Despite missing the playoffs, the team can take some solace in the efforts they put forth every week. They were in almost every game, and finished the season with a .500 record. Individually, a number of Royals had strong years. Avril Gerow and Ali Hamilton finished tied for 3rd in league scoring with six goals apiece. Lianna Racamelli finished tied for 14th, with two goals. On the defensive side of the ball, Katrina Tesar was the 4th ranked goaltender in the BCCAA, finishing the season with a 1.42 goals against average and recording one shutout. On the flip side, the men’s soccer team will be in Kelowna, competing for a berth in the National Championships. The last week of the season was meaningless on the score- board for the Royals who had already qualified for the post-season and couldn't make any movement in the standings because they had scored fewer goals than the rest of the playofFbound teams. Because of injuries and suspensions, the Royals again fielded a depleted lineup as they faced Langara and wound up losing 3—0 on Saturday and 2-0 on Sunday. Perhaps the biggest result that came out of the weekend was that coach Joe Ormerod was given a red card that meant an automatic one game suspension, which he October 30, 2002 Photo by Jordan Cripps Whatever Coach Munro said at half-time must have worked as the Royals started the second half on fire, not allowing the Bearcats a point in the early going, while record- ing 10 of their own, extending the lead to a 19 point margin. When the Bearcats did record a basket, the Royals responded with one or two of their own. Midway through the second half, with the score 78-51, Munro began to rest his starters, allowing play- ers that ordinarily wouldn't see much playing time a chance to play a few minutes. Doing this seemed to stall the Royals offence a bit as the Bearcats went on a 10-1 run of their own, narrowing the lead to 11 but they were unable to get much closer than that until the final minute when they were within 9 points of the Royals. Even though he was a bit concerned about his team’s defensive play throughout the game, he felt that offensively, they made the most of their opportunities and “ran and sunk some easy baskets.” This led to his team scoring 100 points, a feat he felt was a “pretty good” result for the Royals. He also recognized that being able to “lead from start to finish is a positive.” Because this was the final pre-season game for the Royals, Munro wanted to make sure that he was able to “get some guys in” to face real game action and put players on the floor that weren't expected to play very much. As the score grew for the Royals, this became possible and a number of the Royals supporting cast put in significant minutes. The Royals were led in scoring by Ian Hogan, who collected 18 points in limited minutes. Bijan Jiany contributed 12. | a : wun served in the Sunday match versus Langara. The Royals certainly didn’t head into Kelowna on a roll. Coupled with the two losses against Langara, The Royals will likely be without the services of Matthew Ormerod, recovering from a pulled hamstring. Also missing from the team will be Walter Oyuela,” suspended for the season after leaving the bench to join in an altercation versus Malaspina. After finishing the season in 4th place, the Royals will be facing first ranked Langara in the opening round of the championships. Their season should certainly be considered a success, regardless of how they perform in Kelowna. As a team, they allowed the 3rd fewest goals amongst all BCCAA teams. Offensively, though, they scored just 19 times, with nine of those coming off the foot of Matthew Omerod, who finished tied for the league lead in scoring. Walter Oyuela finished in 15th, with three goals. Defensively, Steven Way finished as the 3rd ranked goalkeeper in the league, recording a miniscule 0.95 goals against average while record- ing three shutouts. page 21 ©