It’s all over for the UNBC Timberwolves.
Stretched too thin to counter the depth of the Calgary Dinos, the T-wolves ran out of gas in Thursday’s U Sports Canada West women’s basketball quarterfinal playoff in Calgary and their season ended in an 87-68 defeat.
Vying for their 10th consecutive win, the T-wolves had just seven healthy players for the game and for most of the game used only six of them . Despite that, in a physically-taxing game that had bodies crashing to the court, the gritty gals from Northern B.C. gave the regular-season champs all they could handle and stayed within striking distance until a third-quarter surge by the Dinos that built their lead to double digits.
The Dinos continued to pour on the offence in the fourth quarter, outscoring the T-wolves 27-16 to put the game away. They will move on to Friday’s semifinal against the winner of Thursday’s late Fraser Valley-Alberta playoff.
“A team like that has such a defence, they’re so good, but I think we showed our character in the first half and we’re really proud of how we played despite the loss,” said UNBC forward Madison Landry, who shot a game-high 25 points and picked up four steals on the day she was selected a third-team Canada West all-star.
“We definitely stepped up to their physicality, we knew what we were getting into at the start of the game and we definitely didn’t let them push us around. I think they were definitely scared when we were only down six. We showed that our program shouldn’t be taken lightly and we’re proud of how we stayed together as a team.”
Canada West scoring champion and first-team all star Maria Mongomo, held to just 14 points, finally showed signs of exhaustion with about three minutes left when she took the ball the length of the court and was rejected by the Dinos’ towering defence. She fell to the floor and laid there for a second or two trying to catch her breath while Donaldson ran the other way and hit with a close-range shot.
Down by just four at the half, trailing 36-32, the T-wolves used their fresher legs to come out firing. Sascha Lichtenwald and Bobbi-Jo Colburn each hit their three attempts and the Dinos increased the lead to 46-32 but the T-wolves weren’t going down without a fight.
Landry, who hit the deck hard when she got tripped trying to drive close to the net, continued to play aggressively and was rewarded with trips to the foul line and she made her free throws count, shooting 11-for-12 to keep the game within reach. The fourth-year forward nailed a three and Mongomo put one in off the glass to reduce the deficit to six points with three minutes left in the third quarter and the Dinos’ lead was 60-52 heading into the fourth.
“We just never give up and I think all the years I’ve been on this team, we’ve had games where we’re down 20 and come back and had a close game and even won, and that’s our mentality,” said Landry. “When things get tough you just keep pushing through.”
After gutting out a 93-85 double-overtime win on the road last week over the Lethbridge Pronghorns, the T-wolves dug in against the heavily-favoured Dinos and matched them virtually step for step in the first half.
After a nervous opening that resulted in them falling behind 4-0 the T-wolves found their stride. Landry showed the Calgary crowd why she’s one of the top foul shooters in the country and Mongomo’s speed off the rush got the UNBC offence in gear. A spectacular layup by Mongomo, tied the game at 8 and an athletic reverse from vanBruinessen gave the T-wolves their first lead with 3:50 left in the opening quarter.
UNBC’s zone defence kept the Dinos from finding open looks and on numerous occasions the T-wolves made them force their shots to keep the shot clock from running out, which led to turnovers. Lichtenwald’s three put Calgary ahead 17-16 just before the quarter ended.
The Dinos had already tapped into the reserves and used 11 players by the start of the second quarter but the T-wolves showed no signs of fatigue. Trailing 30-25 with three minutes left in the opening half, a Landry triple and a pair of fast-break buckets from Mongomo triggered a six-point and the T-wolves had themselves a 32-20 lead, but a clutch three-pointer from Reyna Crawford put the Dinos ahead again heading into the break..
In the second half, the Dinos used their size advantage to block UNBC shots and get limbs in the way of passes and kept pounding in points to put the game away. Colburn led all Dinos shooters with 21 points and had two blocked shots and three steals. Erin McIntosh contributed 15 points, had three assists, three blocks and three steals and six-foot-two post Michaela Nieuwenhuizen finished with 13 points.
“It was a slow start,” said Colburn. “We were not very happy we let them score 68 points. We were just playing sloppy and they were punishing our mistakes too.”
In the last game of her stellar five-year Canada West career, Mongomo totaled 14 points, eight rebounds, and five assists, while fifth-year guard Emily Holmes collected six points in her final Canada West game. Landry’s sister Rebecca put up 12 points and Emma vanBruinessen shot for 11 points and had six rebounds and three steals.
“The whole UNBC program and family are all very proud of the effort they gave, they left it all on the floor and I don’t think they have any regrets,” said T-wolves assistant coach Dave Holmes. “Right to the bitter end they were trying to find answers and never stopped battling. Hats off to Calgary, who has a deep bench and ran 12 players against our six or seven and pretty much played us full-court. They did what the needed to do to advance as the Number 1 seed in Canada West and the Number 2 team in Canada.”
UNBC men’s basketball forward Fareed Shittu was named to the Canada West all-rookie team on Thursday.
