The UNBC Timberwolves thought they might be traveling to Saskatoon to play the Saskatchewan Huskies in their next Canada West women’s basketball playoff test.
Instead they’re going to Calgary for a date with the Dinos.
The 12th-ranked Winnipeg Wesmen made that official Saturday afternoon in Vancouver where they upset the heavily-favoured fifth-ranked UBC Thunderbirds 76-64 in a sudden-death playoff.
That means the T-wolves, the second lowest remaining seed of the eight teams still in the hunt for the Canada West title, will play the second-ranked University of Calgary Dinos in a best-of-three quarterfinal series which starts Friday in Calgary.
Coming off an 80-78 playoff win over the Trinity Western University Spartans Friday in Langley, the T-wolves finished the regular season with an 11-9 record and are ranked ninth in the league with a Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) of .525.
The index, adopted by Canada West two years ago when the league switched to an unbalanced regular-season schedule, is an indicator of the strength of each of the 12 playoff teams’ regular-season opponents and it determines the postseason seedings.
Saskatchewan finished the regular season with a 16-4 record, slightly worse than Calgary (17-3), but the Huskies’ RPI (.646) is slightly better than that of the Dinos (.642). Winnipeg (8-12, .473 RPI) ranked 12th and is the lowest remaining seed.
The T-wolves-Dinos series gets underway Friday at 5 p.m. PT with Game 2 on Saturday at 5.
If a third game is needed it would be played Sunday (noon PT start).
The teams did not play each other in the 20-game regular season.
