Losing by one point to the Regina Cougars on a last-second play Saturday night at the Northern Sport Centre does not sit well with the UNBC Timberwolves men's basketball team.
They know that, even at Christmas, wins don't grow on trees in the CIS Canada West Conference and they let that one slip through their fingers.
There's plenty of room for improvement, especially on defence. The T-wolves showed how that became an issue in the dying seconds Saturday when a major lapse in coverage allowed Regina an uncontested lay-up for the winning points.
"We're not doing a good job as far as holding teams to a low field goal percentage and that's something that has to improve for us to reach our goal of hopefully getting into the playoffs," said T-wolves head coach Todd Jordan.
UNBC (3-5) is tied with Fraser Valley for sixth place in the Pacific Division and the T-wolves have to consider this weekend's two games against the winless UBC-Okanagan Heat (0-8) must-win matchups.
"They've got a pretty good guard group and the biggest thing for us is to contain their dribble penetration," said Jordan. "If we can keep their guards out of our paint, it's going to help us a lot as far as keeping their field goal percentage down and that's probably the biggest goal.
"Yassine Ghomari is their leading scorer right now (averaging 14.9 points [per game) and I've seen him put up some really big games. Mitch Goodwin was one of the top two or three guys coming out of high school in B.C. and as a second-year guy he has the ability to be pretty explosive."
On a team of mostly first- and second-year players, there's a lot riding on the shoulders of fifth-year forward Charles Barton, the only returning UNBC starter, and he's responded by leading the T-wolves while averaging 15.4 points per game, defensive rebounds (4.6 per game) and three-point shots made (an average 1.9 per game). Barton, a native of Vernon, will be playing close to home this weekend.
"He needs to be a leader on the floor for us in some capacity for us to be successful," said Jordan. "He's got to be putting up a major contribution for us and it may not always be scoring. He rebounds the ball very well and he can really play defence."
These are the last two league games heading into the Christmas break and Jordan would love to have his team at the .500 mark, as they were last season at that time. The T-wolves will leave on Boxing Day for California to play at the Vanguard University tournament in Costa Mesa, where they're guaranteed four games.
