Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
-With files from UNBC Athletics
PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. – Finding themselves trailing by 24 points at half-time, the MacEwan Griffins busted out on a 14-2 run to open the second half before their comeback efforts fell short in an 80-62 loss to the UNBC Timberwolves in their final game of the Canada West women's basketball season.
It's certainly not the note they hoped to end the campaign on as they will go into the off-season on a 14-game losing streak after finishing 2-18 in the standings to miss the playoffs for a third-straight year.
"It's certainly not the season anyone anticipating us having," said Griffins head coach Katherine Adams. "I know there's a lot of disappointment in that, but there's also a lot of hope and optimism.
"We say this a lot, but we're still relatively young and this group knows that they've got another year together for sure, and for a lot of them another two. They're optimistic about where we're going and take this season as a learning opportunity and take everything we can from it to grow and get better so we can make sure next year looks a little different."
Chief among that learning process is figuring out how to play every minute of every game like they did in the second half on Saturday night. They outscored the T'Wolves 18-11 in the third quarter and 41-35 in the final 20 minutes.
"In the first half, we were kind of getting outworked a little bit, but we just came out ready in the second half," said MacEwan's Shannon Majeau, who finished with a huge double-double of 22 points and 13 rebounds to pace the Griffins. "It was our last 20 minutes of the season, so we just left it all out there. Everyone was giving those extra effort plays that got us those 50-50 balls back."
Mackenzie Farmer added 16 points for the Griffins, while Darian Mahmi chipped in 12 and Hayley Lalor had seven points and eight rebounds.
As has been a familiar problem for the Griffins this season, they started the contest slowly and were forced to dig out of a hole again. The contest marked the ninth time this season that the Griffins faced a double-digit deficit after the first quarter, and it was also the ninth time where they never led once in the game.
"Certainly not the first half that we wanted," said Adams. "We found some good rhythm at the end of the game yesterday and I thought we could build on that moving forward into today's game and certainly didn't get the start we wanted in the first half.
"I thought the girls really responded well in the second half and made some good adjustments and just competed a bit harder. We had some individuals who really took it upon themselves to get us going and make it a completely different game."
Maria Mongomo led UNBC with 29 points and 13 rebounds to secure the Canada West scoring title, while Emma vanBruinessen continued her tough post play against the Griffins with 17 rebounds to go with seven points. Emily Holmes chipped in 13 points for UNBC, who finish the season 11-9.
"I really appreciate it, and I think that it's a good example of for how working hard always gets a good result," said Mongomo, who also finished first in Canada West in steals with 67 after outpacing Farmer (tied for second at 59) in their weekend sweep of MacEwan. "I've been working hard and focusing on what I had to do, and this was the result."
While UNBC is off to a first-round playoff match at Lethbridge (11-9) on Feb. 14, the Griffins head into an off-season with assessments yet to come.
Said Adams: "That'll certainly be something we delve into a little bit more in the coming weeks to say, 'what exactly can we take away from this and where do we go from here?' "
