The UNBC Timberwolves had very few spare parts with them in the gym Friday night in Regina.
It didn’t matter because Madison Landry and Emily VanBruinessen brought all their tools and used them to construct a 73-67 victory over the Regina Cougars.
Landry was deadly with her shots from anywhere close to the basket and was equally effective hauling in loose change around the boards. Ranked second in the Canada West scoring race heading into the game with a 19.1 point average, the fourth-year guard from Prince George hit for 30 points and snagged 10 rebounds.
VanBruinessen was equally aggressive tracking the ball and the fourth-year forward from Leduc. Alta., was rewarded with a double-double, striking for 15 points and 12 rebounds to extend the T-wolves winning streak to five games.
Injuries left the T-wolves with just seven players to start the game and only six of them were healthy. Guard Julia Gallant had an ear infection to deal with and was limited to four minutes of playing time. But the rest of the T-wolves’ pack played like a team that’s making a determined push for the playoffs.
“I’m very happy and proud of my girls, knowing we had a very short bench,” said T-wolves head coach Sergey Shchepotkin. “They are playing hard and they really want to win. There is no losing attitude, they helped each other as a team today and I’m very happy. Everybody did well today.”
Leading 50-46 to start the fourth quarter, Landry gave the T-wolves some breathing room when she nailed four free throws early in the quarter and vanBruinessen made good on her foul shots for a 58-52 cushion.
T-wolves’ leading scorer Maria Mongomo, the Canada West second star of last week, got stripped of the ball on the base line with about four minutes left but UNBC came up with the stop and Mongomo made up for her error with a triple that put her team up 61-55. That capped off a 14-point effort for the fifth-year Mongomo, who fouled out with about a minute left.
“That team really focused on Maria because she scored 30 points in the last three games,” said Shchepotkin. “It makes our other players free to make plays. We didn’t make many turnovers today, I think we controlled the game very well.”
Macaela Crone answered Mongomo’s long basket with a triple to make it a three-point game but the T–wolves got the ball to Landry in stride behind the Cougar defenders for a free bucket and Emily Holmes made good on a turnaround jump shot and a 65-58 lead. Crone came back with another three but that’s as close as the Cougars got.
Crone collected 21 points and had eight rebounds, while Michaela Kleisinger finished with 17 points and had five assists.
The T-wolves did most of the damage from the field, shooting 26-for-64 (40.6 per cent). The Cougars were far less accurate but took more shots, finishing 27-for-82 (32.9 per cent) from the field.
UNBC improved to 8-9, same as the Cougars, who had their four-game winning streak snapped.
Meanwhile, in the men’s game that followed, the T-wolves suffered their 10th-straight defeat, falling 90-58 to Regina.
Greishe Clerjuste led the Cougars with 26 points and Matt Barnard shot a season-high 21. Both Cougars hit for five triples. Tyrell Laing was the only T-wolf to reach double-digits, finishing with 22 points. UNBC forward Fareed Shittu collected a game-high 13 rebounds.
Regina led 46-32 at the half.
The Cougars (9-9) used that win to clinch a playoff berth. Despite their lengthy losing streak the T-wolves (4-13) are still in the playoff hunt. They have the same record as Brandon but the Bobcats, winners of their last three games, moved ahead of UNBC into the 12th and final playoff spot with their 96-93 victory Friday at Trinity Western.
Also within striking range of the Cougars and T-wolves are Mount Royal University (3-14) and UBC-Okanagan (3-16).
The T-wolves and Cougars will meet again Saturday in Regina. The women play at 4 p.m. PT, followed by the men’s game at 6 p.m. PT.
