Friday night at the Northern Sport Centre in Prince George, the Canada West leading Saskatchewan Huskies (18-1) secured a 98-42 victory over the UNBC Timberwolves (4-15). Third-year guard Tea DeMong led all players with 27 points and nine rebounds for Saskatchewan while Gage Grassick added eight assists to go with 11 points. Amrit Manak led the way in response for UNBC with 15 points, two boards, three assists and a block. For her efforts, Manak was named Mr. Mike’s Player of the Game for the TWolves.
The Huskies showed why they owned the top record in Canada West early as they started on a 7-0 run. A deuce from Carly Ahlstrom, a trey from Andrea Dodig and a layup from Gage Grassick got them started. Tea DeMong later added seven of her own to help vault Saskatchewan to an 17-6 lead. The First six points of the night for UNBC came from Rebecca Landry off a pair of free throws and two layups. Down by 11, UNBC went on a 9-2 run as Sveta Boykova (4), Manak (3) and Nyemuon Padhal all found pay-dirt, moving the TWolves to within four at 19-15. But the Huskies ended the first on a 7-3 run of their own en route to a 26-18 lead after 10.
The Huskies outscored the TWolves 27-4 in the second quarter. Saskatchewan started the second on a 12-0 run as Courtney Primeau, Maya Flindall, Anna Maelde, Grassick and DeMong all notched points. Of those 12, Demong supplied five. Landry ended the Saskatchewan run with two more free throws and led all TWolves at half with eight points. Sophia Fuller later added a layup. DeMong added six more points down the stretch for the visitors and led all first-half scorers with 15 while adding a team-high eight rebounds. Boykova and Adaiah Tupas-Singh each had four first-half rebounds for UNBC.
Eleven different Huskies had points through 30 minutes as the score read 78-29. DeMong’s dominance continued into the third as the third-year guard tacked on seven more to give her 22 through three. As a team, the Huskies had eight threes through three quarters, half-of-which belonged to DeMong. Defensively the Huskies continued to be a handful, holding UNBC to seven third quarter points. Five of those seven points came from Manak who reached double digits in scoring after pouring in another three and a layup. The other UNBC bucket in the third came from Boykova.
Tea DeMong (5) and Gage Grassick (5) combined for 10 of the final 20 points for Saskatchewan in the final quarter as the Huskies outscored UNBC 20-13. Amrit Manak added five more to her team-leading 15 in response for the TWolves while Bella Mesquita chimed in with four.
The final score read 98-42 for the Huskies with DeMong leading the way with 27 points and nine reobunds. Carly Ahlstrom, the reigning Canada West Player of the Year was held to 10 points and seven boards.
Tomorrow night at 5:00 pm, the TWolves and Huskies wrap up the 2023-24 Canada West regular season with one final showdown. It will mark the final Canada West basketball game for UNBC captain Rebecca Landry.