The playoff hopes for the UNBC women are alive and well thanks to a steady performance from a veteran, and some timely heroics from a rookie. Saturday night in Kamloops, the UNBC Timberwolves (4-12) completed their weekend sweep of the TRU WolfPack in a thrilling 64-60 victory. Fourth-year swing Rebecca Landry led the way with 22 points while rookie Viktoriia Filatova hit a coast-to-coast layup with just over a minute left to give the TWolves their second sweep of the season. Danijela Kovacevic led the way with 18 points for TRU while Kate De La Mare finished with 13 rebounds.
Fresh off a victory one night prior, Sergey Shchepotkin’s club got off to a flying start on Saturday with an 11-0 run. Five of the first seven points came from Adaiah Tupas-Singh who nailed a three and a deep two. Sveta Boykova, Rebecca Landry and Bella Mesquita all added buckets during that run. Viktoriia Filatova came off bench and pushed UNBC’s lead to 14-3 thanks to a three of her own.
TRU answered with a 6-0 run courtesy of four points from Kelsey Cruz and two from Sydney Vollrath, but Boykova bagged the final two points of the first off free-throws, giving UNBC the 16-9 advantage. Defensively. Boykova added four first quarter rebounds.
Both teams dropped 16 points each in the second, with a majority of them coming in the final minutes. Each team could only muster one bucket through the first four minutes. For UNBC – A Landry layup, and for TRU a Nya Derkach jumper.
Tupas-Singh delivered a pair of timely buckets for UNBC in a 90-second stretch, helping the TWolves stay ahead of the gritty WolfPack. Priyanca Sundher did her part to try and get the hosts closer, as she notched five points. Depth was key for both sides as eight different TWolves had found the scoresheet in the first half while seven players responded with points for TRU.
With under a minute to go the teams combined for a trio of threes. First it was TRU’s Olivia Randall erasing UNBC’s double-digit lead, pushing the score to 29-22. 15 seconds later Sophia Fuller hit the third triple of the half for UNBC. Sundher though had the last laugh as she hit from deep 19 seconds later, forcing the 32-25 score. At half Tupas-Singh led all scorers with nine points, and UNBC held a slim 28-24 rebounding edge.
Kate De La Mare and Danielle Kovacevic had early buckets in the third, forcing TRU back to within five. Kovacevic then got TRU within four after a three, but an elbow jumper from Mesquita and a three from Landry shifted the TWolves lead back up by nine. Kovacevic added five more as part of a 13-3 run for TRU which nearly erased their deficit entirely, but Boykova hit a layup, and Landry buried her second three of the quarter, pushing UNBC’s back up to six. Landry would add a pair of free throws late giving UNBC a third quarter cushion of 51-45. Through three, Landry had a game-high 16 points and was two-for-two from deep and four-for-four from the stripe. Kovacevic had 10 for TRU on three-for-eight shooting while De La Mare had 12 rebounds and four blocks.
Kovacevic nailed a triple 90 seconds into the fourth, making it a three-point gap, but another Landry layup and two more three-throws for Boykova had the TWolves ahead by seven. The plucky Wolves inched closer after Sundher’s second triple of the night, but Landry’s seventh field goal came shortly thereafter giving her 20, and a six-point cushion. The next comeback bid for TRU would push them ahead by one thanks to five points from Kovacevic and a pair from Cruz. But 11 seconds after Kovacevic put TRU ahead by one, UNBC rookie Viktoriia Filatova took the in-bound pass, sprinted up the floor and hit a difficult layup in close giving her team their lead back – A lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.
Down by one, Kovacevic fouled out of the game for TRU, putting Landry back on the free-throw line. The PG product converted on her fifth and sixth free throws of the night, extending the lead, and then a late single free-throw conversion from Tupas-Singh cemented the victory and the weekend sweep. UNBC has now won 10 of their last 12 meetings with TRU.
Landry’s 22 point effort, coupled with two threes, six free throws, four rebounds, three assists and three steals helped her secure the Earls Road Warrior of the Game award. Tupas-Singh was the only other Timberwolf to reach double-digits as she finished with 10 points. Both Viktoriia Filatova and Svetlana Boykova grabbed double-digit rebounds for UNBC.
With the win, UNBC creeps even closer to a top-12 spot in the Canada West standings. They’ll look to maintain their winning ways on Friday when they kick-off a weekend double-header down South against the Trinity Western Spartans.