Boasting 51,000 full-time students, the University of British Columbia is one of Canada’s biggest universities.
At the other end of the student-body spectrum, the University of Northern B.C. has about 1,300 full-timers.
That’s why it’s big deal whenever the UNBC Timberwolves get the better of a UBC Thunderbirds team, like the T-wolves did on the Northern Sport Centre hardwood Friday in their 81-77 U SPORTS Canada West women’s basketball win over the T-birds.
It’s happened before a handful of times over the years, but the novelty of beating UBC never wears off for T-wolves’ supporters and they showed their appreciation for what was a total team effort as the players walked off the court to celebrate their biggest win of the season so far.
For 21-year-old UNBC point guard Lucy Guan, the only Vancouver native on the T-wolves’ roster, beating her hometown T-birds was doubly sweet.
“It feels amazing, coming in we knew they were going to put up a fight, they’re a big-name school,” said Guan. “I’m just happy we were able to pull out a win, even though we had a bit of a roller-coaster game.”
Aside from a bit of a UNBC letup in the third quarter, this game was close throughout. Tied at 25 after 10 minutes, the T-wolves hung close in the second quarter thanks to Anastasia Soltes and her 13-point outburst that kept them within five points of the ‘Birds, who took a 51-46 lead into the intermission.
They stretched their lead to 62-51 in the third quarter but the T-wolves whittled that down to just one point to start the fourth. A brief surge gave UBC a 73-68 cushion, when the T-wolves came storming back. Rebecca Landry connected on a couple of layups and Soltes followed suit with one of her own to give UNBC the lead with 3:36 left.
Landry and UBC’s fourth-year veteran guard Kate Johnson traded buckets and the clock ticked down to 90 seconds when Landry fed the ball at midcourt right into the hands of Johnson for an uncontested layup that put UBC ahead 77-76. But that didn’t seem to faze the ‘Wolves.
After a UNBC timeout, Lucy Guan, all of five-foot-five, got the ball and with time running out on the shot clock she drove to the basket through a crowd and found the net while getting fouled. Guan completed the three-point play for a 79-76 lead.
”The play was supposed to be for either Alina (Shakirova) or Sveta (Boykova) and nothing was happening… so I got the ball, saw a gap and decided, go for it,” said Guan. “It was exciting and I was glad I could do that for my team.”
On the next possession she stole the ball from Johnson. UBC was forced to foul and Soltes iced it with a pair of strikes from the free throw line.
UNBC improved to 4-1, while the T-birds’ record dropped to 2-5.
“It really boosts our confidence,” said Soltes. “We are usually said t be the underdog but then, all of sudden, we beat thee big schools like UBC and it really helps us grow as a team on and off the court.”
After a relatively quiet four-point opening quarter, Johnson went off on a scoring tangent and ended up shooting 22 points, but it wasn’t quite enough to muzzle the Timberwolves.
“I think we got too comfortable in our lead and we let them come back into, it, they wanted it more tonight,” said Johnson. “We’ll take this as a learning experience and we have a lot to prove (on Saturday) so we’ll be ready to prove we can run with them and beat them.”
Soltes, whose career-best was a 12-point game Nov. 6 against TRU, was Ferrari-quick off the hop and found her scoring rhythm early. She collected a game-high 23 points Friday, showing her versatility with lay-ups, a timely hook shot, a pair of three-pointers and a perfect 3-for-3 showing from the line. She also picked up six rebounds, five assists and had one steal.
“We found that leadership from other players, Anastasia was a key player today, so I’m happy that leadership wasn’t just from one of two players,” said T-wolves head coach Sergey Shchepotkin. “I’m happy we can play against such a big team.”
The T-wolves negated their size disadvantage with sweat equity.
“I think we did outwork them and we just played a little bit smarter,” said Soltes. “I’m only five-foot-six and I know if I’m going up with a girl who’s six feet I have to be more technical and that’s something that a lot of the girls really improved on in this game.”
Boykova was a force under the hoops with 16 rebounds and 14 points, while Shakirova, the Canada West scoring leader heading into Friday, put up 18 points and had five assists.
The same teams meet again Saturday at 5 p.m. at the NSC.
