The UBC Okanagan Heat cooked up their third win in their last four Canada West outings, taming the Brandon Bobcats 68-56 in women’s basketball play Friday night in Kelowna.
The Heat opened a double-digit lead nine minutes into the game, and never looked back.
Second-year guard Sarah Allison (Surrey) poured in 19 points to lead the 3-4 Heat.
Fellow sophomore guard Emily Kanester (Vernon) chipped in with five rebounds, four steals and seven points. Fulton grad Maddie Kaneda supplied five points.
“We played three good quarters of basketball,” said Heat coach Heather Semeniuk.
“We need to work on keeping a consistent game.”
The Heat led by 24 going into the fourth, but sloppy play allowed Brandon (0-7) to win the fourth quarter, out-scoring the Heat 22-10.
The Heat are No. 1 in Canada for free throws at 81 per cent (132-of-163) average. Kanester went 3-3 Friday, and has made her last 18 shots from the charity stripe.
The Bobcats second-year forward Aimee Johnston (Brandon) had a team-high 14 points.
Meanwhile, the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men’s basketball team are within a game of .500 in Canada West after a 78-64 victory over the visiting Regina Cougars at the Tournament Capital Centre.
“It wasn’t pretty but at this time of year, it is a lot about winning ugly,” said WolfPack head coach Scott Clark.
“I can remember one year that we were a game under .500 and grinding out a ‘butt ugly’ win. From there, we gained momentum and leap frogging and getting it going as a group. These games have the opportunity to galvanize a group.”
TRU held a 40-29 advantage at the recess, led by game MVP Kevin Pribilsky (5th year, guard, Victoria) with 24 points.
Akeem Pierre (4th year, guard, Calgary) and Will Ondrik (2nd year, forward, Vernon) each had a dozen points, and Brett Rouault (3rd year, guard, Vernon) had 11.
Regina was led by Connor Burns (4th year, forward, Regina) with 19 points and 13 rebounds.
The TRU women bowed 84-64 to the No. 3 ranked Cougars Friday night.
The 4-3 WolfPack led 21-19 after the first quarter, but trailed by only one at the half. Regina outscored TRU 27-9 in the final quarter.
Regina was led by Michelle Clark (5th year, guard, Westlake Village, Cali.) who had 23 points.
Vernon’s Diane Schuetze had 14 points and nine boards for TRU.
