After being held to just two points in the first half, Cassie Cooke knew she had it in her to finish a lot better than she started Friday against the UNBC Timberwolves.
Without her magic touch as the leading scorer in the CIS Canada West Conference, the Brandon Bobcats quite likely would have come out on the short end of the stick at the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre. For Cooke, there was no way her Bobcats were leaving Prince George without their first win of the season.
Averaging 26 points per game, the 22-year-old from Westminster, Md., put some desperation into her game and was rewarded with 17 points in the second half to lift the Bobcats to a 76-69 win.
In the men's barnburner that followed, Jeff Chu was a key figure for UNBC, scoring seven clutch points late to give the T-wolves an 85-81 win over the Bobcats.
Women lean on Nijjer
The women T-wolves had a hot-shooting Mavia Nijjer hitting long-range bombs but she was about the only UNBC player finding the net with any consistency in the second half. With Mercedes Van Koughnett off with an ankle injury and Sarah Robin icing a jammed thumb, the T-wolves' offence went south and the Bobcats found success keying on Nijjer.
They started making a lot of shots in the fourth quarter, we knew [Cooke] was going to get hot, said Nijjer, an 18-year-old PGSS graduate, who finished with 20 points, going 6-for-10 from three-point range. They started shutting me down in the second half and it was harder to get those open shots.
Kaela Cranston led the Bobcats with 20 points, while Ambrea McDonald-Okun hit for 15. Jen Bruce shot 17 points and Van Kougnett finished with 13.
As good as Robin and the UNBC defence were in limiting Cooke to two first-half points, she was still effective under the Brandon net, hauling in eight defensive rebounds. Down 16-7 to start the game, the T-wolves got their act together in the huddle after a couple of timeouts and, led by Kaehn and Bruce, the offence started finding the range and the teams began the second quarter tied at 19. Nijjer followed Bruce's lead and connected on a pair of shots from beyond the arc and UNBC's defence won the majority of the possession wars to lead 42-31 at the half.
That big lead soon disappeared as Brandon came back from the intermission and scored 15 unanswered points, triggered by some aggressive play underneath from forward McDonald-Okon, who kept the ball in Bobcat hands a few key occasions when their first shots missed. She completed a three-point play to put Brandon ahead 46-42 before Van Koughnett finally connected from the field to end a six-minute UNBC scoring drought. Cooke put up two treys near the end of the quarter to put Brandon up 58-50 with 10 minutes to go.
We knew from the beginning they had three really good players and we did a good job in the first half and we were 11 points in front but we just couldn't score [in the third quarter] and that was kind of a surprise for me, said T-wolves head coach Sergey Shchepotkin.
The T-wolves face the sixth-ranked Regina Cougars tonight at 6 p.m. at the NSC. Regina beat Mount Royal 90-59 Friday in Calgary to improve to 5-2.
Men grab third win
The male T-wolves had their hands full taking on the Bobcats, who brought a 1-5 record to the UNBC court. Looking for their third win of the season, the T-wolves responded with their most complete effort on home court so far to improve to 3-4.
Chu triggered a late-game comeback with a steal on an inbound change of possession to set up Charles Barton for a shot that left the T-wolves trailing by one, then nailed a jumper from three-point land with 43 seconds left to give UNBC a two-point lead. The Bobcats fouled Chu twice in the dying seconds to try get a chance to pull even but each time the fourth-year guard from Vancouver sunk his free-throw opportunities.
I didn't hit one shot through the whole game so I figured I was due to hit one at the end there, said Chu. A lot of the guys showed great poise, making key shots down the stretch. They were running the inbound and I saw the pass and he didn't connect on it and got a fortunate break. I practice those free throws enough, I was glad to hit those, that helped us out. This was a huge win for us.
Chu finished with 17 points, while Barton picked up 20.
It was still anybody's game with UNBC clinging to a 47-42 lead at the half. Barton and Chu each collected 10 points for the T-wolves in the opening 20 minutes but they had Emerick Ravier and Ali-Mounir Benabdelhak breathing down their necks every step of the way.
Jibreel Stevens set Barton up for an impressive alley-oop to start the third quarter but the Bobcats weren't fazed. Kenonte Ramsey got his radar working and Brandon reeled off 11 straight points to pull ahead, leading 64-61 after three quarters and the visitors appeared to be in command until Chu came through.
UNBC takes on Regina tonight at 8 p.m.
