They weren't good enough to beat the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack but the improvement in the UNBC Timberwolves compared to last season was obvious in Friday's CIS Canada West women's basketball season-opener.
A 69-54 loss to TRU at the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre was a small victory for the UNBC squad, the bottom-feeders of the conference a year ago when they won just two of 20 games in 2014-15.
TRU rolled to a pair of 22-point wins last year in Prince George, and the two games in Kamloops against the women T-wolves were 25- and 30-point blowouts. So to lose by 15 to the veteran-savvy WolfPack wasn't too tough for UNBC to take.
"I'm happy with our improvement," said T-wolves head coach Sergey Shchepotkin. "Definitely we have a couple new players who push our team and today was pretty good defence. We still have a lot to improve but it was a good start."
Four of the five in the starting lineup for TRU were starters last season when the WolfPack ruled the Canada West Explorer Division, rolling to an 18-2 record. In the playoffs, TRU took UVic, the eventual CIS bronze medalists, to the limit in a three-game quarterfinal series, losing by two points in the third and deciding game.
All that experience didn't take long to kick in for the Kamloops-based squad. Second-year guard Michelle Bos set herself up for a 13-point game with some powerful defensive rebounding and a strong presence around the UNBC hoop. She got plenty of support from second-year guard Emma Piggin, a constant steal threat who had success with her long-range shots, collecting 17 points.
UNBC also had trouble dealing with six-foot-two forward Kassie Colonna, whose punishing upper-body strength made her a rebounding force. Colonna also struck for 13 points.
In the men's game which followed TRU beat UNBC 95-89.
TRU women's head coach Scott Reeves says there's plenty of room for improvement in his team and was impressed with how the T-wolves made them work for everything they got Friday.
"I thought we missed a lot of shots, I don't think the shooting percentage was great compared to how we have been shooting," said Reeves. "They're a different team with new faces and definitely that guard from Spain helps them immensely. She's athletic, she can defend, and she's going to be a very good player in this league."
Reeves was referring to UNBC's forward Maria Mongomo, who showed plenty flash in her Prince George debut. The five-foot-nine rookie from Las Palmas, Spain, who played club basketball last year on the Canary Islands, came out aggressively from the opening tip-off and led her team with eight points in the opening half, but ran into foul trouble, drawing her fourth call from the officials with four minutes still to play in the first half. On the verge of fouling out, Mongomo started the second half and never left the floor, picking up nine more points for a game-high 19.
"I was very nervous and excited, but we lost," said Mongomo. "I'm trying to adapt to the referees here. The referees are different and the teams play different and I will adapt. We're going to forget this game and (Saturday) we will give 100 per cent and try to win."
Vasiliki Louka, the other European newcomer to the T-wolves, utilized her six-foot-three height to get great looks at the net. But the 19-year-old from Athens, Greece wasn't very accurate with her shots, and she wasn't alone among T-wolves in that department.
Three other T-wolves made their CIS debuts Friday, including two Prince George high school grads -- Issy Bourque (PGSS) and Emily Holmes (Duchess Park) - and Natasha Layton of Saskatoon. TRU had just two first-year players in the lineup - Leilani Carney (Burnaby) and Chelsey Hoey (Parksville).
Bourque, who red-shirted with the T-wolves last season, got into the game in the first quarter, while Holmes made her entry off the bench in the second quarter. Both found the net. Holmes went 3-for-4 from the free throw line and Bourque shot 2-for-4 from the charity stripe.
"Everything is just that much better, the athleticism, the skills, and I'm not expecting much because I am a first-year but whenever I get my minutes I'm going to take it to them," said Holmes, who played point guard.
Bourque, who slotted in as a small forward, endured many long nights watching her UNBC teammates lose badly last year and she saw enough Friday to convince her the T-wolves have turned a corner.
"We're just a lot closer as a family this year and it shows in how we play, this was a great start," said Bourque.
The women's rematch is set for 6 p.m. tonight at the NSC, followed by the men's game at 8.
