UNBC's women's basketball squad came close, but not close enough to win its first game of the season Saturday.
The Timberwolves lost 58-52 to the Mount Royal University Cougars in the second game of a weekend double-header at the Northern Sport Centre. On Friday, the Cougars edged the T-wolves 60-59.
UNBC is now 0-6 to start its season in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Canada West Explorers Division and is in last place.
With the sweep, Mount Royal is an even .500 at 3-3 and in fourth place in the division.
"They were just close games," said Timberwolves head coach Sergey Shchepotkin. "Mount Royal was shooting a little better than we were and on Saturday we focused on their top-scorer [Jaylen Verney] more and our big players did well, but we just couldn't score."
Verney, the Cougars rookie guard from Halifax, racked up 28 points Friday, but the T-wolves contained her Saturday as she only managed 12 points and ran into foul trouble.
On Saturday, Mount Royal had a 36-27 half-time lead. UNBC out-scored the Cougars 19-14 in the third quarter to trail by only four points going into the fourth quarter.
Rookie forward Vasilila Louka lead the Timberwolves with 15 points and eight rebounds, while second-year guard Kylie Pozniak came in off the bench to collect 10 points and six rebounds.
UNBC's men's basketball squad fell to 1-5 on the season Saturday when they suffered a 77-69 loss to the Cougars.
The Timberwolves were seeking their second-straight victory of the 2014-15 campaign after they beat Mount Royal 71-60 Friday.
Mount Royal improves to 3-3 for third place in the Explorers Division, while the Timberwolves remain in last place.
Fourth-year Cougars guard Manok Akwl led the Calgary-based school in scoring, with 22 points, seven assists and five rebounds.
The first quarter featured six lead changes as the Timberwolves clung to a 16-15 lead. Late in the second quarter, Akwl sunk back-to-back three to give the Cougars a 30-25 lead at half-time.
Despite a 10-point run by UNBC in the third quarter, Mount Royal continued to pressure the Timberwolves.
They trailed by only three points with 45 seconds left in the game. Cougars guard Deng Awak was fouled and he sunk both free throw attempts to give his squad a five-point lead.
"In the fourth quarter we couldn't get the stops we needed and we put them on the free throw line so many times and our defence didn't hold up in the fourth," said UNBC head coach Todd Jordan. "Our division is going to be like that and we've been unfortunate, we've been in every game to the end and we're hoping we stay true to the game plan and continue the way we've been playing. Hopefully those close games will start to go in our favour."
The Timberwolves took a huge monkey off their back when they broke their four-game losing streak Friday.
"That was our goal definitely to win that game and getting our first win in front of our home crowd [1,300 fans]," said Jordan. "We defended quite well. It's really tough to beat someone twice in a row and the coaches always make adjustments."
Franco Kouagnia, the fifth-year Timberwolf, led the team in scoring with 18 points, while Michael Smith collected 15 points. Forward Devin McMurtry hauled in a team-high 10 rebounds.
Both UNBC's men's and women's teams have to regroup this week as they host UBC Okanagan this Friday and Saturday, Nov. 28 and Nov. 29.
The Kelowna-based teams sport identical 2-4 records.
