They still want the B.C. banner.
Even though the UNBC Northern Timberwolves have already locked up a spot in nationals, they are intent on sinking the rival Vancouver Island University Mariners tonight in Abbotsford. The teams will meet in the final of the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association men's basketball provincial championship tournament, being played at Columbia Bible College.
"We really want to win that game," said UNBC guard Sebastien-Kevin Louis, who scored a team-high 23 points in a 93-78 semifinal victory against the Capilano University Blues on Friday. "For us, it means a lot to come out on top so we're going to try to do our best and have a good effort defensively and win the game."
Just by getting to the final, the Timberwolves and Mariners qualified for the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association national gathering, March 17-19 at Durham College in Oshawa, Ont. On Friday night, the Nanaimo-based Mariners downed the Douglas College Royals of New Westminster 102-78 in the other BCCAA semifinal.
The Mariners (17-1) and Timberwolves (16-2) are seeded first and second respectively for provincials. During the season, they split a doubleheader at the Northern Sport Centre. In the games, Nov. 19-20, the T-wolves took the opener 91-89 and the Mariners prevailed in the rematch, 81-77.
Currently, the Mariners are ranked No. 1 in Canada and the Timberwolves are slotted in at No. 6.
To win tonight, the T-wolves will need to be at their best. Perhaps most importantly, they'll have to limit the productivity of forward Andrew Kaban and guard Jacob Thom. In the regular season, Kaban was the league leader in average points per game (21.73) and Thom was the frontrunner in average assists per contest (5.67).
"It's going to take a lot of communication and a lot of hard work on defence and playing as hard as we can for 40 minutes," said Louis, a Montreal product who's in his second year with UNBC and his fourth year of eligibility.
The Mariners will also be highly-motivated tonight. Last year, the Timberwolves beat them 84-65 in the BCCAA championship game and denied them a berth in nationals. UNBC went on to win the national title, the first in the history of the program.
In Friday's semifinal decision against the Blues, the Timberwolves built an early 20-4 lead and, despite a few defensive lapses, were in the driver's seat the whole way. Louis -- who normally comes off the bench -- was an integral part of their attack.
"In the last couple of months he's been playing extremely well but, because we're so deep, he's only been playing about 25 minutes a game most nights," said UNBC head coach Todd Jordan. "He scores so efficiently you don't notice him out there sometimes. He had a really good game and it was huge for us to get what we got out of him."
Louis went 3-for-6 from outside the three-point line and also drove to the rim with regularity. Defensively, the Timberwolves got a solid outing from third-year guard/forward Sam Raphael, who missed much of the season with ankle and knee injuries.
"He got some really big rebounds for us down the stretch that we really needed," Jordan said. "He was definitely an impact player."
