Vets step up in comeback win
As battle-tested veterans tend to do, these ones found a way to win.
Saturday night at the Northern Sport Centre, the UNBC Timberwolves staged a fourth-quarter comeback and beat the UBC Okanagan Heat 81-74.
In the Canada West men’s basketball game, the Timberwolves trailed 58-52 going into the fourth but outscored the Kelowna-based Heat 29-16 in the final 10 minutes.
Three key plays in the last two minutes won the game for the home side. First, Francis Rowe drilled a three-pointer to pull the T-wolves into a 74-72 lead. Later, after Sam Raphael had already drawn a charging foul to give his team possession of the ball, he bullied his way to the hoop, drew another foul, and sunk both his free throws for a 7774 advantage.
And, with fewer than 20 seconds remaining, Joel Rybachuk applied the finishing touch when he stole an attempted inbound pass at half-court and ran in for an uncontested lay-up.
“It was a weak pass and I saw the opportunity and I had to take it,” said Rybachuk, a fifth-year guard from Vernon. “Sometimes it gets you in trouble so you have to pick and choose your spots but I like doing that.
“That was a huge deflator [for the Heat],” Rybachuk added.
“They were down five at that point and we felt like we had the game. We had to get one more stop and then that was it.”
Rybachuk finished with 10 points and four assists. Rowe, also a fifth-year guard, ended the night with 16 points and Raphael, a fifth-year guard/forward, had a team-high 20 points.
“It was one of those grind-em-out games but we didn’t panic too much because we have a veteran group,” Raphael said.
“We were able to stay calm, let them make the mistakes, and we capitalized.”
The Timberwolves found themselves playing catch-up for most of the contest.
At the half, they were down 34-31 and had shot only 36 per cent from the field. In the second half, they improved to 54.3 per cent.
“We kind of fought it offensively the whole night,” said head coach Todd Jordan.
“We just couldn’t get any flow. Coming down the stretch of that game I thought our veterans especially played composed.
“They stayed patient and eventually the lid came off for us a little bit and we were able to get some good buckets. The other thing I thought, we started going inside to Dan Stark for a little portion [of the fourth quarter] and I thought that was really the turning point of the game for us. We were able to get a little bit of an inside presence.
“He was able to score down there a couple times – got some really big, timely buckets – and really shifted the momentum for us.”
Stark, a third-year forward, ended with nine points, six of them in the fourth quarter.
Rookie guard Mitch Goodwin was the best player in the Heat lineup. He contributed a game-high 25 points and seven rebounds.
The T-wolves improved their record to 4-2 and the Heat dropped to 1-5. UNBC also downed UBCO on Friday, 85-70.
In the league standings, the Timberwolves are third in the eight-team Pacific Division, behind UBC and UVic, which both sport 5-1 records. The Heat occupy the basement in the division.
In women’s action, UBCO avenged an 18-point Friday loss to the Timberwolves with a 79-71 victory on Saturday. The Twolves had a tough time containing secondyear guards Sarah Allison and Emily Kanester, who finished with 24 and 22 points respectively. The two sophomores combined for five three-pointers in the game.
Mercedes Van Koughnett, a fourth-year guard/forward, led UNBC with 17 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. Jennifer Bruce scored 15 points for the home team and Jordyn Rabbitt added 14.
With the result, the Timberwolves slipped to 3-3 on the season and the Heat improved to 2-4. UNBC is in fifth place in the division and UBCO is sixth.
The top four teams in the division (men and women) will qualify for playoffs.
The UNBC teams will be on the road this weekend.
The T-wolves will tip off against the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns on Friday and the University of Calgary Dinos on Saturday.