The UNBC Timberwolves could have been excused Saturday for thinking they'd built themselves a fortress of lead to protect themselves from the Regina Cougars.
Turned out it was about as solid as a house of cards.
Leading by 13 near the end of the first half, the walls started caving in on the T-wolves with a succession of missed shots and errant passes that sailed out of bounds or into enemy hands. All of a sudden, it seemed, the missed looks at the net for Regina began turning into three-point plays and a team of Cougars which had won only one of seven games in Canada West men's basketball came back and nipped the T-wolves 74-73.
Ryan Delwo delivered the knockout punch with seven seconds left, finishing off an easy layup with no Timberwolves within reach, after they were caught totally unprepared for Jeremy Zver's defensive rebound and quick down-court feed to Delwo.
"After that shot [a three-point attempt by UNBC's Jibreel Stevens] it kind of landed with three guys around that rebound and we weren't sure who had possession yet," said UNBC forward Daniel Stark. "At that point [Zver] didn't worry about who had possession and they got to chuck it overhead before we realized what was going on. That's not how we want to end out basketball games."
Following a UNBC timeout, with six seconds left, the intent was to get the ball to their best shooter, Charles Barton, but Jeff Chu's inbound pass first had to go through Stevens and by the time Barton got the ball he had no time to drive to the net. His hurried shot bounced harmlessly off the rim. Game over.
The Cougars rushed out to celebrate a rare win as the T-wolves walked off wondering how they could have let a home court victory at the Northern Sport Centre slip through their hands. Two reasons for that were Regina's big guys -- the six-foot-five Zver and the appropriately-named, six-foot-eight Will Tallman. They came to life offensively in the second half, winning most loose-ball battles underneath the net and turning rebounds into points. They soon made up for their team's disastrous opening quarter in which they were held to just eight points. Zver finished with 18 points, Tallman collected 16 and guard Brandon Tull hit for a game-high 20.
"There wasn't a lot of flow to the game, both teams were whistled down for tons of stuff the whole game, and as the game came down they were just mentally tougher than us in those situations," said UNBC head coach Todd Jordan. "We just didn't get back in our defensive rotation and they got an open bucket that cost us the game. It's not excusable but it happens and we just have to move on. There were multiple points where we could have put our foot to the gas pedal and it just didn't happen."
The T-wolves led 33-25 at halftime and 53-50 after 30 minutes. Chu contributed 14 points for UNBC, backed by Devin McMurty's 13-point effort and a 12-point night from Franck Olivier Kouagnia.
The loss dropped the T-wolves to 3-5 on the season, while the Cougars, who started their trip in Calgary with a three-point loss to Mount Royal, is now 2-6.
"We let one slip away [Friday] night and we said to ourselves if we can get to the fourth quarter again in a position to win, maybe we could get it, and it worked out for us," said Cougars head coach Steve Burrows. "Unfortunately we didn't shoot the ball very well early on but they did a great job in the second half for us."
The UNBC women dropped their second-straight game at home, losing 93-68 to Regina. The outcome was not a shocker for the T-wolves, who knew they'd be hard-pressed knocking off the sixth-ranked team in the country. Regina improved to 6-2, dropping UNBC to 3-5.
The Cougars put their height advantage to work for them. Four of Regina's starting five cast shadows over the T-wolves starters, with the exception of six-foot-two UNBC forward Jasprit Nijjar, and it made a difference.
"They are so much bigger than all of us, they're the tallest team we've played so far and you could definitely feel it," said UNBC's five-foot-nine forward Emily Kaehn. "They were grabbing balls above our heads and there wasn't much you could do about it."
Thanks to Jen Bruce's 17 points in the opening 20 minutes, UNBC was only nine points down at the half, trailing 40-31. But Bruce had difficulty keeping up that pace and was held to just two second-half points. The T-wolves were missing their ball hawk, fifth-year guard Mercedes Van Koughnett, who was out with a sprained ankle. Cassie Rerick took her spot and point guard and did not look out of place directing the UNBC attack. Kaehn did her part as well, picking up the scoring slack with 19 points, but it wasn't enough. The Cougars had six players who hit double figures in points, led by six-foot-three post Jennilea Coppola, who had 20, and Katie Polischuk, a six-foot guard, who finished with 19.
"I'm happy with how we played, especially the first half," said T-wolves coach Sergey Shchepotkin. "They're one of the best teams in Canada and we fought with them and felt pretty confident and I liked that fight. We don't have height and we don't have their experience, but at least we tried our best."
