Heat quelled by Spartans for weekend split

The Heat's Angela White (right) steps up for the ceremonial tip-off the seventh annual Shoot for the Cure game as part of a fundraising campaign for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. (Photo by Heat Athletics)

Saturday, January 18, 2014 SCHEDULE & RESULTS | BOX SCORE

UBC Okanagan Gymnasium, Kelowna, B.C.

KELOWNA, B.C. - A late charge fuelled by a successful full court pressure defense was not enough to overcome an early deficit as the UBC Okanagan Heat women’s basketball team fell to the visiting Spartans in a 59-50 result Saturday night to split the weekend in Kelowna.

The pressure defense employed by the visiting Trinity Western Spartans in the second and third quarters proved too much for the hometown Heat as they struggled to finish around the rim and from outside all night long, going 17-63 from the field, and just 1-11 from three-point range. Despite forcing four more turnovers than their opponents and getting deflections left and right, the Heat could not find ways to capitalize on their chances.

Still, the Heat gave the Spartans a good run in the final two and a half minutes of the game when they were down ten and decided to employ a full-court pressure defense that allowed the Heat to cut the deficit by as many as three at one point.

“We looked at the clock and said, ‘We’re down ten, let’s just go,’” said Heat assistant coach Bobby Mitchell postgame. “It’s our run and jump pressure, let’s just go, we have three, two and a half minutes to go, and we did a very good job at executing it.”

“It’s something that we work on at practice to use once in a while,” said rookie wing Shenelle Tamminen (Calgary, AB), “and I think we’re really good at executing something when we decided we want to do it.”

Tamminen has had big minutes for the Heat to start the second half of the season. Tonight she logged 29 minutes while collecting five rebounds and being a key factor in the interior defense.

“It feels really good that I have a support team behind me, and that when I do something … I’m not going to be punished for doing something wrong,” Tamminen added. “[The coaches] are just going to tell me what I did wrong and give me a chance to get it right.”

Tamminen’s presence was much needed in the absence of fourth-year post Krsytal Schouten, who found herself in foul trouble early on.

“It completely disrupted our game plan going in,” Mitchell said about Schouten’s foul woes. “We wanted to establish Krystal and those early fouls took the momentum away. It was hard to get it back. Some other players stepped up but we definitely missed her.”

Once again second-year Kayla McFadden (Pitt Meadows, BC) had a solid night, scoring 10 points and grabbing a team-high six rebounds. Ahead of her was third-year guard Emily Kanester (Vernon, BC) with a team-high 15 points on 6-9 shooting, the only Heat player seemingly able to find her touch consistently across the night.

Fifth-year guard Holly Strom, the Spartans’ leading scorer in last night’s matchup, did not play in tonight’s game, but her void was more than filled with the performance of Janelle Traber, who scored a game-high 18 points while also recording eight rebounds and three assists. Rookie Kayla Gordon chipped in 12 points and six rebounds before fouling out late in the fourth quarter.

The Heat are now 3-11 for the season, still in search for a back-to-back wins on the 2013-14 campaign. Meanwhile the Spartans improve to 3-11 themselves. The Heat hit the road to the Fraser Valley next weekend to square off against the Cascades. Tip-off Friday night is 6 p.m. at the Envision Athletic Centre. While the Spartans play host to the Thompson Rivers WolfPack.

HEAT NOTES: The Heat's Shoot for the Cure game night raised over $200 from donations and T-Shirt sales. The CIS Shoot for the Cure initiative has raised over $600,000 since it began seven years ago ... Statistical oddity: though the Heat shot only 27% from the floor, they outscored the Spartans by a 32-18 margin in the paint, and had 19 points off of turnovers. Clearly, the Heat's jumpshots were not falling well for them tonight.