Double gold.
The UNBC Northern Timberwolves basketball teams pulled off a rare and thrilling accomplishment Saturday night in North Vancouver when they battled to provincial championships in the PACWEST Athletic Association. The UNBC clubs are in their 13th and final seasons in the college-level league and had never before claimed playoff gold at the same time. The timing couldn't be better because, in 2012-13, the UNBC basketball program will move up to the Canada West conference of Canadian Interuniversity Sport.
"It's an absolutely awesome thing for our program, for our school," men's head coach Todd Jordan said of the matching B.C. titles. "To be making that jump to the CIS next year and to leave the PACWEST at the top is definitely a special thing."
In front of a rowdy bunch of UNBC basketball fans, the women's team set the tone by beating the Vancouver Island University Mariners of Nanaimo 62-53. Next, the UNBC men stepped onto the court and pounded out a 69-61 victory against the VIU men.
In PACWEST, formerly the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association, this is the first time since 2003-04 that the same school has grabbed basketball gold in both the women's and men's divisions. The last institution to double up was Abbotsford's University College of the Fraser Valley.
By winning provincials, the Northern Timberwolves squads qualified for the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association national championship tournaments. From March 15-17, the UNBC women will be in Lethbridge, Alta., and the men will take their shots in Truro, N.S.
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