Finally, a homestand.
The UNBC Northern Timberwolves basketball teams didn't exactly have favourable schedules in the first half of the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association season. Each UNBC club played just two games in front of the Northern Sport Centre faithful and had seven contests on the road.
In the league standings, all that time away from familiar turf didn't affect either UNBC team. Both currently have 8-1 records and are nationally-ranked, the men at No. 2 and the women at No. 11.
On Friday, the Timberwolves will host the Kwantlen Polytechnic University Eagles of Surrey (women at 6 p.m., men at 8 p.m.) and those games will be the first of five consecutive ones at home. The T-wolves and Eagles will also meet on Saturday night and then the UNBC squads will welcome the UBC Okanagan Heat on Jan. 30 and the Douglas College Royals Feb. 5-6.
"We're very happy to be at home for the next three weeks," UNBC women's head coach Loralyn Murdoch said in a classic understatement. "We're looking forward to it."
The only remaining road games for the Timberwolves are Feb. 12-13 against Abbotsford's Columbia Bible College. After that trip, they'll finish the regular season at the Sport Centre with Feb. 19-20 games against the Vancouver Island University Mariners.
The Kwantlen women (6-3) come into Friday's game in sixth place. But, the second-place Timberwolves -- from losing to the Eagles in pre-season -- know they have the ability to score in bunches.
"We've got to control them," Murdoch said. "They're quick, they shoot the ball very well, they're streaky. Offensively we should be able to post them up, but defensively, the last time we saw them, they made us look like we were big and slow so we have to work on our defence and stop them from the outside."
The Kwantlen men, meanwhile, have had some troubles so far. With a 3-6 record, they are currently seventh in the 10-team league. But, in their most recent outing, on Monday, the Eagles beat the Douglas College Royals 81-61.
"They're a pretty big team size-wise so it's going to be a good test for us," said Mike Raimbault, head coach of the second-place Timberwolves. "We had a chance to see them in the pre-season and they were a pretty tough team so they should be exciting games."
UNBC shooting guard Jose Araujo, one of the BCCAA scoring leaders this season, said his team needs to jump on the Eagles right away.
"We've got to come and set a tone right from the beginning and let them know that we're not taking any possessions off," he said.
