After another loss Saturday at the Northern Sport Centre, the UNBC Timberwolves men's basketball team had to be looking on enviously at the place in the standings now held by the UBC Okanagan Heat.
The Heat used their two weekend wins over the UNBC to move into a playoff position.
On Saturday, the Heat (7-7) defeated the
T-wolves 78-64 to moved into sole possession of third-place in the CIS Canada West.
Only the top three teams make the playoffs. UBC-O started the weekend tied with MacEwen but the Griffins (6-8) split their weekend series with Fraser Valley (9-5) to fall into fourth place.
Aldrich Berrios made life difficult for the sixth-place T-wolves (3-11), leading the Heat with 23 points and seven assists.
That came less than 24 hours after Berrios collected 20 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in a 72-50 over UNBC on Friday.
Elliot Rowe pumped in 17 points to lead all T-wolf shooters, while Rhys Elliot totaled nine points. UNBC led 40-33 at the half, but the Heat wiped that out with a 9-0 run to start the third quarter.
In Friday's game, Colin Plumb picked up 15 points and six rebounds for UNBC, while Marcus McKay had 13 points. Rowe, who took over as UNBC's starting point guard to fill in for injured veteran Billy Cheng, added seven points.
In women's play, the Heat topped the
T-wolves 69-42 on Saturday, after narrowly defeating UNBC 57-52 on Friday.
Claire Elliot was the big gun for the Heat in Saturday's game with 17 points, as well as five rebounds and three steals. Emily Kanester had 16 points and five rebounds. Vasiliki Louka propped up the T-wolves attack with 10 points and nine rebounds, while Eleni Steripoulou contributed seven points, three assists and two steals.
On Friday, UNBC led the game until the final minute of the third quarter but the Heat took advantage of some cold UNBC shooting to go on a 10-0 to start the final quarter to take control of the game.
Kanester paced the Heat with 17 points and Elliot hit for 13. Louka collected 10 points and seven rebounds, while Stacy Graham came off the bench to pick up 10 points. Preety Nijjar hauled in 11 rebounds for UNBC.
The pair of victories left the Heat (10-3) tied with Thompson Rivers for second place in the Explorer Division, while UNBC (2-12) remained in fifth place.
Both UNBC teams have a bye weekend. They return to the court in Kamloops on Friday, Feb. 5 to play Thompson Rivers University.
