Each time they hit the court, they were a little bit sharper. Not coincidentally, the UNBC Timberwolves picked up a victory in the final outing of a three-game exhibition set in Edmonton.
The win for the UNBC women's basketball team came Saturday at the University of Alberta. The T-wolves tipped off against the Mount Royal University Cougars and, sparked by their work on defence, prevailed 61-45.
The Timberwolves -- playing their first games of 2013-14 -- started off with a 75-63 loss to the Grant MacEwan University Griffins and, in their second game, fell 65-62 to the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) Ooks.
Overall, UNBC coach Sergey Shchepotkin was pleased with what he witnessed on the trip.
"I saw progress from one game to [the next]," said Shchepotkin, hired as UNBC's new head coach in August. "After the third game, our team was stronger as a team."
The T-wolves were hungry for a victory against the Calgary-based Cougars because the Cougars are a rival in the Canada West Universities Athletic Association. As well, the UNBC players wanted to end their weekend on a positive note after the earlier losses.
Against Mount Royal, UNBC was down by one point at half time but owned the final 20 minutes.
"The second half was really perfect on defence," Shchepotkin said. "Everybody did their best and we ran [the] fast break and scored some important points."
Statistics weren't available, but Shchepotkin said UNBC's veterans -- Mercedes Van Koughnett, Emily Kaehn, Sarah Robin and Jen Bruce -- were the team's top players.
In the opening-game loss to Edmonton-based Grant MacEwan, the T-wolves were guilty of trying to do too much for their new coach, brought in as Loralyn Murdoch's replacement after Murdoch became UNBC's director of athletics and recreation in May.
"The girls wanted to show themselves and they tried their best but it wasn't really the smart way," Shchepotkin said.
"I would say we started shooting three-pointers instead of scoring under the basket. The first half was really terrible. We were losing by 21 points after the first half but then we kind of woke up and everybody started to play very well. We got back to three points [down] and then we just missed one basket at a critical moment.
"But the first half and the second half, it was like two different games."
Against NAIT, also from Edmonton, the Timberwolves trailed almost the entire way. They managed to take the lead with about 90 seconds to play but, with some of their younger players on the floor, weren't able to hold on for the victory.
"I tried all players in that game so maybe [there was] not enough experience for our first-year players," said Shchepotkin, a former professional player in Russia. "They couldn't keep the pressure until the end. In critical moments, it's all about experience and we just couldn't do it."
Grant MacEwan and NAIT both compete at the college level.
The UNBC men's basketball team was also in Edmonton for pre-season games and came home winless. The Timberwolves fell 81-70 to Mount Royal, 84-80 to Red Deer College and 86-62 to the University of Alberta.
The female Timberwolves will continue their exhibition schedule this weekend in Kamloops. They will square off against the Trinity Western University Spartans (Friday), the UBC Okanagan Heat (Saturday) and the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack (Sunday).
The UNBC men will also be in action. They'll host the Grande Prairie Regional College Wolves Saturday (7 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.). Both games will be played at the Northern Sport Centre.
