UNBC women nip Bobcats, male T-wolves also win

By the narrowest of margins, the UNBC Timberwolves clawed out a victory Friday night in Brandon.

They beat the Bobcats 66-65, but it took some late-game dramatics to make that happen.

Down by a point with seven seconds left in the game, Vasiliki Louka sunk her lay-up to put the T-wolves ahead, then had to fight off Keisha Cox on an inbound play in the dying seconds. Louka came up with a block, her fourth of the game, to swat away Cox’s lay-up attempt.

The 10th-place T-wolves improved their Canada West women’s basketball record to 7-8 while Brandon dropped to 2-11.

UNBC jumped out to a 13-7 lead after the first quarter, the only quarter in which they outscored the Bobcats, who trailed by just two points, down 28-26 at the half. The UNBC lead was down to 44-43 after three quarters.

Louka led the way offensively with 20 points and also contributed 11 rebounds. UNBC forward Maria Mongomo continued to sizzle in the second half of the season, after being hampered by a knee injury. She finished with 18 points and had 15 rebounds, 11 of which were in the defensive end. She also had four steals.

For the Bobcats, Lauren Anderson was the top scorer with 20 and had nine rebounds. Cox finished with 10 points, 12 rebounds and four steals. The rematch is set for today in Brandon at 3 p.m. PT. In the men’s game that followed, the T-wolves defeated the Bobcats 85-79. This one was close throughout. UNBC led 26-23 after 10 minutes, they held a 45-42 edge at halftime and were ahead 65-60 at threequarter time.

As he has done so often this year, forward Jovan Leamy came off the bench and emerged as one of the most productive T-wolves with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Volo Pluzhnikov also made his presence felt against the Bobcats with 21 points and Anthony Hokanson had a 17-point game, while Vaggelis Loukas chipped in with seven points and 10 rebounds.

Tyson Cooper put up 22 points for the Bobcats and his teammate Jonathan Range collected 21 points and 11 rebounds.

It was the third-straight win for the T-wolves (7-8) and they took over the eighth-place spot in the Canada West standings the Bobcats (6-7) held heading into the game.

The teams meet again today at 5 p.m. PT in Brandon.