Sam Zhang went out with a bang.
Zhang’s 18 points were not enough to defeat the Saskatchewan Huskies, who scored a convincing 77-57 win over the UNBC Timberwolves to sweep a two-game weekend series at the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre.
But considering it was Zhang’s last game wearing the green and gold as a graduating senior, the 25-year-old from Vancouver could not have picked a better time to rack up a career-best single-game point total.
“It makes me feel amazing but I have to give all the credit to the boys, they were pulling for me tonight and they were the ones who found me and I wouldn’t have got any of those points without them,” said Zhang. “I was just trying to leave it out there for the last time. I love the fans here so much. When I first came to Prince George I had a real difficult time adjusting, but after I settled in here, this feels like home. Vancouver’s a great place to grow up but when I go home now I miss Prince George. Everyone’s more honest here. They’re not afraid to tell you what they’re thinking and I love that.”
The six-foot-five Zhang, who red-shirted last season, played two seasons as a forward for the T-wolves, after playing in the Pacific Western Athletic Association for Capilano, Camosun and Douglas College.
“The numbers and the wins do mean a lot, but what I’m taking away from playing here is the people that I’ve met here,” said Zhang, an accounting major. “Playing good teams brings out all the competitive juices in me. I love the fact we’re an underdog and at the end of the day, if we go out there and lay it all on the line, I can live with the result. I love being able to compete with those guys.”
The Huskies scored early and often Saturday, using their height and speed to keep the T-wolves away from the ball, limiting them to just 17 points in the first 20 minutes. The visitors went into the intermission with a 37-17 lead.
Saskatchewan came out firing for the second half and after long-range bombs from Lawrence Moore and Trevor Severinski they stretched their lead to 55-32 heading into the final minute of the third quarter, when Zhang hit the first of four treys in the game. In the fourth quarter, Zhang reeled off eight points in about a minute to cut the lead to 12, but that’s as close as it got.
The T-wolves, who made the playoffs for the first time in the team’s history last year, finished with a 4-16 record, 15th in a 17-team league. The Huskies (14-6) ended up third.
“It’s been a tough year, we had some injuries early on and that’s not really an excuse, it’s part of the process,” said T-wolves head coach Todd Jordan. “We had a bunch of close ones that got away from us early and the momentum of it became difficult to deal with mentally for the guys.
“The bottom line is we’ve got to do some things to move forward. The guys in that room have got to work in the off-season to get better and we’ve got to bring in some guys. Clearly, we’re deficient in the fact we’re not a big team and we need to add some length and some athleticism to our lineup.”
Severinski collected a game-high 20 points, Jaylan Moore had 15 and Matthew Forbes had 10 for the Huskies. Rhys Elliott, the T-wolves career scoring leader at the Canada West level, also playing his last game as a graduating senior, was held to just six points.
Elliott, a native of Adelaide, Australia, joined the T-wolves as a guard in 2014 after two seasons with Iowa Central Community College. In 57 career games he scored 934 points, and averaged 16.4 points per game.
“I had a couple individual goals that I set and I kind of reached while I was here,” said the 25-year-old Elliott, a business major. “We took this franchise to the first playoff series in school history and I’m pretty proud we did that as a team as well.”
One other Timberwolf, guard Elliot Rowe, wrapped up his career after five seasons at UNBC. The five-foot-nine Rowe overcame his lack of stature in a tall man’s game with his work ethic and quickness. But there’s no doubt the T-wolves suffered against the better teams due to their lack of size.
“I’ve had a chip on my shoulder pretty much all my life because I’m playing all the regular-sized guys out there and I’ve had to work pretty hard,” he said.
Rowe, 22, came from Victoria and has no regrets about his time in Prince George. He hopes to attend law school at UVic next school year.
“This program has helped me so much as a person and as a basketball player,” said Rowe.
