SFU head coach Steve Hanson has coached his Red Leafs to a 3-3 stretch following Thursday's 77-74 overtime win over the Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Basketball

SFU men’s basketball: Red Leafs battle through fourth straight one-possession contest, go to OT to top Fairbanks 77-74!

By Howard Tsumura

VarsityLetters.ca

Heavy mettle.

That’s the best way to describe the Simon Fraser Red Leafs men’s basketball team over its past six games.

On Thursday night in Fairbanks, Alaska, a Red Leafs’ team which had opened the GNAC season with an 0-4 record won for the third time in their last six outings, this time going to overtime and gutting out a 77-74 overtime decision against the host Nanooks (5-5), improving to 3-7 in the process.

Zach Stone, the 7-foot redshirt junior from Ottawa who came out of retirement to join team after the winter break, made four critical plays over final 78 seconds of overtime as SFU now looks for a northern sweep when it faces the 3-7 Anchorge Seawolves (6:15 p.m. PDT) on Saturday.

Incredibly, the game was not only the fourth straight one-possession contest for the Red Leafs, it was also the fourth straight in which regulation time ended with the game’s deciding shot being sunk or missed with five or fewer seconds on the clock.

Reached by phone on the team bus following the game, where he was surrounded by his jubilant players, SFU head coach Steve Hanson spoke from the heart about what his team has learned over it’s heart-stopping four-game stretch.

“All we did was write ‘toughness’ on the board,” Hanson said of the simple pre-game message that was scribbled in pen inside the visitors dressing room.

“We, just… the process has been good,” he continued. “I think I told the guys that we’re doing a lot of good things in the first 35 minutes.”

When told that the finish looked like exciting basketball over the game’s livestream, Hanson quickly added “…I’m glad it looked good on television. Live? It was the scariest thing ever.”

Simon Fraser’s Irish Coquia scored a game-high 28 points in Thursday’s OT win at Alaska-Fairbanks. (File photo by Wilson Wong property of Simon Fraser athletics 2023. All Rights Reserved)

With all things being equal in terms of more consistent play over those first 35 minutes, it has indeed been the final five in which the Red Leafs have tested in a trial by fire.

It happened again on Thursday, albeit against a very good team in the Nanooks, who were 6-2 overall on their home floor at the Alaska Airlines Gymnasium heading into the contest.

Trailing 64-61, Alaska tipped a front-court inbounds pass by the Red Leafs, ultimately turning it into a game-tying three-point bucket by Isaiah Saams-Hoy with three seconds remaining in regulation.

After Saams-Hoy hit a pair of free throws to give his team a 72-71 lead in overtime, Stone took a post-up feed and spun around his defender, 6-foot-7 forward Ketan Sidhu, before dropping home a spinning, left-handed half-hook with 1:18 remaining.

That gave the Red Leafs a 73-72 lead.

Then, with 46 seconds left, Stone came up with a huge defensive rebound off a three-point miss by UAF guard Chris Lee.

SFU’s Irish Coquia came up short on a step-back triple with 15 seconds left, but Stone grabbed the offensive rebound and was immediately fouled.

The Nanooks tried to freeze him by calling a timeout, but after an extended stoppage by the officials to review the play, Stone stepped up from 15 feet and shot two of the quickest free throws you’re apt to see in such a crucial situation, swishing both for a 75-72 lead with 13 seconds left.

Saams-Hoy then went the distance for a layin to cut it back to 75-74, but Coquia, who scored a game-high 28 points, iced the game with a pair of free throws with seven seconds left.

“I said to the guys that to win on the road you have to be the tougher team,” continued Hanson, “and I just thought where Irish had a few late lapses in previous games, tonight he was really tough. All of our guards were really tough. We guarded the three point line (UAF was 9-for-32 from distance) and this is a really good team. They are tough at home. Just proud of the guys.”

Luke Howard of the Simon Fraser Red Leafs. (Photo by special request for VarsityLetters.ca. All images remain property of Varsity Letters 2024. All Rights Reserved)

SFU starting big man Luke Howard was big throughout, as has been the case all season, scoring 20 points and grabbing six rebounds.

Stone had nine points and nine rebounds, while Coquia and Mattys Van Bylandt (eight points) each played 40 of the game’s 45 total minutes.

Paul Johnson led the Nanooks with 20 points, while Saams-Hoy added 19.

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