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UNBC men with winning shot at the buzzer

UNBC women suffer their fifth-straight loss on the road in Kelowna

It’s never over till it’s over.

That was the belief of the UNBC Timberwolves on the court Friday night in Kelowna, where they seized victory from the jaws of defeat with a buzzer-beating shot that gave them a 79-77 U SPORTS Canada West Conference win over the UBC-Okanagan Heat.

Spencer Ledoux fired the dagger from three-point range with no time on the clock, after he hauled in an errant in-bound pass from Vova Pluzhnikov intended for Fareed Shittu that deflected off the hand of Heat defender Ibrahim Imoudu. Pluzhnikov had just 1.2 seconds to work with when he put the ball in play and somehow that was enough time to allow Ledoux to get the shot away.

“I think it was just a weird slap from the pileup in the middle, I think we lobbed it to Fareed and a bunch of guys went for it,” said Ledoux. “I was nowhere in the play.

“It was tough, we were down, but we just scrapped near the end and we pulled through. ”

Pluzhnikov made Ledoux’s final stab possible with a quick run to the net in the dying seconds. His drive to the hoop went off the rim into the arms of Ledoux, forcing a jump-ball situation.

Trailing 77-68 with 2:17 left, Pluzhnikov’s lay-up touched off an 11-0 run. The UNBC defence came up with a stop and Tyrell Laing went right to the attack and reduced the gap to five. Then after another T-wolves’ rejection, Pluzhnikov spotted Laing along the sidelines and fed him the ball and the defending Canada West scoring champion did not disappoint. He hit from outside the arc despite getting hit as he shot, and Laing then found the net with his foul shot to make it a one-point game.

Ledoux’s shot ended a five-game losing streak as the T-wolves improved to 3-7, sixth in the West Division. UBC-O dropped to 1-8 and remained seventh in the seven-team division. The same teams meet again Saturday (6 p.m. start) in Kelowna.

The T-wolves struggled all game to find a comfortable rhythm and were shell-shocked when the Heat outscored them 11-4 to start the fourth quarter to take a 66-54 lead. But they did not panic.

“In the last two or three minutes Vova was able to work off the high ball screen and he was able to male some big plays down the stretch that really got us back in the game,” said T-wolves head coach Todd Jordan.

“I’m not 100 per cent sure we deserved to win that game. We kind of stole one getting out of there, but Spencer banks that three in at the end there and we’ll take it. I don’t even know what to think of it. It was all so fast I don’t even know what happened.

“I’m glad we got of there with that. To be honest with you, with two or three  minutes left it was looking pretty tough that we were going to get that done. They really beat us up on the offensive glass and then we just got outscrapped in a lot of situations.”

Laing finished with 18 points, Pluzhnikov picked up 15, four assists and two steals, Fareed Shittu collected 13 points, with eight rebounds, four steals and two blocks, and Ledoux contributed 11 points.  Gus Goerzen shot a game-high 21 points for UBC-O, while Hafith Moallin picked up 13 points.

“(Laing) is a confident kid and he kind of struggled all game,” said Jordan. “He showed some big kahunas to knock that (three-pointer) in.”

Due to postponements coming out of the Christmas break, the Heat hadn’t played a game in 55 days. The T-wolves shook off their holiday doldrums last Sunday at home in a loss to the UBC Thunderbirds.

Meanwhile in the women’s game in Kelowna, the UBC-O Heat were never threatened in an 82-65 win over UNBC. The T-wolves were plagued by similar shooting problems that led to their downfall a week ago in a 77-66 loss to the Heat on the same court.

UNBC stood on equal ground with their opponents trading shots from the field, but hit just two three-pointers all game on 12 attempts, and sunk just nine of their 16 foul shots. The Heat were just that much better, going seven-for-18 from three-point range while making 12 of their 25 free throws.

Kelsey Falk cranked up the Heat with 20 points and eight rebounds, backed by a 16-point, seven-rebound effort from Surprise Munie and Alessa Brutto’s 11 points.

Alina Skakirova was one of the bright spots for UNBC and she maintained her league-leading scoring average with 21 points. Laura Garmendia Garcia also played well coming off the bench with 12 points and eight rebounds and Sveta Boykova had a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double. Emma vanBruinessen, in her second game of the season, hit for eight points and had 10 rebounds.

The win evened the third-place Heat’s record to 6-6. UNBC lost its fifth straight to fall to 4-6, fifth in West. The rematch in Kelowna Saturday starts at 4 p.m.