5 Annie Ellison photos Clockwise from top left- Brody Greig lays it up, Jesse Jeffers grabs the board, team huddle. Falcons stay undefeated Langara goes 1 and 1 After tough loss on Friday, women bounce back for the win on last Saturday night BY JENNIFER THUNCHER always enough to win. After a heartbreaking 65-52 loss Friday night in Surrey, the Langara Falcons women’s basketball team got a much needed win Saturday in Abbots- ford against the Columbia Bible Col- lege Bearcats. Having lost to the Kwantlen Eagles in an exhibition game earlier in the season, the Falcons started Friday’s game with something to prove. The in- tensity of players like forward Char- lotte Lau, who scored 10 points, initially paid off giving the Falcons a 20-9 first- quarter lead. Late in the second quarter the Ea- gles took control, constantly putting the Falcons on the defensive. By the end of the first half the score was 29-28 for the Eagles. Guard Jennifer Carpio pushed hard and scored 10 points, but it wasn’t enough. The Eagles won 65- 52. Despite the loss, Faleon’s coach Mike I: basketball, as in life, passion isn’t Evans was pragmatic. “We didn’t guard their best players as we should have ... they played well so we have to give it to them,” said Ev- ans. A surprise guest raised the team’s spirit in spite of the loss. Former Fal- con star player and cancer survivor Carling Muir came out to support her old team, bringing smiles to both coaches and players. The Falcons don’t have any players over six-feet tall while the Eagles, and most other league teams, have at least four women over that height. That said, Muir blamed the loss on small mental errors. “We missed some easy shots. We can beat them,” said Muir. In Saturday’s game against the Bearcats, Langara again came out strong. Forward Rhea Silvestri lead the team with 11 points en route to a 33-21 first half score. In the second half the Falcons were out scored by the Bearcats, but still hung on for a 60-54 win. Silvestri was glad the team was able to wind up ahead. “It felt good to get that win. We still have lots of work to do, but we needed that,” said Silvestri. The Falcons next play Douglas Col- lege Friday night. Men play strong for back to back wins this past weekend BY ANNIE ELLISON riday night, the Falcons strolled into what they thought would be an easy victory against the Kwantlen Polytechnic University Eagles and came out with a narrow six point win. Ten lead changes and dozens of fouls kept the packed Kwantlen gym on its feet. Langara head coach Paul (Ebe) Eber- hardt spent much of the game pacing the court yelling at either his players or the referees. “Tm not very happy from a coaching perspective,” said Ebe despite the win. The Falcons gave up a 35-22 lead in the second quarter, sitting back while Kwantlen went on a 10-0 run to lead the second half 48-47. Because of early foul trouble, Ebe had to rely on his bench in the third quarter —Langara made a whopping 31 personal fouls. Substitutes Jeff Chu and Jesse Jeffers came up with some big rebounds to shut the Eagles down. Centre Devin McMurtry played a scrappy game and held the Falcons’ de- fense together. “We came into it overconfident but we got a gritty victory,” he said. Langara’s players struggled to ad- just to a messier game, but the score ultimately came down to free throws. The Falcons hit a steady 24 of 28 team free throws while Kwantlen sank “T give credit to Kwantlen,” said Eb- erhardt. “That was a good test for us.” The buzzer sounded with McMurtry hanging off the rim to a 100-94 Langara victory. On Saturday night, Langara tight- ened up and showcased their fast- break game to win 111-87 against the Columbia Bible College Bearcats in Ab- botsford. Once again the Falcons opened with a double-digit lead but were grasping a dicey 49-45 advantage at halftime. But Langara let it rip in the third quarter, putting up 35 points to blast ahead 84- 64 Point guard Brody Greig had a tri- ple-double with 20 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. Jennifer Thuncher photo Top- Toni Li dribbles up the court, Bottom- Jesseca Eng tries to get past a Kwantlen defender. only 19 of 33. Jules Knox photo Lagara student Dave Robinson. Fight of the night “Night of Champi- ons” is tonight HM Dave Robinson will defend his super- middleweight title MM Held at the Italian Cultural Centre on 3075 Slocan Street HE Doors at 5:30 p.m Dinner at 6:00 p.m Fights at 8:00 p.m “Dangerous” Dave ready to defend his title Langara’s Dave Robinson prepares for fight of his life BY JULES KNOX hen B.C.’s super-middleweight Wie: champion wakes up at four in the morning to go for a run, he owes his militant training hab- its to his former coach. Langara student Dave Robinson still doesn’t know who he’ll be fighting when he defends his title on Nov. 22, but he isn’t worried. He sticks to a training routine that was drilled into him almost a decade ago by formidable coach Josh Canty in Windsor, Ont. Canty used to call Robinson every morning before the break of dawn to make sure he was up for a run. “But even though he gives you that call, it’s still your choice get up and ac- tually go for that run,” Robinson said. “When you win, you’re obliged to ev- erybody else, but when you lose, you’re by yourself,” he said. These days, Canty no longer makes those early-morning wake-up calls. But Robinson still goes for that run. The boxer reflects fondly on the time he spent training in Windsor with Can- ty. “Those were the best summers of my life,” he said. Robinson’s boxing club arranged for a group of young fighters to participate in Kansas City’s Ringside World Cham- pionships in 2002 and 2003. The coaches did all the cooking and chauffeured players around town. “We felt like professional boxers,” Robinson said. “It’s what inspired the way I coach now.” Ten years later and Robinson is now the chef for his young protégés during road trips. As Robinson trains for his upcoming fight, he says he waits until he’s in the ring facing his challenger to plan a strategy. “T look for tendencies or patterns in an opponent and then try to manipu- late them,” he said. Robinson said that anybody on any given day can lose to a lesser fighter or beat a greater fighter. “Given that you’ve both done the work that you need to do to be there, sometimes it’s just whose day it is.” The title fight is tonight at the Italian Cultural Centre. Tickets are $100 and include dinner, beer and wine.