By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caBURNABY MOUNTAIN — Two nights after letting a 14-point second-half lead slip through their fingers, the Simon Fraser Red Leafs proved to themselves what a difference a full 40 minutes of on-court togetherness can mean.Rookie forward Sartaj Bhangu equalled his own career-high with 16 points and also grabbed set a new career-high in […]
Tag: Simon Fraser Red Leafs
For Simon Fraser’s Mikyle Malabuyoc, it’s all about the orchestration of the score! Red Leafs’ point guard set to dish dimes as team celebrates Filipino Heritage Night on Thursday vs. Alaska Nanooks!
By Howard TsumuraVarsity LettersBURNABY MOUNTAIN — A great conductor will tell you that there is infinitely more to performing a great symphonic score than just looking at notes and abiding by time signatures.It’s more about seeing the big picture, and within the details, trusting that through the repetition of rehearsal that your vision is both […]
Sophie Bergeron: In the wake of a career-defining 30-point, 10-steal performance, Simon Fraser’s ‘Poumon’ embraces the cerebral nature of the classroom and the West Gym!
By Howard TsumuraVarsity LettersBURNABY — Sophie Bergeron is fun to watch but almost impossible to describe.And really, what could be better?She arrived last season to the Simon Fraser Red Leafs as an athletic prodigy, yet proceeded to demonstrate the need for the kind of seasoning which was as much about the cerebral part of the […]
Buchanan Cup 2025: As UBC beats Simon Fraser in the 38th edition of the ‘Crosstown Clash’, we celebrate the Brothers Maric as a symbol of the game’s enduring ties to the B.C. hoops community!
By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caBURNABY MOUNTAIN — No word yet if Toni Maric ever let the Buchanan Cup out of his hands on Saturday night after he and his UBC Thunderbirds topped the host Simon Fraser Red Leafs 66-54 in the 38th edition of the crosstown basketball brouhaha.Who knows? Maybe the ‘Birds 6-foot-8 fifth-year forward took it […]
Q-&-A with Tayla Jackson: As she finishes her first round of chemotherapy, former Brookswood, SFU hoops star, 28, speaks to her battle, and to the truth of hardcourt lessons worth leaning on!
By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caLANGLEY — If you’re a member of B.C.’s tight-knit basketball community, you may well already have heard the gist of her story.Two weeks ago, former Brookswood Secondary and Simon Fraser hoops standout Tayla Jackson wasn’t feeling herself.At the time, with the start of hoops season just around the corner, she was in the […]
SFU Women’s Hoops: As its new team identity takes root and Red Leafs prep for California weekend, junior guard Rachel Loukes confident ‘blue collar’ mindset is something team can lean on!
By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caLANGLEY — On the eve of her team’s participation in the season-opening Canadian Tip-Off Classic earlier this month, Rachel Loukes thought long and hard about how her Simon Fraser Red Leafs were being labelled as a working-class basketball team.And when the three-day event concluded on Nov. 2 at the Langley Events Centre following […]
Buchanan Cup 2025: As the timeless SFU vs. UBC men’s basketball rivalry gets Nov. 15 re-start atop Burnaby Mountain, it’s time to examine the weird, wonderful origin story 1968’s debut crosstown clash!
By Howard Tsumura(VarsityLetters.ca and Special for Simon Fraser Athletics)BURNABY — If the Buchanan Cup could speak, the first thing you’d hear would be a chuckle most identifiable as a last laugh.Too many times a pawn in the machinations of the Lower Mainland’s two most enduring university athletic programs, it has nonetheless aged with dignity to […]
AS SFU women’s hoops tips off Friday at LEC heavy grad tolls create early questions on offence! Newly-focussed Red Leafs look to build cornerstone identity with hustle stats by the bushel!
By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caBURNABY — The last time the women’s basketball team at the top of Burnaby Mountain went through this kind of change, they were first celebrating a national championship, then preparing to make the move from what is now known as U SPORTS to the ranks of the NCAA.All of that took place in […]
Simon Fraser men’s hoops: As Canadian Tip-Off Classic nears at the LEC, new head coach Barnaby Craddock melds newcomers and holdovers in build-up to 2025-26 GNAC season!
By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caBURNABY — With a brand new coaching staff and half of its roster new to the fulltime climes of Burnaby Mountain, it’s no stretch to say that Simon Fraser Red Leafs men’s basketball is set to open a new chapter in its program’s history.And page one of that treatise will begin write itself […]
SFU men’s basketball: Red Leafs battle through fourth straight one-possession contest, go to OT to top Fairbanks 77-74!
By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caHeavy 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 […]