In a heavyweight battle between the top two teams in the Explorers Division, it was the Thompson Rivers WolfPack who landed the last punch.
WolfPack rookie Michelle Bos hit a step-back jump shot with 26.2 seconds left in the fourth quarter, lifting TRU to a 72-70 victory over the University of the Fraser Valley women’s basketball team on Saturday.
The win, combined with a 69-58 triumph on Friday, completed a weekend sweep for the WolfPack at the Tournament Capital Centre in Kamloops, and gave them sole possession of first place in the Explorers Division with a 5-1 record. The Cascades fell to 4-2 on the season.
“It was an entertaining game for sure – good little runs, players hitting some big shots,” UFV head coach Al Tuchscherer said. “They just end up hitting a bigger one at the end to come out with the win.”
Cascades fifth-year centre Sarah Wierks, coming off a phenomenal 27-point, 20-rebound performance on Friday, was dominant once again in the rematch, notching 25 points and 18 boards. Shayna Litman stepped up in a supporting role with 15 points and eight rebounds, while Celeste Dyck and Kaitlyn McDonald (3-for-4 from beyond the arc) scored nine points apiece.
Jorri Duxbury and Taiysa Worsfold registered 21 points each for the WolfPack, Kassie Colonna scored 11 points, and Bos had eight points and 10 boards.
The Cascades took a 40-37 lead into halftime on Dyck’s buzzer-beating three-pointer, but the WolfPack locked it down on defence in the third quarter, outscoring UFV 16-10 to take a 53-50 advantage into the final frame.
TRU led by as many as six points in the fourth quarter, but McDonald hit some huge shots down the stretch to keep UFV in it. Her trey with four minutes left leveled the score 63-63, and after the WolfPack pushed the lead back up to five points, she capped a mini-rally by knocking down a corner triple with 47 seconds left in regulation to tie it up again at 70-70.
But on the ensuing possession, Bos – who had been in foul trouble much of the evening – drilled a long two-point jumper to restore the TRU lead, and they would weather three-point tries by Litman and Katie Brink in the dying seconds to hang on for the win.
“It’s good for us to go through this stuff,” Tuchscherer analyzed. “A lot of players on the floor at the end of the game haven’t been in these situations before. . . . It’s hard for these players to go through this and not get the job done, but you learn from it and you’re better the next day.”
TRU head coach Scott Reeves lauded his team’s defensive play in the second half.
“We weren’t going to give up 80 points and expect to win,” he said. “I was really proud of how we held them to 10 in the third quarter. That really turned the game. I knew it was going to be a grind-it-out affair and they weren’t going away.”
The Cascades basketball teams wrap up their first-semester schedules at home next weekend vs. the MacEwan Griffins. Games are Friday (some 6 p.m., men 8 pm.) and Saturday (women 5 p.m., men 7 p.m.) at the Envision Athletic Centre.
– with files from TRU Athletics
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