Basketball is an emotional game that sometimes gets bloodstreams boiling.
Even on the sidelines.
Sergey Shchepotkin has had games where he’s blown a gasket and vented his frustrations on the referees when he sees his team get the short end of the stick, but never in his eight years as head coach of the UNBC Timberwolves women’s team had been shown the gate.
Until Friday night.
Shchepotkin was banished from the bench for disputing a non-call after UNBC forward Madison Landry got squeezed as she drove to the basket with the T-wolves trailing the Fraser Valley Cascades by five and about four minutes left in the second quarter. Missing two of their starters, the T-wolves took their coach’s dismissal personally and rallied with a 32-point quarter to tie the game 42-42.
Seeing the 20-point first-half handiwork of fifth-year forward Taylor Claggett unraveled by UNBC’s spirited response to their coach’s ejection, the Cascades still couldn’t shake the Timberwolves until the fourth quarter, when they finally threw a blanket over the T-wolves’ terrific tandem, Landry and Maria Mongomo, and walked off with a 79-67 victory.
“Unfortunately, (Shchepotkin) was still relenting on the issue and wasn’t letting it go and was hoping for some sort of response from the referees ad he got the response but it wasn’t the one he was looking for,” said T-wolves assistant coach Dave Holmes, who took over from Shchepotkin for the rest of the game.
Claggett, who set the all-time Canada West career record with her 455th free throw in the second quarter, shot a game-high 30 points and picked up 15 rebounds, backed by a strong second half from forward Deanna Tuchscherer, who sunk 11 of her 15 points in the final 20 minutes.
”We had a goal of just playing tough defence in our second quarter,” said Claggett. “Obviously, we let in 32 points so it wasn’t the kind of defence we want to play, and that’s something we’re known for. So in the second half we just said dig in and play the defence we know how to play and we turned it around in the second half there and that’s what kind of got us the lead near the end of the game.
“Landry and Mongomo are really solid players, they want to do a lot for them and do a lot for them and everyone was just set on helping whoever was checking those two.”
The two T-wolves stars each contributed 24 points but ran out of steam trying to carry the load on their shoulders to prop up a team sapped of significant strength with guard Alina Shakirova and forward Cevanna Carson both out with knee injuries.
“Without Alina and Cevanna we’re trying to find a little different identity and it’s going to be a process, but we’ve got nine games left in the season,” said Holmes. “They stepped up and were working hard for each other and we started to show a bit more patience on offence, trying to find some better opportunities.
“But I think (Shchepotkin) and I both feel that more players need to go for it and take good risks when the opportunities are there rather than relying on one or two of our top scorers that they’re keying in on. (Landry and Mongomo) are giving us absolutely everything they can. We’re asking so much of them when we’re short-manned. It can be frustrating at times, they’re being doubled and tripled and that’s where we need to find answers and other people have to step up for them.”
Back-to-back threes from Alexis Worrell and Claggett, on a buzzer beater to end the third quarter, touched off a 12-point run for the Cascades that put them ahead 68-58. Landry hit a pair of free throws late in the game to ring up her 1,000th career point in four years at UNBC and the T-wolves reduced the gap to five with four minutes left but that’s as close at it got. Their shooting went cold at that point and Cascades did what was needed to build on their lead and close it out.
The Cascades improved to 7-4, while UNBC’s Canada West record dropped to 3-8.
The teams meet again Saturday at 5 p.m. at the NSC.
In the men's game Friday the Cascades beat UNBC 87-72.
