A spirited effort from the UNBC women’s basketball team wasn’t enough to upset the undefeated Alberta Pandas.
The U of A defeated the T-Wolves 78-65 at the Charles Jago Northern Sports Centre on Friday.
Alberta took advantage of several open looks from three-point range from 5th year player Maddie Rogers who went 3 for 5 from downtown and led the Pandas with 18 points.
Vasiliki Louka led UNBC in points with 21 including a 9 for 13 performance on field goals.
Alberta shot 10 for 23 from beyond the arch while the Timberwolves shot a chilly 4 for 17.
UNBC Forward, Stacey Graham says they need to tighten up an area of their game ahead of Saturday’s rematch against the Pandas. “I think we need to talk more on defense and do a better job of getting open, pretty much all the basics you need to have to win at basketball.”
On the men’s side the Golden Bears of Alberta earned a hard-fought 78-69 decision over UNBC.
Alberta almost blew a 15-point lead they built up in the third quarter but the Timberwolves were unable to erase the entire deficit coming with in two points on a couple of occasions.
The T-Wolves trailed the rest of the way after taking a quick 8-3 lead in the first quarter.
Rhys Elliott of UNBC led all players with 21 points including an 8 for 20 showing on field goals
The Timberwolves were outrebounded 44-31 in the game.
Golden Bears Forward, Brody Clarke says they tried to use their size in the paint against a smaller squad like UNBC.
“We’re a really strong team when we go to the basket inside and post, it usually works well for us and I think we have a lot of mismatches so we tried to exploit it.”
Clarke had 16 points to go along with 9 defensive rebounds for Alberta.
Austin Waddoups led the Golden Bears in points with 19.
Both the Golden Bears and Pandas improve to 3-0 while each UNBC team drops to 0-3.
The rematches take place at 5 and 7PM from the Northern Sports Centre on Saturday.
