In his last home game, Dan Stark crossed one item off his bucket list.
Saturday night, for the first time in his five-year university/college career Stark dunked the basketball in a game.
At 26, making a comeback after three seasons away from the sport, it’s not so easy to lift his six-foot-five, 240-pound body high enough to get into slam position – like he used to do with regularity playing high school ball for the Kelly Road Roadrunners.
He’s now the oldest guy on his team but it didn’t show when Stark stole the ball, ran the length of the floor and jammed it in to set the early tone for T-wolves. They rolled to a 101-91 victory over the Fraser Valley Cascades to complete a two-game weekend sweep which all but clinched a playoff spot in front of a near-capacity crowd of about 1,200 at the Northern Sport Centre.
“I hadn’t dunked in a game since high school – some of my last games in high school were my last dunks and all through my college and university career I hadn’t done it,” said Stark. “I’ve been telling Todd (T-wolves head coach Jordan) that that’s all I need to die happy in this league. I finally got it and I’m excited.”
For a good chunk of the first half Saturday, the Timberwolves couldn’t miss from three-point land. Virtually everything they tossed from beyond the arc turned to gold and nothing resembled a brick. By the time the shooting stopped for the intermission the T-wolves’ first-half tally was 17 three-point swishes, six misses and a 69-46 lead.
“We caught fire and we just kept letting it go and they were dropping,” said UNBC forward Jovan Leamy. “That’s not something that happened just because of tonight, it’s because of the work we’ve been putting in (in practice) and it showed tonight.
“I wasn’t here last year but for us to come from where we were last year (4-16) it’s amazing to get into playoffs.”
Leamy went through a hot stretch of the second quarter in which he hit 4-for-4 on the way to a 28-point game. Vova Pluzhnikov, the player of the game Friday in UNBC’s 97-93 overtime win over Fraser Valley, had 17 points in the rematch, while James Agyeman had 11 points and six assists.
Fraser Valley forward Mark Johnson did what he could to lead his young team to an upset over a more experienced UNBC squad, finishing with 28 points and 13 rebounds. Andrew Morris collected 19 points and Vick Toor had 12.
The T-wolves’ torrid pace dropped off in the second half but they still managed to hit triple figures for the first time this season in their 10-point victory. They were outscored 20-16 in the third quarter and 25-19 in the fourth.
“I think that was the difference, that hot start kind of let us ward off their pushes later in the game,” said Stark. “It’s been a long time since I’ve played with a team this cohesive and this powerful so hopefully we can do some things in the playoffs, but just getting here this far has been a milestone for me.”
The T-wolves finished 10-10. It’s the only time other than 2015 – when they competed in the weaker Explorer Division of Canada West and made playoffs for the first time – that UNBC hasn’t finished a CIS/U Sports season with a losing record.
“We put ourselves in a pretty good spot and I don’t want to jinx it but I think more likely than not we’ll be in playoffs,” said Jordan.
“Any time you shoot like that (first half) the law of averages says you can’t maintain that and in the first half we were on our guys about defending and we could have been better in that end of the floor but we got the job done and got two this weekend and that’s the main thing.”
