After sinking the game-winning shot at the buzzer in Simon Fraser's 80-77 win Saturday, Jan. 18 over the visiting, nationally 17th-ranked St. Martin's Saints at the West Gym, Red Leaf's point guard Irish Coquia (3) is swarmed by teammates (left to right) Tobe Ezeokafor, Terique Brown, Luke Howard and Tate Christiansen. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2025. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Basketball

A Sunday Read: The 48-hour story of how great shooters learn live with misses to celebrate game-winning makes! SFU’s Irish Coquia does just that with buzzer-beating game-winner over No. 17 St Martin’s!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — Great shooters never turn down big shots, and in a nutshell, that’s all you need to know about the temperature of the stuff that flows through the veins of Irish Coquia.

Two nights after rushing a potential game-winning shot which fell short with a half-second remaining in a 78-76 home floor loss to the Western Oregon Wolves, SFU’s sophomore point guard came back Saturday night on the same West Gym parquet and refused to blink.

Taking a baseline inbounds pass from teammate Mattys Van Bylandt with 9.9 seconds remaining and his team tied 77-77 against the nationally No. 17-ranked St. Martin’s Saints, the sophomore wonder from East Van’s St. Pat’s Secondary dribbled the 60-plus feet he needed to get to his favourite spot and unfurled a three-pointer that dropped to beat the buzzer.

Final score: Simon Fraser 80 St. Martin’s 77.

For a guy who has won multiple B.C. high school titles and MVP awards and has had a coming-of-age season thus far in 2024-25 at SFU, was it the biggest shot of his career?

“One-hundred per cent, “ he said after draining one of the most dramatic shots of SFU’s 15-year NCAA tenure in the West Gym. “You know, high school means a lot, but I think college means the most, and today was a great confidence boost because I didn’t have a good game Thursday.”

Behind the scenes, it’s what he did between games to make sure that if the same moment beckoned Saturday, he’d be much better prepared.

Over a restless Friday, he stewed about Thursday’s miss. Then, somewhere around 10 p.m., Coquia arrived at the West Gym with a basketball and proceeded to go through a solitary and intensive near-two hour workout designed to imbue his muscle memory with the confidence it had seemed to lack.

The Red Leafs’ Irish Coquia in the act of hitting the buzzer-beating, game-winning three-point shot in Simon Fraser’s 80-77 win Saturday, Jan. 18 over the visiting, nationally 17th-ranked St. Martin’s Saints at the West Gym. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2025. All Rights Reserved)

“It’s what gave me the confidence today,” he admitted before explaining why he was shouldering the blame for Thursday’s loss.

“I think the Thursday game… I should have dribbled closer to the hoop and not settled for a half court shot and that’s what I tried to do today,” said Coquia, who after sitting out the game’s first half, played all 20 minutes in the second half. He hit three treys and finished with 11 points.

“Once I got to my spot, the left wing, I went to my crossover that I have been working on,” continued Coquia, who after swerving up the floor evaded St. Martin’s Immanuel Oludele, a former SFU teammate, then went to his ankle-breaking crossover against Cal State Northridge D-1 transfer Marcel Stevens to sink the game-winner.

“Now that I think about it, I am glad Thursday happened because I learned from it,” he added. “When it came time, I got to my spot.”

Simon Fraser head coach Steve Hanson, who saw his team improve to 2-6 in the GNAC and while St. Martin’s fell to 5-2, spoke to the special nature of his homegrown point guard.

“Guys, when they are special, they want to hit that one shot even if they missed (before)…,” Hanson explained, “Tonight we called a time out with 10 seconds left. (St. Martin’s) were smart. They went and doubled Irish right away. Zach  was open for split second, and right when he was about to pass it to him, he pulled it back and shot the ball with (SMU’s) Skinner in his face. I can’t teach some of the things he can do, so good on him for having the confidence to take that shot.”

Coquia’s dramatics came on a night when 7-foot redshirt junior centre Zach Stone returned from a brief retirement from the game.

Simon Fraser’s Luke Howard celebrates a potential four-point play after being fouled in the act of hitting a massive three-point bucket down the stretch drive of SFU’s 80-77 win Saturday, Jan. 18 over the visiting, nationally 17th-ranked St. Martin’s Saints at the West Gym. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2025. All Rights Reserved)

Stone, who had suffered a concussion on the last day of the regular season, on March 1’s Senior’s Night against Western Washington, had been feeling a lot better, got the itch to play again and was running weekly in a senior men’s league. So after completing the requisite paperwork, he was finally able to get back into the lineup.

Playing in certain sets with fellow big Luke Howard, the twin towers each scored 15 points, with Howard also grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds.

“He and Luke looked good together,” said Hanson. “It’s going to be tough for them to play together with how basketball is now, with 1-to-4 being kind of a guard’s game, but they were good in the zone together. Zach hit a bunch of big shots (6-for-10) and he was really good from midrange. He looked like he had been playing all month.”

Irish Coquia had reason to flash his biggest smile at the SFU faithful following Simon Fraser’s 80-77 win Saturday, Jan. 18 over the visiting, nationally 17th-ranked St. Martin’s Saints at the West Gym. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2025. All Rights Reserved)

All of which brings us to the evolving nature of the Red Leafs’ men’s hoop squad.

What do you make of a team that is turnover-prone Thursday in a loss to the conference’s then-only winless team in Western Oregon, then two nights later plays a full 40 minutes to beat a nationally-ranked foe considered by many to be the best team in the GNAC?

“I think our guys believe that we can beat anybody and we said it all year,” said Hanson. “We have three scorers in the (GNAC) Top 25 (Luke Howard, Irish Coquia, Lenz Dupont) and we haven’t had that luxury in the last two years. “So now we just have to play defence and finish games.”

And always remember that the evolution of the season can be measured in so many ways, including special 48-hour spans like the one Irish Coquia put himself through this week up on Burnaby Mountain.

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