PRINCE GEORGE, British Columbia – Rookie Madison Landry scored seven straight points as the UNBC Timberwolves overcame a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Trinity Western Spartans 82-81 Saturday night at the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre in Prince George, B.C.

"Tonight was a tough battle that we ended up on the losing end of in terms of momentum and offensive decision-making. I thought we followed the game plan for the first three quarters and especially for a few stretches really maintained the game by not stopping the clock," commented TWU head coach Cheryl Jean-Paul. "But when the clock stops every 20 seconds for the last 8 minutes it really prevented us from playing with tempo and finding the scoring looks that got us there in the first place." 

"This will be a good test to see our resolve and commitment to getting better from tough losses. To come out with a split is one positive, it would have been nice to get both but now it's on to the next." 

The Timberwolves, who trailed by 12 with under five minutes to play in the game finished on a 14-3 run to earn their first win on the season and move to 1-5 in Canada West conference play. The loss drops the Spartans to 4-2 on the year. 

Vasaliki Louka led the way with 19 points for UNBC, including three foul shots down the stretch. Maria Mongomo had 17 and Landry finished with 16. 

Kylie Pozniak got the rally started with an old fashioned three-point play to cut the lead to nine and set the tone for the comeback. The formula: driving to the basket, making foul shots and playing aggressive defence. 

With 1:10 to go, and the Timberwolves still down six Landry took over. First she made two free throws, then with 24 seconds left took a feed from Louka and drained a three to make it a one-point game. 

Nine seconds later she stole the ball on defence, ran the length of the court and was fouled driving to the basket. Two more made free throws later and it was UNBC in front for the first time since the first half. 

For the Spartans it was a disappointing finish after overcoming an early deficit and taking control with a fast-paced offence and a defence that limited UNBC's top offence threats Louka and Maria Mongomo to a combined two points in the third quarter. 

"If you look at the third quarter, when we were able to maintain the tempo we had the game in hand," Spartans head coach Cheryl Jean-Paul said. "I don't know if I've ever seen that many three-point plays in one quarter, that was extraordinary." 

Third year forward Tessa Ratzlaff (Abbotsford, B.C.)  led the Spartans with 21 points while fourth year forward Kayla Gordon (Prince George, B.C.) added 20 and nine rebounds. 

"There's a lot for us to learn from this," Jean-Paul said. "We've had some solid wins, we've had some battles throughout this entire first semester, a game like this is going to give us something to reevaluate our shot selection at the end of the game, how we chose to play with the lead, what I ran coming out of bounds, my timeouts, who we had on the floor, those are all things as a coaching staff we have to go back and reevaluate." 

The Timberwolves got off to a hot start as Louka won the opening tip and proceeded to score the game's first basket. The third-year forward was perfect from the floor and the line in the opening quarter, scoring nine of UNBC's 23 first quarter points. Her counterpart Ratzlaff was her equal, scoring nine of Trinity Western's 21 points and didn't miss from the floor or the charity stripe either. 

Both teams had their best runs of the opening half in the second quarter. The Spartans scored seven straight to open their biggest lead of the half at five points, but UNBC came right back with six straight to regain the edge. The lead changed eight times in the half, with the Spartans taking a five-point lead into the break at 46-41. 

Trinity Western tightened up on defence in the third quarter and the Timberwolves offence hit a dry spell as the visitors built a 15-point lead at 67-52. 

The Timberwolves hit the road next weekend as they visit the University of the Fraser Valley for games on Friday and Saturday. 

The Spartans are back at home and welcome Regina for a doubleheader Friday and Saturday. 

-UNBC-

-TW-