Despite win over Griffins, T-wolves eliminated from playoff race

They ended their 11-game slump in fine style Friday night, however it wasn’t enough to save the UNBC Timberwolves’ season.

The T-wolves did their part in a convincing 89-72 win over the visiting Grant MacEwan University Griffins but the post-game celebration in the UNBC locker room was brief and subdued. There were nervous moments while the players and coaches checked their phones for updates on the Canada West website waiting for another game two time zones away to end.

The news out of Winnipeg was not good for UNBC. The T-wolves learned the Brandon Bobcats overcame a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter and defeated the third-ranked Manitoba Bisons 90-87 to clinch the 12^th and final playoff spot.

It means the T-wolves (5-14) will miss the postseason for the first time in three years and their season will end Saturday when they take on the Griffins (2-17) to complete the weekend doubleheader at the Northern Sport Centre.

The T-wolves came out firing with the 1-2 offensive punch of fourth-year guards Tyrell Laing and Vova Pluzhnikov and by the fourth quarter each had accumulated enough points and a sufficient lead to enable T-wolves head coach Todd Jordan to make full use of his reserves on the bench.

Laing, the former Prince George Polar, shot a game-high 21 points and had four assists to stay on top of the conference scoring race averaging 21.9 per game.

After three games of being snakebit around the net, Pluzhnikov pushed the pace early and found his groove, ending up with 16 points six rebounds and four assists.

“We came prepared, the whole week we’ve been thinking about winning two games – we wanted to keep playing,” said Pluzhnikov. “It always feels good to start off well, with good energy, and show my teammates that I’m really into the game and I tried to come out as aggressive as possible.

“(Despite missing the playoffs) the mission is the same (Saturday), we’re going to come out and hit hard and try to get the win. “

Losing 11 straight after a promising 4-4 start was tough to stomach, but the T-wolves knew they were in for some growing pains with a rookie-laden lineup and just two returning starters.

“It’s been a tough stretch, teams adjusted to our game style and it’s been a learning process and we have a young team this year and we understand the process,” said Pluzhnikov, who turns 25 on Saturday. “We’ve been working on our mistakes and tried to fix some of those and today we solved some problems we had the last couple weeks.”

From the start of the season we came to the conclusion that me and Tyrell have to be in attack mode for 40 minutes. So every time we step on the court, that’s our goal, to set the pace, set the tone and just lead our team.”

The T-wolves’ supporting cast also came through for them. Saymon Loki, Fareed Shittu and fifth-year forward Anthony Hokanson each sunk 12 points.

Shittu continued to make a case for his own inclusion on the Canada West All-Rookie team when he hauled in eight defensive rebounds, three on offence, and led the T-wolves with six steals. Thee high-leaping Shittu hooked up with Laing for a spectacular alley-oop rim-grabber early in the third quarter that got the crowd buzzing.

Griffins’ sharpshooters Luke Harold and Deonte Doslov-Doctor showed their ability to hit from downtown several times in the second half to reduce the deficit and Jake Notice distinguished himself with an 18-point game, but the T-wolves’ lead was never threatened. They jumped ahead 29-15 in the first quarter, 54-29 at the half and took a 72-49 lead into the final 10 minutes.

“We tried to keep the gameplan really simple and that’s important when you’ve been struggling like we have,” said Jordan. “We just talked to the guys about playing with a lot of pace and trying to run as much as we could and play with a lot of energy and early on in particular I thought we did that.

“The basketball wasn’t pretty at times but we were able to build a lead, which was nice. It’s been awhile since we’ve played with a lead and it was good to come out with a win.”

The same teams meet again Saturday at 7 p.m.

Earlier in the day, in front of 1,600 fans at the NSC, the UNBC women defeated MacEwan 84-63 for their seventh-straight win. UNBC remains eighth in the standings heading into Saturday’s rematch with the Griffins (5 p.m. start).  The T-wolves and Lethbridge each have 10-9 records. The team that finishes eighth will host a single-game elimination opening-round playoff next week.