It was far from a typical game day but the UNBC Timberwolves handled the challenges well and posted a much-needed win against the Brandon University Bobcats.
After having a Saturday game postponed when their bus broke down on a journey between Regina and Brandon, the UNBC women's basketball team defeated the Bobcats 77-47 in a Canada West contest that started at noon Sunday in Brandon. The Timberwolves had rolled out of Regina at 6 a.m. and arrived in Brandon at 9:30 a.m. After a quick breakfast, they went through their regular warm-up and then proceeded to dominate the Bobcats right from the opening tip-off. By halftime, the visitors had a 41-17 lead.
Full-court defensive pressure was the biggest factor in the victory, as UNBC forced Brandon to throw the ball away 31 times.
"We came out really, really aggressive and it caught them off guard because we haven't done that to any team yet this year," said UNBC head coach Loralyn Murdoch. "That's something we had worked on for the last two weeks. Based on game tape, it looked like [the Bobcats] possibly didn't handle pressure as well as some of the other teams so that's something we had to get into our practices. We had to get out of our comfort zone and really pressure full-court and create some turnovers."
Heading into the game, the Timberwolves had lost six in a row, including a 95-47 defeat at the hands of the powerful University of Regina Cougars on Friday night. With Sunday's result, the T-wolves improved to 4-8 on the season and kept the Bobcats winless at 0-12.
"Everyone talks about the win and loss streak, and our loss streak is over - we've won a game in 2013, and it was a game we needed to win," Murdoch said. "We were expected to win it and we did our job."
Offensively, Mercedes Van Koughnett led UNBC with 18 points in just 24 minutes of floor-time. She also finished with eight steals and eight rebounds. Jordyn Rabbitt hit for 12 points, Kady Dandeneau had 11 and Emily Kaehn was on target for nine.
The UNBC men's team wasn't as successful on Sunday. The Timberwolves and Bobcats were tied 54-54 with 2:11 left to play but UNBC didn't score the rest of the way and fell 61-54.
Brandon was ahead 33-32 at the half and had a 49-44 advantage after three quarters. The T-wolves saw their record fall to 5-7, while the Bobcats moved to 3-9.
UNBC men also lost on Friday night, 76-73 to Regina. The Timberwolves played both games without leading scorer Jose Araujo, who was in El Salvador for a family wedding.
Araujo, a fifth-year shooting guard, is expected to be back in the lineup when the T-wolves face the University of Winnipeg Wesmen (9-4) on Thursday at the Northern Sport Centre. The game will start at 8 p.m. and will be preceded by the UNBC and Winnipeg women, who will be on the court at 6 p.m. The Wesmen women have a 5-8 record.
The UNBC teams are scheduled to fly out of Winnipeg this morning.
