Tyrell Laing has always cherished his time playing basketball for the UNBC Timberwolves, representing his Prince George hometown, and that feeling is getting even stronger now that he’s into his final season of U SPORTS eligibility.
Laing still had five minutes left to play in Saturday’s game against the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack at the Northern Sport Centre and was well on his way to his most productive game in four Canada West starts this season when it was announced in the gym that he had scored his 900th career point.
“The first thing that goes through my mind is the great Timberwolf players that came before me that set the standard here and inspired me to be great every day and just a lot of hard work that went into it, really,” said Laing.
“it’s absolutely an honour to have been healthy enough play and score as many points as I have so far. When I put on this UNBC jersey and I’m playing and scoring the points I do and putting my heart out there for another kid out there, just as I was, to show him this is what you can do if you put your mind to it and your heart to it.”
Laing only needed four points Saturday to reach 900 and that happened just two minutes into the game when he hit his first of five three-point shots. Now, after shooting a game-high 27 points in the T-wolves’ 69-57 win over the visiting WolfPack, the Prince George Secondary School grad is just nine points shy of matching Rhys Elliott’s T-wolves’ career record of 934 points.
“When they announced it that was the first time I was aware he was at that milestone and that’s a great thing for him, a local Prince George guy, and were pretty proud of his for doing that,” said UNBC head coach Todd Jordan. “He’s got a lot of season left and we’ll see where he can get to.”
Laing put the Timberwolves in the driver’s seat early, scoring 14 points in the opening quarter after nailing all four shots he took from three-point range to build a 23-12 lead. The 2019-20 conference scoring champion finished the first half with 19 points, nearly half his team’s entire output as they took a 41-29 lead into the intermission. Twelve of those 41 points came off turnovers.
Laing and Vova Pluzhnikov kept the crowd entertained in the second quarter as they traded three pointers and Pluzhnikov’s double-clutch strike from long range with a couple minutes left in the half brought a roar out of the NSC stands.
But the T-wolves came out flat in the third quarter and WolfPack, led by the accurate hands of Brendan Sullivan and some timely foul shooting from Daniel Bost, cut that 12-point halftime lead down to four before Pluzhnikov finally sunk a basket to get UNBC started on a nine-point run of their own, which gave them breathing room they would never relinquish.
The win evened the T-wolves’ record to 2-2, equal to that of the WolfPack, who lost 69-67 to UNBC in their season-opener on Oct. 29 in Kamloops. TRU beat the T-wolves 68-57 Friday at the NSC.
“Last night they had a lid over the bucket and couldn’t make a lot of shots and tonight we shot better, which helped and it was good to see the guys kind of grind out a four-quarter win,” said Jordan.
The T-wolves were without their two tallest trees, forwards Fareed Shittu and Rohtash Mattu - just as they were the previous night in a 68-57 loss to the WolfPack at the NSC. Those were big shoes to fill for the only other big guy on the roster – six-foot-seven Spencer Ledoux, but the Kamloops native filled the gap admirably, playing nearly 32 minutes. UNBC coach Todd Jordan probably would have left Ledoux in a lot longer if not for the fact he drew his fourth foul 17 seconds into the fourth quarter, and he spent the next five minutes parked on the bench.
“Spence was able to stay relatively foul-free, I know he picked up a couple but he was out there on the floor a little longer,” said Laing. “We needed his inside presence out there and he was able to deliver for us, he was really helpful out there.
“(The WolfPack) beat us up in the first night but we made the adjustments and played with heart and got it done.”
Chris Ross and Payton Tirrell picked up the slack with no Shittu and no Mattu, hauling in rebounds off TRU misses, which came frequently in the fourth quarter. Ross ended up playing all but 3 ½ minutes Saturday and worked his butt off to snag 13 rebounds. Rookie Daniel Kopf also relished his role as a defensive specialist out there to upset the balance of the WolfPack and his teammates fed off his disruptive energy.
Rookie guard Darren Hunter drew some significant playing time in the second and third quarters and did exactly what the T-wolves hoped he would, scoring 11 points and applying aggressive pressure when TRU had the ball.
Pluzhnikov ended up with 15 points and four rebounds. For the WolfPack, Sullivan and Brad King each finished with 14 points, while Asher Mayan had 12. King was also a force on the boards with 13 rebounds.
