Ss BILL EVERITT photo Langara guard Glenn Ruby throws the ball into play with a Capilano defender in his face on Friday night. The Falcons won 91-79. Falcons men split road set Langara wins one at Capilano and loses one at Quest over weekend By BILL EVERITT Ihe Langara Falcons celebrated a win and suffered a loss over the weekend, bumping the defending men’s basketball champions to second place in the PacWest standings. Langara has won two out of three games so far this season, beating the Capilano Blues 91-79 Friday and losing to the Quest Kermodes 80-77 Saturday evening. Friday night’s game started a little slow for the Falcons with the Blues winning the opening tip and control- ling the play for the first seven minutes of the quarter. The game was tied at 15 after the first quarter. Halfway through the second period, the game was tied again at 25, but the Falcons controlled the momentum. With one minute remaining in the second, Jitinder Lohcham drained a three-pointer making the score 41-33 for the Falcons. Langara was dominant in the third quarter, pushing their lead to 54-41 af- ter three minutes, thanks in large part to All-Canadian point guard Brody Greig’s laser-like passes on the fast break. The Falcons won the game 91-79. After the game, head coach Paul Eb- erhardt was pleased with his team. “T thought for this early in the year both teams played with a very high level of intensity,” he said. “Brody Greig was phenomenal, and Garrett Ling-Lee, he did a lot of the inside work for us.” However, Saturday night was a dif- ferent story when the Falcons travelled to Squamish to play the Quest Ker- modes. “We looked tired from the night be- fore and they worked harder than we did,” said Eberhardt. The game was tied at half time, but back and forth play in the last two min- utes resulted in Quest beating the Fal- cons 80-77. Greig and Lohcham were strong for Langara with 27 and 15 points respec- tively. “We lacked energy, we weren’t the same as at Capilano,” said forward Ling-Lee, who got 21 points in Friday’s game against Capilano. “At Quest, our communication need- ed improvement, we could have execut- ed our plays better, just better overall team play,” said Ling-Lee. Losing isn’t all bad though according to Eberhardt. “Losing is an opportunity to move forward, an opportunity for growth,” he said. “We have to be on our game because every team is coming for us.” Season leaders Points: Brody Greig: 60 Jitinder Lohcham: 51 Garrett Ling-Lee: 50 Assists: Brody Greig: 33 Glenn Ruby: 6 Elliot Mason: 5 ME sRebounds: ditinder Lohcham: 27 Brody Greig: 25 Garrett Ling-Lee: 23 HM Steals: Brody Greig: 6 Jitinder Lohcham: 5 Matt Madewan: 4 HE Blocks: Jitinder Lohcham: 9 Elliot Mason: 3 3 tied with 1 Langara women lose two Falcons face uphill battle early in season after tough back-to-back road losses versus Capilano and Quest By GLEN TRUAX team is facing an uphill battle ear- ly this season, as they were dealt two losses on the road this past week- end. After a heartbreaking loss to the Capilano Blues on Friday night, the Falcons followed it with a lopsided loss to the Quest Kermodes on Saturday. The Falcons lost 48-47 against the Blues, as well as losing 59-40 against the Kermodes. The Falcons came out swinging on Friday at the Capilano Sportsplex. Ear- ly scores in the first two quarters gave the Falcons a significant lead against the home team. Jolissa Crossley con- tinuously pressed the Blues and the Falcons took advantage of weaknesses in the Blues’ defense. However, the tide began to turn mid- game, particularly after guard Toni Li took a nasty fall and injured her wrist and leg. Lacking a pointguard replace- ment, Li had to play through the pain. The Blues began taking over in the sec- ond half, equalling the score in the last quarter and eventually scoring a final point at the last second, winning the game 48-47 on a free throw. Coach Mike Evans was happy with Langara’s effort. “We deserved to win,” he said. Langara struggled against Quest Saturday night, as the Kermodes con- tinued their winning streak with a re- lentless offense that left Langara strug- gling to keep up. The match was riddled with fouls for both teams and Quest managed to outshoot the Falcons in free throws. Without star forward Teresa Jacob- se, the Falcons did not have the kind of offensive scorers that the Kermodes had. Crossley once again shone through however, scoring 11 points during the course of the match. The Falcons managed to pick up the pace in the third quarter, but were still unable to equalize the game. Langara’s women’s basketball team will be playing their first home game tonight against the Kwantlen Eagles, a team they have struggled against. “We desperately need to win the next two games,” said Evans. Te: Langara women’s basketball Langara's superb singles specialist Matthew Chan is rated by PacWest as one of the top singles badminton players in B.C. By AMY JONES hen Matthew Chan’s win broke Woes College’s eight-year team winning streak at Pac- West badminton tournaments last month, he was the last to know. Chan was undefeated in the men’s singles event, helping to secure Langa- ra’s team victory at the PacWest tour- nament. As this is his first year playing for Langara, he had no idea about Douglas’s undefeated record. “The team was excited,” Chan said. “T thought they were just happy for me, but I guess it was a big team thing and everyone let me in on how big it was.” “Most of us just screamed for joy re- ally,” said assistant coach Bonnie Cheng. “We’ve been waiting for a while to break that streak.” PacWest rates Chan as one of the top men’s singles players in the province. Cheng calls him Langara’s “singles specialist.” “He’s hard working, focused, and he knows what he wants,” she said. For the 21-year-old business student, every day starts or finishes with bad- minton. He begins most days at 6 a.m., train- ing at ClearOne badminton centre be- fore class. In the evenings, if he’s not practicing with the Langara team, he’s coaching or training with three-time national champion and Olympian coach Darryl Yung. Chan said what he loves most about badminton is the speed. “The top guys in the world are hit- ting over 400 kilometres per hour,” he said. Speed, endurance and power, cou- pled with a strong mental game, are the makings of a great badminton play- er, according to Chan. He would love to play at more inter- national tournaments to see how he stacks up to the competition, but fund- ing is a big concern. “A professional career in badminton is really unlikely for a Canadian play- er,” said Chan. Some players move for better oppor- tunities but Chan is still unsure. “T love Canada and I don’t think I would want to leave here.” AMY JONES photo Matthew Chan won the last men’s singles tournament.