The winter storm that buried the city in a half-metre of snow was the talk of the town Friday.
The UNBC Timberwolves had their own weather concerns on the basketball court Friday at the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre.
They couldn't escape the heat of Summer.
Summer Masikewich, a six-foot-two rookie post for the Saskatchewan Huskies, made the T-wolves sweat bullets. She put together a season-high 18-point, eight-rebound effort which led the visitors to a 72-65 U Sports Canada West Conference win.
Masikewich had the unenviable job of shadowing T-wolves third-year veteran forward Vasiliki Louka, who stands one inch taller and was coming off a 30-point game last weekend against UBC.
"Coach (Lisa Thomaidis) just told me to really try and take her off the drive and be aggressive and I went for it," said Masikewich.
"I have great teammates who take a tough drive and dish it off to me, so it's great. (The T-wolves) were aggressive coming out in the first (half); they needed to win. Our gameplan coming out of the half was to be more aggressive on defence and we executed."
The fourth-place Huskies improved to 16-5.
The T-wolves (6-13) came into the game knowing they hold a precarious grip on a playoff spot, which would be the first in their five-year history playing in the university league. Now with just one game left, the T-wolves remain 12th in the standings, one win ahead of the Lethbridge Pronghorns (5-13), who were idle on Friday.
UNBC, behind the scoring of Louka and Maria Mongomo, led 20-18 after the first quarter and 35-31 at halftime.
The telling tale was the third quarter. UNBC had a tough time in the shooting department and Saskatchewan, one of the youngest teams in the conference, looked a lot more like the team that had lost just five of 18 games, outscoring UNBC 21-11 in the quarter.
"They were just running more than we were, they were getting their passes through and I don't know why but we stopped playing defence as hard as we were in the other quarters," said UNBC guard Stacey Graham.
"We just need to get better in that third quarter."
Masikewich continued to light it up for the Huskies, putting up six more points, all from close vicinity to the basket. Sabine Dukate and the Huskies two Megans - Ahlstrom and Lindquist - poured the pressure on T-wolves ball carriers and that led to more Saskatchewan points.
They led 52-46 heading into the fourth quarter.
"We had a few people step up in particular in that third quarter just to give us a bit of a cushion," said Thomaidis, now in her 18th season behind the Huskies bench.
"But full credit to UNBC, I thought they played very hard and very smart and they gave us some difficulties and really took away our penetration and we had difficulty adjusting to that. Summer hit some big shots and Megan Lindquist had a bit of foul trouble and came out and played the whole second half."
Lindquist finished with 13 points while Ahlstrom had 15. For UNBC, Louka led all shooters with a game-high 24 points and had eight rebounds. Mongomo finished with 14 points and seven rebounds.
UNBC will be doing some scoreboard-watching this weekend.
The Pronghorns, the only team that can knock the T-wolves out of playoff position, are in a must-win situation today in Edmonton against the Alberta Pandas (15-3) in an afternoon game (1 p.m. PT). The 13th-place Pronghorns play the Pandas in a rematch Sunday (4 p.m. PT).
If Lethbridge and UNBC are tied at the end of the season, the Pronghorns would win the tiebreaker based on the fact they've beaten the T-wolves twice and have faced tougher opponents this season, as determined by the Rating Percentage Index adopted by the league this season.
The T-wolves and Huskies wrap up the regular season today starting at 5 p.m. at the Sport Centre.
Huskies get better
of male T-wolves
Elliot Rowe, Rhys Elliott and Sam Zhang know the clock is ticking down on their university basketball careers.
Despite playing their hearts out on the hardwood Friday at the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre, the five-year UNBC Timberwolves veterans could not prevent an 89-59 loss to the Saskatchewan Huskies.
The T-wolves had their hearts in it, but their bodies did not respond accordingly," said UNBC head coach Todd Jordan.
"Tonight was pretty unacceptable from our guys, I just thought from top to bottom our energy level was low. I don't know if it comes down to just feeling sorry for ourselves after what happened last weekend against UBC (two blowout losses which eliminated the T-wolves from playoff contention).
"It's a frustrated group right now and it's been a tough stretch for us. I really hope we come out tomorrow night with some fire to us."
Too much of Lawrence Moore proved a bad thing for the
T-wolves.
The speedy third-year guard from Chicago was a dominant force, hitting his shots and driving the lanes for put-backs off the glass and uncontested layups.
Moore, 21, who transferred in January from Bakersfield College in California to join the Huskies this season, came into Friday's game averaging 12.7 points and he shredded the T-wolves defence, finishing with a game-high 24 points in 30 minutes of playing time.
"We play hard and we had a few mistakes but we were really just trying to get ourselves ready for the playoffs and try to get a 'W' tonight," said Moore, who played two years at Bakersfield.
"UNBC is a good team but they just give up a little bit, they don't play as a team as much. We passed the ball well and we had a lot of good rebounds offensively and defensively, and the transition to offence, that's where we get a lot of points."
Jaylan Morgan, with 18 points, and Shane Osayande, with 13, also reached double figures. Elliott totalled 18 points to lead the T-wolves offensively. Vaggelis Loukas ended up with 11.
"They present some challenges for sure, they've got some big boys and they obviously hurt us on the glass," said Jordan.
Saskatchewan was up 17-10 after the first quarter and led 65-46 at the half.
The win improved the Huskies' record to 13-6, moving them into third place in the U Sports Canada West Conference standings.
The T-wolves (4-15) will finish off the season tonight in the rematch at 7 p.m.
