They couldn't muster the energy to bounce back from a semifinal setback.
The UNBC Northern Timberwolves finished the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association men's basketball national championship tournament with a 74-62 loss to the St. Thomas University Tommies Saturday morning in Truro, N.S. The Timberwolves had fallen 78-71 to the eventual-champion Mohawk College Mountaineers in the semifinal round the previous night and didn't bring their 'A' game to the court against the Tommies in the bronze-medal qualifier.
"After [Friday] night, guys were emotionally and physically drained by the time we got to [Saturday] morning," said UNBC head coach Todd Jordan. "We tried to scrap but we were on a short turnaround. They had played earlier in the day [Friday] and had a lot more rest than we did.
"We couldn't get shots to fall and just could never create the energy we needed to. It was unfortunate -- a tough way to end the tournament."
The T-wolves entered the eight-team CCAA championship as the top-seeded club but, with a 1-2 record, settled for fifth place. In their opener, they beat the eighth-ranked Red Deer College Kings 88-65.
The sixth-seeded Tommies, from Fredericton, went on to beat Red Deer 75-68 for bronze. In the gold-medal final, the fourth-ranked Mountaineers, from Hamilton, downed the No. 2 Mount Royal University Cougars of Calgary 88-73.
In the UNBC-St. Thomas game, the Tommies were ahead 30-28 at halftime. In the second half, the lead changed hands several times. But, in the fourth, the Tommies were slightly better at rebounding the ball and converting on second-chance scoring opportunities. The Timberwolves did pull to within five points of the lead, only to see the Tommies create more breathing space as time ticked down.
"It was upsetting, but things just didn't go our way," said graduating post player Dennis Stark, who was chosen as UNBC's player of the game in his final appearance in the uniform.
"We defended pretty well. We only had 30 [scored against us] at the half and that's right around our mark. Offensively, we weren't really in attack mode, it seemed. Out of that 30, they still got a lot of easy buckets and when a team is doing that and you're not converting on the other end it's a bit of an uphill battle. We just didn't get it done. We didn't hit shots and they got a lot of easy stuff."
In the post-tournament awards ceremony, fourth-year guard/forward Sam Raphael was named to the event's second all-star team.
Overall, the B.C. champion Timberwolves posted a 16-5 record in the regular season, provincial and national playoffs.
"We had a real good season," Jordan said. "We improved as the year went on. We peaked right near the end of the year with that big provincial final win [69-61] over VIU. A lot of individuals on our team had big seasons too. Joel Rybachuk really came into his own this year, Charles Barton really improved as the year went on, Dennis had a pretty solid year, Jose [Araujo] and Francis [Rowe] too. At the end of the day we have to look at that and definitely celebrate those successes."
This was the UNBC basketball program's 13th and final year of competing at the college level. Next fall, both basketball teams and Timberwolves soccer clubs will move up to the Canada West conference of Canadian Interuniversity Sport.
