Friday night in Kelowna, the UNBC Timberwolves (0-6) dropped a 72-48 decision to the UBC Okanagan Heat (4-3). Lily Pink led all scorers Friday with 20 points while also supplying 10 rebounds and four assists. Amrit Manak and Viktoriia Filatova each responded with 12 for UNBC while Aurora Cabrera's 11 rebounds were a game-high.

The first quarter was a defensive battle for much of the early going as UBCO opened the first quarter with a 17-8 lead. The first-quarter buckets for UNBC came from Claire Huang, Cabrera and a triple from Filatova.  Missing some key offensive pieces on their side, the hosts did well to spread the ball around to as Aiko Williams (5) and Tennyson McCarthy (4) combined for nine points.

Huang continued her strong start for the TWolves with an early bucket in the second quarter. Then at the mid-way point she drew an offensive foul, but the Heat answered the Huang bucket with a 16-0 run, and led 33-10 with three minutes to go in the second. Stefanie Hart supplied five of those points while Pink chimed in with four.

The Heat run ended with a challenging reverse layup from  Manak. Manak would later add a jumper and a free-throw giving her five in the half, but the Heat took a 37-19 lead into the halftime break.
Tsuki Tsuzuki and Williams each had eight in the first-half for UBCO while Filatova's six were tops among Timberwolves. The top rebounders respective for each squad were UBCO's  Pink with seven, and Cabrera for UNBC with five.

Manak opened the third with a three, vaulting her into the team-lead in scoring with eight for UNBC. Huang then drilled a triple on the next possession as the TWolves attempted to claw into UBCO's lead. A 9-5 run to start the quarter got them back within 14. The TWolves and Heat played the third quarter to a 12-12 stalemate, but that meant UBCO remained ahead by 17 (49-31) with 10 minutes to go. The top third-quarter performer for the Heat was Pink who supplied eight of the 12 for her team. She led all scorers through 30 minutes with 13.

UBCO jumped out to a 10-3 run to begin the fourth as Pink and Kiana Kaczur hit from deep. Filatova supplied the three in response for UNBC, pushing her to double-digits for a fifth time in six games. A trio of rookies: Hazel Phillips, Summer Toor and Lorenn Caceres found the scoresheet for UNBC in the fourth and Manak also got to double-digits thanks to some successful free-throws,  but ultimately the gap was too large and UBCO ended the night with a 72-48 victory.

The. TWolves and Heat renew acquaintances tomorrow night at 6:30 pm.