The UNBC Timberwolves shouldn’t feel bad they lost again to the UBC Thunderbirds.
They’re just part of a growing trend in the Canada West men’s basketball ranks and they’re certainly not alone.
Once again this season the T-birds are the team to beat the West Division, as they always seem to be, and their 101-69 victory over the Timberwolves Saturday at the Northern Sport Centre, which improved their record to 8-0, provided further affirmation.
UNBC point guard Tyrell Laing, the league scoring champ in 2019-20, came into the weekend averaging 21 points per game, but was held to just 10 points on Friday and eight on Saturday. He had six-foot-five, 220-pound guard Grant Audu in his face most of the weekend and also drew plenty of double-team coverage from the T-birds. Laing shot 2-for-9 from the field, after going 1-for-12 on Friday. Very few teams in the league have been able to take Laing out of his rhythm so drastically.
“We put some athleticism and size on him, he’s such an integral part of that team and such a skilled individual and we tried to wear him down,” said T-birds head coach Kevin Hanson. “He’s been a great player for so many years and I’m not disappointed he’s graduating this year. He’s certainly one of the electrifying guys and obviously a focal point of our defence, so we’re pretty happy with the job the guys did on him tonight.”
The T-birds were better at distributing the ball in the offensive side of the court than they were Friday and that led to better looks for their shooters, who collectively shot 41-for-69 (59.4 per cent) from the field.
Just five players were with UBC in the pre-pandemic era and none of them were starters. Hanson’s crew took advantage of the league-wide bye week last weekend to play Simon Fraser University and that tune-up had them well-prepared for the weekend trip to Prince George. The T-birds won 85-76 on Friday.
“We’re nowhere near close to peaking yet and we keep trying to get better,” said Hanson, now in his 22nd season at the UBC helm. “I really think it’s the depth of this team - we’ve got shooters, we’ve got role guys who play defence tough, we’ve got some reboundesr and we’ve got some good size.”
They lost one of their big men, six-foot-11 post Sukhman Sandhu, with 7:26 left in the second quarter when he got fouled by Spencer Ledoux and hurt his right ankle as he fell to the ground. At that point, Sandhu already had 13 points in less than 11 minutes of court time. Without him, the T-birds barely missed a beat and by the half they’d extended their lead to 54-33.
“They’re a good team and we didn’t answer the way we wanted to,” said Ledoux. “A lot of it was our energy and our intensity was lacking. It starts on defence; if you get good stops you get better shots.”
T-wolves forward Fareed Shittu returned to action Saturday after serving a three-game suspension for throwing a punch in a scrap at then end of a 95-93 loss to Fraser Valley, Oct. 30. Shittu made the Canada West All-Rookie team in 2019-20, but after a month between games he showed signs of rust and was held to nine points and five rebounds.
Vova Plushnikov, with 14 points, and Chris Ross, with 11, were the only T-wolves to reach double figures in scoring. Audu led UBC with 23 points and picked up five assists and six rebounds, while Triston Matthews had 15 points.
The T-wolves (2-4) dropped to fifth in the West Division, and they’ll host the second-place Victoria Vikes (5-1) next weekend at the NSC.
