The Quest University Kermodes women's basketball team took care of business at home, winning back to back games and tying a school record for wins in a season in the process.
The Kermodes disposed of the pesky Langara Falcons with relative ease on Saturday (Jan. 26), as they were in the lead the entire game and picked up the 78-59 win.
Today wasn't a pretty win but we'll take it, said Quest head coach Dany Charlery. Langara is a team that has a lot of energy and they stayed in the game at times because they had more energy than us.
Quest's trademark balanced offense was in full effect, with four player hitting double digits. Shayna Cameron led the way with 12 points, while Katrin Sandbichler had 11 points and 11 rebounds. The game marked the return for former Kermode Charlotte Lau, who continued her studies at Langara after graduating from Quest last year. Charlotte's younger sister Cynthia Lau is a current Kermode and Charlery said he was impressed by the defensive play of the little sister.
She played really well defensively for us, he said. Last time we played Langara, Charlotte made some big shots for them. I think Cynthia and the rest of the girls did a much better job on her today.
Charlotte outscored her younger sister 7-6 but Cynthia grabbed three rebounds and snagged five steals off the bench. Quest guard Natahsa Weninger was another solid contributor off the bench, scoring five points and picking up one steal in only seven minutes.
The Kermodes started the weekend off on the right foot with a narrow 49-48 win over the second place Douglas College Royals on Friday (Jan. 25). Cameron hit the game clinching shot for Quest and she led the way with 13 points. Cassidy Osterling added 12 points and Sandbichler had a team high 16 rebounds.
It was a big win for us, Charlery said. It was neck to neck the whole way and it's nice for us to pull out a close game like that.
Quest improved to nine wins and six losses on the season with the pair of victories and are in fourth place in the Pacwest. The Kermodes sit one win out of second place, which would mean a first round bye in the playoffs. The win also ties the school record of nine wins, which was set last year.
It was a different story for the men, who picked up a win over Douglas on Friday but were outplayed by Langara on Saturday.
The Kermodes came out strong against the top ranked Langara Falcons but couldn't play a full 40 minutes, said head coach Sean Shook.
We made some mental mistakes early and missed a lot of easy shots, he said. Our guys just couldn't make the adjustments we needed them to as the game went on and it cost us.
Quest was only down by one at the end of the first quarter but Langara pulled away in the second and cruised to an 86-54 win. The Kermodes shot only 29 per cent from the field and only made 18 field goals in the contest.
We shot 31 per cent in the first half and I think we hit a few threes early and fell in love with them, he said. We use Langara as a measuring stick and I think skill wise we're pretty close but we need to work on some of the mental parts of our game.
Shook pointed out that Quest was badly outrebounded by Langara, especially on the offensive glass. Langara had 62 rebounds compared to 36 for the Kermodes. Quest's Connor Heinrichs led the way with 11 points and five rebounds, while Cartiea French-Toney had a team high seven assists.
The weekend wasn't a total write-off for the men, as they defeated Douglas 97-83 on Friday.
That game was a complete 180 from tonight, Shook said. We did a very good job of boxing them out all night and made some pretty good adjustments.
The Kermodes were up four at the half but took over in the final quarter, outscoring the Royals by eight. French-Toney and Mike Zayas-Duran had 19 points each, with Big Jesse Norris picking up a team high 11 rebounds.
The men have a record of seven wins and eight losses and sit in third place in the Pacwest. Shook said the team's next road trip is critical to the team's placement in the standings.
We want to finish in that third spot because you never want to be in the situation where you need help in the final weekend to get in, he said.
The teams will hit the road for a date with the Columbia Bible College Bearcats on Friday (Feb. 1) and then take on the Kwantlen Eagles on Saturday (Feb. 2). The next home game will take place on Feb. 8 when VIU comes to town.
For more information on the teams, visit www.questkermodes.ca.
