Taking care of business.
Rebounding is the kind of basketball bounce the UNBC Timberwolves have come to expect from Emma vanBruinessen and Friday night in Calgary in the Canada West women’s playoff opener against the Brandon Bobcats she went above and beyond the call of duty.
Her 20 rebounds and 15 points was a decisive factor in the T-wolves’ 87-60 victory.
Down to her last postseason run at the end of a five-year U SPORTS career, vanBruinessen established her presence under the hoops early on and it set the tone for dominating display under the boards from the T-wolves, who outrebounded the Bobcats 72-24.
“Looking at this weekend and knowing any game could literally be my last as a Timberwolf, I wanted to leave it all on the floor,” said vanBruinessen, a native of Leduc. Alta.” Running, hitting the floor, taking charges, and doing whatever I could to make my team successful.”
The five-foot-11 vanBruinessen and her forward counterpart, six-foot-two Spanish import Laura Garmendia Garcia, have physical attributes that are in short supply for the vertically-challenged UNBC team lacks and together they proved overwhelming to a Bobcats team that hadn’t won in any of its previous 16 games this season.
Seven T-wolves hit double figures in points, including Sveta Boykova, who had 11 points and 12 rebounds, Rebecca Landry (11 points), Garmendia Garcia (10 points, 12 rebounds), Alina Shakirova (11 points, seven rebounds) and Sarah Kuklisin (10 points, five rebounds). Fifth-year guard Lucy Guan collected four assists.
Piper Ingalls led the Bobcats with 13 points, while Sydney Latrace and Adrianna Proulx each sank 12 points.
Their win moves the Timberwolves on to the second round of the single-elimination tournament against the Regina Cougars Saturday in Calgary (4 p.m. PT).
“The win is nice, but we have to flush this and focus on Regina,” said vanBruinessen. “We haven’t seen them in two years. It’s a whole new team, and it is going to be a battle on the boards. But, like I said, no team is unbeatable.”
