© Sports the other press e flashGordon e dcsportseditor@yahoo.ca Burnaby Lake Licks Losing Blues Dave Pearcey OP Contributor Premier Division: Douglas 2 Burnaby Lake 10 It was a very disappointing out- come for the Premier women’s team as they suffered the fifth loss in their last six league games. Despite maintaining possession for great lengths gf time during the match, Douglas had trouble penetrating the Burnaby Lake’s solid defense and was unable to produce points when in a position to do so. The game started out ominously, as for the second straight game a Douglas player suffered an apparent serious injury. Scrummer Jodie Lush had to be carried off after only two minutes and was immediately taken to hospital with a lower leg injury. Douglas played a strong posses- sion game throughout the first half, but turnovers were their undoing as Burnaby capitalized for two into tries on the counterattack, giving them a 10-0 lead at the break. After giving up two scores, the Douglas ladies stepped up their defense; Burnaby rarely saw the Douglas side of the field in the second half. Tanya Leigh did very well in her first-ever game at fly-half, replacing the injured Jennifer Bailey. The Blues adopted a different strategy in the latter stages of the game, with the forwards up the middle to draw in Burnaby defend- ers and creating more space outside. Leigh, Stacey Webber and Carly Albiston all found gaps in the cov- erage. Unfortunately, the support was missing, and many long runs ended up with Burnaby stealing Possession. Douglas finally got on the board on a try by Captain Corinne Jacobsen. The final 15 minutes saw Douglas hammering away deep inside Burnaby territory, but to no avail. The final play of the game saw Albiston in possession out wide with space down the sideline, but after deciding to cut back inside, the ball was lost in contact and Burnaby kicked into touch to end the contest. Douglas now must win their final two games (away to UBC and James Bay) in order to ensure them- selves a chance at hosting the first round of the playoffs. Second Division: Douglas 36 UBC 12 What a difference a week makes!!! After a sloppy affair in the rain last week against SFU, Douglas were outstanding as they won going away against a UBC side bolstered by a number of Premier level play- ers. UBC looked well organized from the start and opened the scor- ing with an early try. Douglas took some time to get up to speed, as there had been some line-up changes from last weeks encounter. The Douglas forwards, led by Maggie Dobbs, ran well and often and began drawing more and more defenders inside. This created space for the ball to be spun wide to out- side centre Laura Heer, who sped 40 metres to tie the score before halftime. Douglas started the sec- ond half with prop Stephanie Staller in the “sin-bin”. UBC took advantage and scored a converted try to lead 12-5. Then the rout began!!! The Douglas forwards began to win almost every ruck and maul. Their powerful inside running ate up the yards and drew more and more defenders into the fray. The backs then had so much room to run that the last 25 minutes became a track meet. First scrumhalf Rikkilee Jones broke through and scored on a 25 metre run. Heer out- paced two defenders and went for a 50 metre score. Lisa O’Neill, Dobbs and Heer (her third) all added tries on long runs through the belea- guered UBC defense. Meaghan Griffiths added three converts to round out the scoring. Douglas remains in second place and will finish the regular season with an away game against SFU. March 3, 2004 Sensational Sarah Leads — Badminton Team to Nationals. Brian McLennon OP Contributor The badminton team recently returned from the BCCAA Provincial Championships — in Kamloops; it was the first time the BCCAA badminton season had been compressed into one semester. Despite the shorten season, the Royals’ performance was outstand- ing as they will be sending six ath- letes to the upcoming CCAA nationals in Nanaimo. Brad Davis the team’s player-coach, added to his badminton hardware by winning gold in the Men’s Singles. Silver medals were won by Adam Tuck and Randi Meyers for Mixed Doubles and also Oktavianus Theodorus and Robyn Shevchenko for Men's Doubles. The highlight of the week- end was the performance by Sarah Davis who won the Women’s Singles title. Sarah Davis is a third year General Studies student-athlete from Maple Ridge, who has already completed her first diploma in Hospitality Management. Sister to Head Coach Brad Davis, Sarah stole the spotlight in last weekend’s BCCAA Provincial Championships as she won gold in of capacity crowd in Kamloops. What made this victory so sweet was Sarah beat the favourite, Michelle Henkel of Malaspina. It was their third meeting. Sarah lost twice before to her nemesis Henkel. In the first meeting, ‘Davis lost in straight sets. In the second meeting, she improved by taking a set but ultimately lost again. Determined to win, Davis trained very hard during the two week break to improve her game. “I trained very hard to win this match.” she said. “Brad had me working extra time preparing me to win...he knew how important it was to me and even though he’s my younger brother, he really is a great coach.” Davis said proudly. “It felt so good to beat her,” she continued as her blue eyes sparkled with front - accomplishment. For her, it was the first time that she ‘would stand alone and look through the netting. Usually paired as the ‘Dynamic Davis Duo,’ the siblings decided that they would split their mixed doubles reign and try for solo careers. And like Destiny’s Child’s Beyoncé Knowles, Sarah flourished. Her year off from badminton allowed, her to find her form at the right time and now will be heading to the 2004 CCAA Badminton Nationals in Nanaimo, BC at Malaspina University College as the 2004 BCCAA Women’s Singles Champion. When asked about her expecta- tions at the Nationals Sarah said, “It’s my first time [to nationals] on my own and I know there are a lot of really good girls out there who will have the experience of being at there [Nationals] before. My self expecta- tions are to enjoy the experience and be competitive.” I asked about her chances of play- ing Michelle [Henkel] again and she replied confidently saying, “Oh yeah, I'll see her again...and I will win again.” Lion’s Den Hosts | Terrible Performances Women’s Basketball Flash Gordon Sports Editor As the action began, there was a renewed rowdiness in the crowd. There was cheering and even heck- ling. Ok, it was only four games from the baseball team who had nothing better to do on a Friday night. “Rodd and Todd” Lunn had their sites set on the Crapilano Blues; by far my favourite team to bash. Who likes anyone from North Vancouver anyway? The Royals responded to the fan enthusiasm and played defense, a concept that I’ve never seen put into action. Early on, Jordana Miltimore, 2003 rookie of the year and arguably still one of the best all-round girl players in the league, couldn’t get to the hoop or if she did, the Royals swal- lowed. up the rebound. Offensively _ neither team seemed in a hurry to get started until Capilano’s guard hit a long range jump shot. Now on any given day, neither team has a long range game; not that I’ve ever witnessed anyway. Both teams were guilty of jacking it up without any hope of a real scoring threat until the unassuming Rachel Andrews came off the bench for Douglas. She hit -the first three pointer of the game and the first of six long range hoops for her on the night. It turned into a run-and -gun style game and it wasn’t until the second half that Andrews missed finally. She also showed she could score inside. Her contri- butions allowed Douglas to climb to a lead of 34-22 at halftime. Like a car speeding down the highway, the Royals were on the path to victory then the brother's Lunn pulled the emer- gency brake and swung the team into a wipeout. Andrews sat for the first ten minutes of the second half which was the most ludicrous move I'd seen to date. Instead the Blues turned on full-court pres- sure and the Royals caved. Turn over after turn over, it was like watching a game from last year. To add to the calamity, Jordana Miltimore decid- ed to start scoring and walked through the defense countless times. Where did it all go wrong? I’m not sure anyone wants to say it but the conclu- sion is pretty obvious if you were in attendance. Andrews finished with 24 points and as mentioned before, 18 of those were from long bombs. Stellar game for this girl who is normally very quiet. A League Of Our Own Ryan Jobb OP Contributor The Memphis Grizzlies have one of the best young teams in the NBA and are set to make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. No thanks to Stu Jackson, only one player (Stromile Swift) remains from our Grizzlies which left town close to three years ago. All the credit goes out to the teams GM Jerry West who has the club laced with talent (Pau Gasol, James Posey, Mike Miller etc) and on the verge of becoming a bonafied force in the NBA. think Vancouver You would would feel a little jealous consider- ing we had to brave six pathetic sea- sons of Grizz basketball only to have the team skip town before ever giv- ing Vancouverites a taste of real NBA action. See there wasn’t much to love about the game we witnessed at GM place from 1995-2001. Shareef had the odd big night, we always did well against the Lake Show but outside of that, the magi- cal memories seem to escape me at the moment. All this being consid- ered does anyone care? Does anyone wish the Grizz were still in town? I get the sense that people don't. I know I don’t, and I’m a huge basket- ball fan. You are probably wonder- ing how a so-called “huge fan” could deny professional basketball in his own backyard. Well, I never said professional basketball, I said the NBA. Canada is the only developed nation that does not have its own professional basketball league. If Latvia has basketball I can’t see why we couldn't swing it. Close to 200 hundred Canadians play basketball professionally throughout the world; those players alone would be enough to fill up the rosters of an entire league. There are great young Canadian players, such as Denham Brown and Carl English, who may not even get a shot in the NBA. So instead of becoming stars here in Canada and motivating young Canadians to play the sport they will apply their trade overseas in obscuri- ty. Not only are basketball fans in this country neglected but so is the national program. It is extremely difficult to get coaches and players on the same page when they are spread out all over the globe. It is also tough to expect people to sacri- fice for the national program if we can’t even create a way for them to make a living playing basketball on home soil. Our national team would also receive far more attention if fans and media were actually familiar with the players. http://www.otherpress.ca Some may point to the Vancouver Nighthawks as an example of how non-NBA basketball would fare in our city. In 1988 the World Basketball League franchise folded midway through their inaugural sea- son after the front office was unable to meet payroll. They also had poor attendance but listen to this, home games were held at BC Place. If you have ever witnessed how lame 12,000 fans at a Lions game is, then you could barely imagine the atmos- phere that comes with 1000 fans watching basketball under the dome. Let’s take in mind that was pre-Jordan, pre-Grizzlies and pre- Nash. Those factors along with the Raptors have made Canadians far more basketball savvy. Basketball back then was a niche sport and it continued on page 22 Page 21