SPORTS Basketball teams split home Openel 5, cesiie):-:0 Daustas opening week tip off to the BCCAA basketball regular season happened last Friday and Saturday with a double header versus Langara. Both men and women lost Friday, but responded with strong victories the following night. The women return, seven key players from last year’s team—that was arguably the best in the second half of the regular season—and should spend the year battling for a solid playoff position that narrowly eluded them in 2007-08. Friday night’s loss can be chalked up to first game jitters. With both teams shooting poorly from the field (Douglas shot 23% to Langara’s 32%), the key stat was Langara’s Virginia Watson, who shot five for 12 from beyond the three-point line, leading all scorers with 26 points. In the end, Langara won the low-scoring affair, 47-38. On night two, the Royals came out and overpowered a lackluster Falcons squad from the start, led by the tenacious defense of first year guard, Ashley Armstrong (Port Coquitlam, Riverside Secondary). In the first half, it seemed Langara could not set up their offense, and if they did, they were often looking at a shot clock about to expire. At the offensive end for the Royals, Natasha Maat (Surrey, Pacific Acadamy) continued her solid play from the night before, netting 16 points before fouling out. The most impressive stat line for the Royals over the weekend was their rebounding. In the Friday loss, they still out-rebounded Langara by 10, thanks to their 16 offensive boards brought down. On Saturday, the girls dominated the glass, grabbing 67% of total rebounds. The combination of tall centers, strong forwards, and a few guards that can jump should bode well for the team this season. For the men, outsiders will label them “defending national champions,” but the team will be spending this year getting acquainted with each other and the league, as it will be the first season for all these young men wearing a “Royals” jersey, and the first year for Head Coach, Gil Cheung, in the BCCAA. It was the flip side from the women Friday night as rebounding turned out to be the problem with Langara scoring 13 points off of offensive rebounds to give them an 80-69 win. Saturday night, though, was a completely different story. While the Royals held a 35-26 halftime advantage, they poured it on in the third, behind guard Drew Slaght’s (Coquitlam, Gleneagle Secondary) back-to-back three’s and game-leading 22 points. This carried over to the fourth quarter and led to a final buzzer score of 91-63. Over the whole weekend, the Royals were led by the rookie combination of Jawauwn States (Halifax, St. Patrick’s Secondary) and Clayton Crellin (Vancouver, Kitsilano Secondary). They both played the entire 40 minutes on Friday, 32 minutes each on Saturday, while scoring 48% of total points. These two could pose massive matchup problems throughout the league, as 6’5 slashers that can play inside and outside. Up next, the basketball teams will travel to the north shore Friday night to battle the Capilano Blues. Games are at 6 and 8 p.m. at the Capilano Sportsplex. — eo * lc ees Ae Betting strategies for the Sports Action oddset By Kevin Wong CE tie is part of the culture of sports nowadays. Fans are eager to win money when they bet on soccer, basketball, hockey, horse racing or any other sport. Indeed, I play the Sports Action oddset and I have my strategies to win money. First, don’t bet at all, so you have nothing to lose. But if you do bet, then don’t expect too much because the chances of winning aren’t 100% in any gambling. It’s just for fun! Second, only bet on the teams or the sports that you know pretty well. For me, it’s the Liverpool team in the EPL Soccer, or the Vancouver Canucks in the NHL. If you know your team pretty well, such as its results in the past few games, then you will have more confidence to bet on them in the upcoming games. Third, only pick a minimum of two or a maximum of three games on the lottery ticket. The chances of winning in a few games are way higher than winning if you pick four or more games. Fourth, don’t trust the odds too much! They are just the numbers and could be a “trap” for us to lose money! For example, in hockey, the odds of a victory for the home team, Columbus, is 1.90, a tie game is 5.50, and the visitor, Anaheim is 1.90. In this situation, you'll believe that you could win more money if you pick “tie,” because the odds of both teams are the same. You'd be betting on OT and/or shoot-out in this game. But seriously, Anaheim plays better than Columbus in general. I would pick the “visitor,” Anaheim. In addition, when a team has odds of 1.05 or 1.10, this means most people expect that the team is going to be a sure win. However, | prefer to skip this game, because nothing is certain in sports. Also, some underdog teams will try to surprise everyone, especially in soccer. If you prefer to get a better payoff, try to pick the “tie” with the odd of 5.80 or so. Fifth, when two “animal” teams compete against each other in hockey, let’s pick the animal that is more powerful to win the game! You might say, “What the hell is Kevin talking about?” You might not believe it, but it 14 works for me most of the time when I bet like that on those kinds of games. For instance, the San Jose Sharks visit the Vancouver Canucks tonight, and you would pick the “home” team, Vancouver, to win normally. Why? Because you live in Vancouver, so you support them. However, the shark is a very dangerous animal in the ocean. The teeth of the shark are pretty sharp, so the sharks will kill the whale of the Canucks. From the previous records, the San Jose Sharks have won more games when they played against each other. The other type of match will be: the San Jose “Sharks” eat the “Ducks” of Anaheim. Finally, this is VERY, VERY important! “Know your limits, play within them!!”