Playing the Alberta Golden Bears men’s basketball team has been a bit of a nightmare for virtually every U Sports Canada West team they’ve faced this season.
As the UNBC Timberwolves were reminded Friday afternoon in Edmonton in a 34-point loss.
The defending Canada West champions have now won 20 of their 21 games in 2017-18, the latest a 98-64 victory over the T-wolves. Five Bears shooters hit double figures in points in the opener of the best-of-three quarterfinal playoff series.
Six-foot-eight post Brody Clarke drew special attention but still managed 18 points eight rebounds and four assists in just 23 minutes of playing time. Clarke didn’t need to be on the floor the whole game with six-foot-seven forward Mamadou Gueye putting up a game-high 23 points while snagging seven rebounds. Guard Nolan Woodward came off the bench to collect 12 points in 17 minutes and starting guards Geoff Pippus and Austin Waddoups each unleashed a 10-point wallop Friday.
“They come at you with waves of guys and they’re deep and we got stops early on but we played a bit tentative offensively and got down a bit and then we were in battle-back mode,” said T-wolves head coach Todd Jordan.
“For 20 or 25 minutes of the game I thought we were pretty neck-and-neck with them. But there were other little pockets of the game where they beat us up on the offensive glass and that made it tough on us. They’re one of the best teams in the country (ranked No. 3) and you’ve got to be totally locked in mentally and physically for 40 minutes. We were there for parts of the game today but not the entire game and they have enough firepower to beat you up in those stretches.”
The T-wolves were still within eight points of the Bears with four minutes left in the first half but they couldn’t match their opponents’ accurate strikes. Alberta shot 51.5 per cent from the field, hit 11 of 23 from three-point range and was deadly from the free throw line, sinking 19 of 23 attempts.
For the T-wolves, Vova Pluzhnikov and Jovan Leamy each collected 16 points and Marcus MacKay hit for 14. They tried to use their three-point shooting to stay close and made 10 of 29 attempts, but found the net from the field only 38.1 per cent of the time and were outrebounded 44-30. Alberta dominated the defensive boards by a 29-11 count.
“That’s something we have to be better at (in Game 2 today),” said Jordan. “We turned it over 19 times and we gave up 15 offensive rebounds and to beat a team like Alberta we’re going to need to do a better job of controlling a bigger number of possessions.”
Vaggelis Loukas had eight rebounds for UNBC and fifth-year-forward Daniel Stark dished out five assists.
The Bears led 49-34 at halftime and were ahead 67-51 after 30 minutes.
In the six seasons the T-wolves have been in Canada West, they’re winless in nine games against Alberta.
Game 2 is set for today at 1 p.m. PT. If UNBC can pull off a colossal upset and extend the series, Game 3 would be played Sunday at noon PT.
The series is being streamed live on Canada West TV.
