KELOWNA, BC – Incredibly for the third straight Friday night the UBC Okanagan Heat played themselves into overtime. This time the MacEwan Griffin's women's basketball joined the Heat in the extra time thriller as the Heat won their second straight game in OT 85-80 at UBC Okanagan in Kelowna.
The game was looking in control by the home squad, leading 65-51 after the third, and UBC Okanagan even held a double-digit lead with four minutes to play.
The fourth quarter was all Griffins however, as they outscored the host team 23-9 in the final quarter, leading scorer on the night, Megan Wood, finished with a game high 34 points before fouling out, with a minute left to play. Wood scored 11 in the quarter before exiting the game.
The fourth quarter ended with the teams knotted at 74, the previous two ovemrtime games for UBC Okanagan ended locked up at 70 after the 40 minutes.
In overtime the Griffins jumped out to an early lead 78-74, before the Heat scored 11 of the next 13 points to ensure the win 85-80.
Third year guard Jessica Jazdarehee, was the Heat's standout player for the night, with a game-best of 16 points and five rebounds. Starting forward Kayla McFadden supported Jazdarehee with 14 points and eight rebounds, four of her 14 in the overtime.
Sophomore forward Shenelle Tamminen, who scored 14 points off the bench, highlighted by a pair of successful 3-pointers. As a team UBC Okanagan shot just 2-13 (15.4%) from beyond the arc on the night with Tamminen netting both.
The Griffins were even less successful from three point land as they hit on just 1-16 from long distance. Kendall Lydon went 1-7 from three and finished third on the Griffin's with nine points. Megan Wood had six rebounds to go with her 34 points and Kelley Fagan of the Griffins gave good support to Wood contributing with a game-high of 16 rebounds along with Kelly O'Hallahan who got 16 points and 13 rebounds on the night.
With the win the UBC Okanagan Heat now have a 3-2 record and look to get to .500 in conference play and pull even with the Griffins who now stand at 3-2 with a win tomorrow.
The two teams will battle once again tomorrow, after today's nail-biting affair, in Kelowna as the Heat will once again host the Griffins. Tip-off on Saturday is 5 p.m.
Catch the action live on canadawest.tv