UNBC men off to 2-0 start

After getting into a no-holdsbarred shooting match with the Mount Royal Cougars to start the weekend, the UNBC Timberwolves were quite content to settle in for a bit of chess with the Cougars in their Canada West men’s basketball rematch Saturday night in Calgary.

It produced a similar result, another victory for UNBC.

The T-wolves left the court with a 75-67 triumph, following Friday’s 95-87 win over the Cougars.

Their 2-0 start is their best in seven seasons for the T-wolves as a member of U Sports, formerly known as Canadian Interuniversity Sport. UNBC was ranked 10th in the Canada West coaches’ poll after a 5-1 start in the preseason.

“I thought (Friday) night we were pretty sloppy defensively, it was kind of a looser game and we just basically scored at will and were able to outscore them,” said T-wolves head coach Todd Jordan. “(Saturday) it was a completely different game. It was kind of an ugly one, a defensive battle, but we found a way to dig in.”

Vova Plushnikov had a big night for UNBC with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Jovan Leamy contributed 14 points and six steals. Vaggelis Loukas picked up nine rebounds and seven points. Austin Chandler came off the bench to score 11 points, while Tyrell Laing had seven points and two steals. Patrick Vandervelden hit for 17 points to lead the Cougars (0-2).

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On Friday, Leamy set the pace with a game-high 23 points and James Agyeman hit for 19 points. Glen Yang had a 23-point game for Mount Royal.

“Jovan and Vova led us like we expect them to and on top of that we’re getting balanced scoring from other guys,” said Jordan.

Jovan and Vova led us like we expect them to and on top of that we’re getting balanced scoring from other guys.

— UNBC head coach

Todd Jordan

“We had (three) guys in double figures (Saturday) and four guys in double figures (Friday). Any time you go on the road to start the season and come back with two wins you’ve got to be happy.”

Both offences stagnated in the third quarter. UNBC was held to 10 points and Mount Royal had just eight. The T-wolves took a 4440 lead into the intermission.

“We probably led 38 or 39 minutes of the game,” said Jordan. “We showed some toughness and it was good to kind of grind one out. There were moments we made some mistakes and had some adversity against us and they went on a little run but we stayed mentally tough.”

The T-wolves face Winnipeg at the Northern Sport Centre in their next games Friday and Saturday.