It's essentially 'do or die' for the UNBC men's basketball team this weekend when they host MacEwan University at the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre.
The Timberwolves currently hold a 4-14 record, are riding an 11-game losing streak and are one spot out of a playoff berth in 13th place.
It's a pretty simple scenario for the Timberwolves if they want to appear in the postseason: they need to sweep the Griffins while the Brandon Cougars (5-13) need to lose their weekend doubleheader against Winnipeg (10-8).
Any other result and UNBC is out.
The MacEwan Griffins sit further back from playoff contention, sporting a 2-16 record thus far for 16th in Canada West.
Here's how the two teams look head-to-head going into this weekend in Prince George:
UNBC TIMBERWOLVES
- 13th in Canada West standings
- 73.6 points per game
- 85.3 points allowed per game
- Scoring Leader: Tyrell Laing (22.0 per game)
- Rebounding Leader: Fareed Shittu (8.8 per game)
- Assists Leader: Vova Pluzhnikov (3.9 per game)
- Steals Leader: Fareed Shittu (1.0 per game)
- Blocks Leader: Fareed Shittu (1.5 per game)
“The mindset coming into this weekend needs to be focus," UNBC's Fareed Shittu says in a team release.
"The last few weeks haven’t gone how we would have liked them to, but we have a really special opportunity right now. We need to realize that, and play hard.”
MACEWAN GRIFFINS
- 16th in Canada West standings
- 71.8 points per game
- 91.3 points allowed per game
- Scoring Leader: Abdullah Shittu (13.3 per game)
- Rebounding Leader: Abiel Tabufor (6.0 per game)
- Assists Leader: Jake Notice (3.2 per game)
- Steals Leader: Dustin Gatzki (1.8 per game)
- Blocks Leader: Abdullah Shittu (1.2 per game)
The men tipoff at 6 p.m. tomorrow (Feb. 7) and 7 p.m. on Saturday (Feb. 8).
