She hit the shot -- one of the biggest in the history of UNBC women's basketball.
With the Vancouver Island University Mariners making one last push against the UNBC Northern Timberwolves in the fourth quarter of Saturday night's provincial final, Mercedes Van Koughnett drilled a three-pointer with a defender in her face and the shot clock on the verge of expiring. Her bomb stopped the Mariners' surge and was the pivotal play in a 62-53 victory for the Timberwolves.
"We had to get the shot up because we were running out of time," said Van Koughnett, a third-year guard from Prince George. "I shot it and thank God it went in -- it was a huge shot. I'm happy my teammates found me and I hit it."
Van Koughnett's trey turned an eight-point UNBC lead into an 11-point advantage and sucked the remaining life out of the Mariners. Not long after, the Timberwolves and their fans were celebrating a PACWEST Athletic Association championship at North Vancouver's Capilano University. UNBC head coach Loralyn Murdoch breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that shot hit mesh.
"It was a big shot," Murdoch said. "She shot that ball with confidence and it went in and we were very happy."
Overall, UNBC was successful on 10 of 27 three-point attempts and VIU went just 2-for-6.
While the Timberwolves were grateful to see Van Koughnett hit the target at that critical moment, they can pat themselves on the collective back for the dominating second quarter they put together. Down 16-15 after the first, they outscored the Mariners 20-6 in the second and gained control of the contest. With a smothering man-to-man defence, they forced the Mariners into tough shots or turnovers. At the other end of the floor, the Timberwolves scored over top of VIU's zone defence or found ways to slash through it and get to the hoop. By half-time, UNBC was up 35-22.
"[Playing tough defence] was our goal coming into this," said Van Koughnett, whose top-seeded team had a bye in the first round and beat the Camosun College Chargers 71-48 in a Friday semifinal. "We have to play full-court defence as hard as we can for 40 minutes, all out. We should be puking by the end of the game. That's how we played and it was awesome."
Van Koughnett finished with 20 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists and was later picked as the tournament's most valuable player. Fifth-year forward Jennifer Clyne ended with 13 points -- eight of them early in the first quarter to give UNBC the jump it wanted -- and was named an all-star. Jennifer Bruce added 10 points and point guard Jennifer Knibbs dished out five assists and was UNBC's best defensive player. In particular, Knibbs helped slow down VIU star guard Jocelyn Jones, who scored just 11 points.
The Mariners were the No. 2 seed for provincials but came into the tournament knowing they had beaten UNBC 73-57 in the final regular-season meeting between the teams. The T-wolves -- who topped VIU 60-52 earlier in the year -- had to be at their absolute best to prevail in the one that counted. And they were.
"The girls played really, really tough," Murdoch said. "They were really focused all weekend. We had a job to do and they stepped up to the plate and performed. I was very, very proud of them."
The Timberwolves will now prepare for the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association national championship tournament, March 15-17 in Lethbridge. After they won their only other B.C. title in 2006-07, they attended nationals in Nova Scotia and were disappointed to finish with a 1-2 record. This time, they have much higher expectations.
"There are three people in our room who have been to a national championship and we're not going there to participate," said Murdoch, who has Clyne, Kady Dandeneau and Maria Neumann as holdovers from the '06-'07 club. "We want to go there and compete. We're not going to get caught up in the excitement of it all. We have a job to do and we want to go and represent B.C."
