Confident T-wolves off to Edmonton

After the doom and gloom of a season that dawned with an 0-4 start, the sun is shining a lot brighter these days on the UNBC Timberwolves women’s basketball team.

The Timberwolves spanked the previously undefeated University of Regina Cougars 81-78 last Saturday at the Northern Sport Centre, handing the Cougars their first loss of the season and knocking them off their perch as the top-ranked team in U Sports.

Thanks to the T-wolves, Regina is now ranked No. 3 in the country.

The weekend before that, unranked UNBC swept the perennially-tough UBC Thunderbirds in a two-game series in Prince George.

Now armed with a 3-5 record and brimming with the confidence that comes with beating two of the juggernauts of the Canada West conference, the T-wolves women will be back on the court today in Edmonton to take on the (1-5) MacEwan Griffins.

“The last two weekends versus two very strong teams were very good for us,” said UNBC head coach Sergey Shchepotkin. “We showed that with a 3-1 record and I am very happy about that. We started playing as a team and showed pretty good defence. I’m very happy with how the leaders played

“It’s very difficult to play against the No. 1 ranked team in Canada. The first day we just didn’t believe it could happen and when we started playing (Saturday) we knew we could play with them and they played really good. I was proud of them that they didn’t give up and had to fight to win.”

Maria Mongomo delivered her best game of the season Saturday against Regina – a 33-point, 10-rebound effort that reminded UNBC fans how valuable an asset the Spanish-born third-year forward can be.

— see UNBC MEN, page 10