BURNABY, B.C. — In the shadows of Thursday's thrilling overtime win over powerhouse Alaska Anchorage, Saturday's extended homestand-ending contest against the last-place Alaska Nanooks loomed as a potential trap game for the hosts.

Yet after an 83-68 Simon Fraser victory in a matinee performance at the West Gym, maybe it's OK to exhale and admit that the Red Leafs have indeed turned a corner, and in the process saved their 2023-24 Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball season.

Junior guard Sophia Wisotzki of Langley B.C., for cautionary reasons, did not return following a third-quarter collision with Nanooks' guard Emma McKenney, yet still scored a game-high 18 points in 22 minutes as the Red Leafs (13-11, 5-6 GNAC) won for the third straight time as part of a successful four-game homestand, allowing them to hold at least a share of the conference's sixth-and-final playoff berth. Alaska fell to 4-17 overall and 2-9 in the GNAC following its loss.

What seemed clear afterwards is that there is no time to relax.

"We have to keep it going here," said SFU head coach Bruce Langford, whose team plays four of its final seven conference regular season games on the road.

"I think we can beat anyone on a given day," he added. "But can we be consistent?"

With four wins in its past six games, the answer to that question seems to be at least 67 per cent in the affirmative.

Yet a feisty and physical squad of Nanooks seemed more than ready to disprove the notion over the opening half of play.

The school formerly known as Alaska Fairbanks may not be the conference's deepest, but they are tight and talented in their starting five, and off the opening tip Saturday, their inside physicality was enough that it caught the Red Leafs looking for their lunch money.

The Nanooks outscored the Red Leafs 28-14 in the paint over the first two quarters, and after Kayla Johnson and Emma Wass scored back-to-back inside buckets over the final 43 seconds of the first half, the game was deadlocked at 38-38.

"I thought they played hard and are getting better as the season has progressed, and they have good size," Langford said of the Nanooks. "We're experimenting with a smaller, quicker line-up, so we can't let the ball get up the floor if we're going to play against that. We've got to cut people off sliding in the lane. We didn't body them enough early and I thought in the first quarter especially that really hurt us."
 

The second half was a completely different story.

SFU outscored Alaska 29-13 over a game-turning third quarter, including a most impressive 18-4 quarter-closing run in which they shot 7-of-12 from the field while limiting the Nanooks to just 2-of-9 shooting.

Red Leafs' guard Makenna Gardner (junior, Langley, B.C.) hit two three-pointers over that spurt of 6:23, including the nicest shot of the night when she pulled up off the break from the top of the arc and unfurled a shot that did not even graze the iron.

Senior Jessica Wisotzki also hit a pair of triples over that span while junior forward Gemma Cutler (North Vancouver, B.C.), playing 21 minutes off the bench, took a pair of passes and scored on two great cuts to the rim.

Cutler finished with eight points, nine rebounds (including five on the offensive glass), and three blocks, while Jessica Wisotzki – the guard/forward from Langley, B.C., finished with 16 points.

As well, sophomore Myrlaine Shelvey with a pair of second-half hoops, one off her explosive hesitation dribble, and the other while completing an and-one free throw after playing through hard contact on a reverse lay-in off a baseline drive. The guard/forward from Langley, B.C., finished with 13 points, two days after scoring a career-high 19 against Alaska Anchorage.
 

Arman Dulai, the junior guard from Surrey, B.C., who along with Shelvey made her third straight start of the season, hit her first three three-point shots and finished with a conference career-high in points with 11.

McKenney led four Nanooks in double-figures scoring with 16 points. Emma Wass had 15, Johnson 12 and Ellen Silva 11.

Afterwards, Langford acknowledged a rise in his team's overall play, but warned that with a road swing upcoming Thursday beginning in Ellensburg against the Central Washington Wildcats, that the Jekyll-and-Hyde tendencies of early January could still re-surface if care was not taken.

"I want to see us have a fire that we want to compete and let's get out and do it... it's something we have talked about quite a bit," he said.

When asked about the good habits they've shown over the current three-game win streak, he added: "I haven't seen it consistently. I think it skips. But we're getting better."
Now, its next two games have morphed into something resembling a potential weekend of redemption.

"Next we go to Central (Thursday, 5:15 p.m.), and Central is a tenacious pitbull terrier... they have two outstanding kids (Asher Cai and Sunny Huerta who have averaged a combined 39 points per game this season) and we have to out-compete them."

Cai and Huerta combined for 30 points back on Jan. 13 when the Wildcats beat the Red Leafs 77-65 at the West Gym.

Next Saturday (4:15 p.m.), SFU caps the road swing in Idaho against a Northwest Nazarene team which beat them 61-60 on Jan. 11, after the Nighthawks hit a free throw with a second remaining. In that game, SFU blew a 10-point lead over the final seven minutes en route to the loss.
 

SISTERS SUPREME
How good a four-game homestand did the Wisotzki sisters have?

Besides being the driving force behind a 3-1 record, the sisters scored a combined 176 points in the four games.

Vs. Montana St. Billings: Jessica (17), Sophia (24) — Total 41
Vs. Seattle Pacific: Jessica (23), Sophia (29) — Total 52
Vs. Alaska Anchorage: Jessica (23), Sophia (26) — Total 49
Vs. Alaska: Jessica (16), Sophia (18) — Total 34

All told, the sisters averaged a combined 44.0 points per game, with Sophia averaging 24.25 points and Jessica 19.75 points.

In addition, the sisters shot a combined 27-of-55 from three-point range, good enough for a sizzling 49 per cent success rate.

Sophia went 13-of-25 (52 per cent) while Jessica went 14-of-30 (47 per cent).

That's pretty hard to beat.
 
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