After a tough loss Friday night to the Calgary Dinos, the hometown UBCO Okanagan Heat rebounded Saturday with a solid 66-58 victory over Lethbridge in Canada West women’s basketball action.
Fifth-year guard Madison Kaneda connected on a key layup with 3 1/2 minutes remaining, then nailed a three-pointer 30 seconds later to help seal with the win at The Furnace.
Kaneda finished the night with 15 points, four rebounds and three assists was named player of the game for the Heat, now 5-8.
A trio of young players contributed for the Heat, as Emily Kanesterf inished with 10 points and five rebounds, while rookies Jessica Jezdarehee and Kayla McFadden had 10 points and four rebounds, and seven points and six rebounds, respectively.
“I think they want to play so bad,” head coach Heather Semeniuk said of her younger players.
“Her time will come,” she said of Jessica. “She’s a great kid. Emily, she always brings the guts to the games for us. She’s a real warrior. But you watch for more from Jessica and Kayla too.”
On Friday, the Heat came up just short against No. 7 Calgary, losing 74-71 to the Dinos.
Sarah Allison’s three-point effort to tie the game in the dying seconds just missed the mark.
Allison poured in a game high 24 points for the Heat. Both Roslyn Huber and Emily Kanester fouled out midway through the foutth quarter, but not before contributing 10 rebounds and 11 points, respectively.
The Heat are on the road next weekend to play the Saskatchewan Huskies on Friday night.
Heat men
The UBC Okanagan men couldn’t convert home court advantage into victories as they dropped a pair of close games over the weekend.
On Friday night, in a defensive battle, the Calgary Dinos downed the Heat 59-56.
Player of the game Anwar Faza led the Heat with 15 points.
On Saturday, the Heat played well but couldn’t match the hot shooting of the Lethbridge Pronghorns en route to an 81-74 loss.
Dave Mackay was named the Heat’s player of the game after posting 13 points and six rebounds and providing energy in the high-scoring, up-tempo affair.
The Heat had control out of the gates, but a few lapses in decision making allowed the Pronghorns to build momentum through their transition offense.
“Lethbridge is a team that likes to shoot early in the shot clock and shoot threes, and to slow that down the best remedy is to be balanced on offense and to score on offense, and that slows down their transition, but we had too many lapses there,” said Heat coach Pete Gurasci.
“We just had too many lapses throughout the game where we didn’t enforce our identity and Lethbridge got to play their game.”
The Heat (2-11) will travel to Saskatoon this weekend to take on the Saskatchewan Huskies.
