It was by far and away the best game of the season for the UNBC Timberwolves women’s basketball team on Saturday.
Unfortunately it was equally as heartbreaking.
The Timberwolves fell 82-80 in overtime to the Alberta Pandas in Canada West action from the Northern Sports Centre.
UNBC jumped out to a hot start getting a 19-13 advantage against the Pandas after the opening quarter.
Alberta stormed back in the second quarter cutting into a sizeable deficit making 35-31 at halftime.
UNBC carried an 8 point lead into the 4th quarter when the Pandas poured it on outscoring the T-Wolves 27-19.
The Pandas carried a 2 point advantage into the dying seconds when Maria Mongomo’s long pass connected with Madison Landry to even up the game at 69-69 after 40 minutes.
In overtime, Vasiliki Louka fouled out for UNBC causing some more favourable matchups for the Pandas who edged out the victory.
Alberta was led offensively by 5th year player Maddie Rogers who had 23 points including a 6 for 13 performance on field goals and 9 for 10 from the free-throw line and says the game-tying play made a close game even more intense. “That long baseball pass for the quick two was very stressful, I’m not going to lie but it’s always good to play in big games and OT was a lot of fun.”
The Pandas improve to 4-0 on the season and Rogers believes this year’s team could be a good one. “I totally believe that any person we put on the floor can compete with anybody in the country.”
Maria Mongomo led the Timberwolves with 22 points in the loss and says the defeat is a tough pill to swallow.
“We played very good as a team but we didn’t get the result we wanted but it’s okay because we are going to keep working as a team and I know we can get great things.”
Timberwolves Head Coach, Sergey Shchepotkin added the result shows the teams has grown by leaps and bounds after going 3-15 last season.
“Last year we would come to the games hoping not to lose by a lot and now we are looking to win. Now I am happy that we have matured, we’ve become stronger, tougher and we played a lot of good teams from across the country and got some positive feedback from them which helps our program.”
The Timberwolves bench boss also marveled at the great shooting performance from Stacey Graham who potted 19 points including 6 three-pointers.
“She was awesome, Stacey is a really good shooter and two years ago she had a big surgery so it was difficult for her to come back but it was good that we were patient and it seems she is there now.”
Shchepotkin adds it was also nice to see a bounce back effort from Mongomo. “She was really excited about the home opener and wanted to show she is the same player but that didn’t help her. Today (Saturday) she just went out and relaxed by playing her game.”
While the women’s game had no shortage of thrills the men’s game between the T-Wolves and Golden Bears was nothing short of bowling shoe ugly.
Alberta had a 59 point lead at one point as they cruised to a 110-56 drubbing of UNBC.
The Golden Bears outscored the T-Wolves 36-7 in the third quarter and were led by Mamadou Gueye who recorded 23 points.
Alberta went 12 for 21 from beyond the arch while the Timberwolves were 8 for 31 from the 3 point range and shot 31% on field goals.
Austin Chandler recorded 11 points in defeat for UNBC which also gave 48 points in the paint.
The Pandas and Golden Bears improve to 4-0.
Both UNBC teams drop to 0-4 and host Trinity Western next Friday and Saturday from the Northern Sports Centre.
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