Prince George, B.C. – Friday night at the Northern Sport Centre in Prince George, the short-staffed UNBC Timberwolves women (2-7) battled the Lethbridge Pronghorns (8-3) to a gutsy 82-62 defeat. With only an eight-player rotation, Sergey Schepotkin's club put forth an impressive showing to kick of 2024. Rookie Viktoriia Filatova led the charge with a career-best 17 points along with four. Rebounds and two assists while sophomore guard Adaiah Tupas-Singh chimed in with 10 points and six boards. Veteran Tobore Okome finished with a team-high 14 points along with eight rebounds for Lethbridge while Kyra Collier supplied 14 rebounds to compliment her eight points. It marked the seventh straight win for the Pronghorns.
 
Lethbridge jumped out to a 25-18 advantage in the opening 10. Tobore Okome sprinted out of the gates with seven points and two rebounds for the visitors while Viktoriia Filatova answered with a team-high six points on three-of-five shooting for UNBC. Other first quarter highlights for UNBC included a deep three-ball from Bella Mesquita which helped close the gap to four points (16-12). UNBC matched the Pronghorns at six rebounds apiece in the opening quarter.
 
Kyra Collier (five points, four rebounds) and Kamryn DeKlerk (five points, four rebounds) combined for 10 of the 17 Lethbridge points in the second quarter. Not to be outdone was TWolves guard Adaiah Tupas-Singh who notched five of her 10 points in the second – three of which came off a terrific drive to the hoop which resulted in an 'and 1.' Hanna Busic, Amrit Manak and Rebecca Landry all supplied threes, and the TWolves went into the break trailing by single digits at 42-33.
 
The best offensive quarter of the night for Lethbridge came in the third as they went 10-of-20 from the floor en route to a 26-point effort. Piper Dobbelsteyn had six points, two rebounds, and two assists while five other Pronghorns found the scoresheet. Defensively Lethbridge were full marks, holding UNBC to just six-of-21 shooting while grabbing 18 rebounds. But rookie Viktoriia Filatova continued to make her mark, supplying six more points to her totals in the third while Adaiah Tupas-Singh added five more.  
 
Defensively the TWolves answered positively in the final period by holding Lethbridge to just six field goals on 20 attempts. Seven of the 14 Lethbridge points came from forward Abby Graves while once again it was Filatova supplying the spark for UNBC with five more points. Sophia Fuller, Halle Tiessen and Amrit Manak also found paydirt in the fourth for the Timberwolves as they continued to grind and hustle despite only having a three-player bench.
 
When the final buzzer sounded, Lethbridge was able to celebrate their seventh victory in a row, an 82-62 final. Yet even despite the loss, the underlying numbers for UNBC were impressive in defeat. The TWolves finished the game 10/11 from the free-throw line, and they drilled 10 threes over the course of the night.
 
Viktoriia Filatova's new career-best 17-point effort allowed her to capture Mr. Mike's Player of the Game honours. Tomorrow night the TWolves will get a big boost with the return of Sveta Boykova to their lineup as they once again clash with the Pronghorns. Tip off in the rematch goes at 5:00 pm from the NSC.