Misskey battles back from crash; BU falls to UBC

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This article was published 08/01/2023 (670 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Chelsea Misskey had one scary thought when her Kia Rio flew off the Trans Canada Highway and rolled four times.

It had nothing to do with her final season of Brandon University Bobcats basketball, which came dangerously close to ending right then and there.

“I’m just so terrified to look behind me because I don’t know what I would do if she wasn’t OK,” Misskey said of Louise, her Bernese Mountain Dog in the back seat.

“I turn around and she’s standing up looking at me wide-eyed and panting like ‘It’s OK, we’re fine.’”

Misskey had tried to pass a semi-truck on her way back to Saskatoon on Dec. 13. She was westbound, hardly past Moosomin, Sask., when she hit black ice and spun out, colliding with the truck that launched her hatchback into the ditch, and beyond.

The vehicle initially stopped on its side, then flopped back to its upright position. The roof caved in on the passenger side, shattering the windshield, Misskey said, yet none of the airbags deployed.

Less than a month later, the Bobcat captain led her women’s basketball team (0-12) with 10 points in a 77-49 loss to the UBC Thunderbirds (7-3) in Canada West action at the Healthy Living Centre on Saturday.

While an ambulance ride to the Southeast Integrated Care Centre in Moosomin wasn’t part of her holiday plans — nor her father’s, as he immediately made the four-and-a-half hour drive to take Misskey home — the experience gave her some perspective.

“It was definitely a miracle and opened my eyes a lot, opened my eyes to how quickly it can be over,” Misskey said. “It made me really grateful, being home for the holidays and getting to come back here and have the opportunity to play my last semester of basketball.”

Misskey wore a neck brace for a few days and had numerous chiropractor appointments to deal with the whiplash.

While she planned to get a ride back to Brandon, she was able to use the write-off money from her car to purchase an SUV and come back partway through her team’s two-a-day training camp on Jan. 1. Unlike her fearless, pin-balling drives through the paint throughout her six years with the Bobcats, Misskey kept her new whip untouched, dialling back her speedometer to a comfortable 90 kilometres per hour.

She worked with BU athletic therapist Schad Richea for a few days and was cleared to practise just two days before the weekend doubleheader, which was at least as physical as a rollover.

“This game, definitely,” Misskey said. “My accident was unexpected, it was quick and it was over before you knew it. (Saturday) was just ‘keep fighting.’ They don’t let up the pressure and we necessarily weren’t ready for that at the beginning, and we tried to adjust to it as best as we could as a team but it was really intense.

“We did what we could to get through it and I think we stayed as positive as we could the whole time, never got down on each other and that’s a really big accomplishment for us.”

The Bobcats came out with a totally different energy level than they did on Friday. Their press forced a pair of early turnovers and a shot-clock violation.

But it took less than four minutes for the Thunderbirds to realize five players pressing in the backcourt makes for easy lob passes and layups, but by then Brandon got to seven points, something it didn’t do in the first 10 minutes a night earlier.

Brandon gave up a few too many offensive rebounds and easy passes under the hoop, however, and still trailed 17-14 after the first quarter.

The Thunderbirds pulled away in the second, with all 26 points coming from the paint or the free-throw line.

Brandon only made one shot in the first five minutes of the frame but hit a few timely threes, including Misskey’s first points on the last possession of the half.

UBC led 43-29 at the break.

The third quarter was a defensive slugfest, or someone boarded the rims during halftime. It was 4-4 six minutes in, with Brandon scoring a pair of hard-earned layups on pretty passing plays.

UBC rattled an 8-0 run after that and stretched the lead to 62-38 with 10 minutes to go.

The fourth started exactly the same, with both teams managing just four points in six minutes before a T-Birds burst to seal it.

Misskey rattled off seven points in a minute to finish with a team-high 10 points. Winnipegger Olivia Weekes paced UBC with 12.

Brandon has its best chance at wins coming up this Friday and Saturday, as the 0-10 Manitoba Bisons visit the HLC.

“It’s been a tough season, not winning any games, that’s really hard on everyone so finding ways to keep everybody up,” Misskey said. “You got to find joy in the little things so that’s what we were trying to do.

“We fought until the end. It wasn’t enough but it will be, eventually.”

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