The UNBC Northern Timberwolves are one win away from a return to the national championship tournament.
The UNBC men's basketball team finished the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association regular season with a 113-50 demolition of the Columbia Bible College Bearcats Saturday night at the Northern Sport Centre. The win helped the defending national champion Timberwolves to an overall record of 16-2, good for second place in the 10-team league.
By finishing second, the T-wolves earned a bye to the semifinal round in the BCCAA playoffs, March 3-5 in Abbotsford. UNBC will face the winner of a quarterfinal game between the third-place Capilano University Blues (13-5) and the sixth-place Camosun College Chargers (8-10). Thanks to a change in the way the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association picks wildcard teams for nationals, the Timberwolves will be guaranteed a berth in the CCAA tournament if they advance to the provincial final.
"Last year, [wildcard spots] were decided by a committee but what they've gone to is a system based on the previous conference results at nationals over the past four or five years," explained UNBC head coach Todd Jordan. "B.C., we won nationals [last year] and Douglas College [of New Westminster] won a few years back so we've got a lot of points there, so we've earned the two berths."
During the season, the Timberwolves went undefeated against both the North Vancouver-based Blues and Victoria-based Chargers.
The Vancouver Island University Mariners, currently ranked No. 1 in the country, finished atop the BCCAA standings with a 17-1 record. In playoffs, they will also get a first-round bye. The other quarterfinal match will see the fourth-place UBC Okanagan Heat (12-6) tip off against the fifth-place Douglas College Royals (9-9).
The Timberwolves were the only team to beat the Mariners this season, 91-89 on Nov. 19. Naturally, the T-wolves want to win back-to-back provincial titles. To do that, they'd likely have to go through the Mariners.
"Obviously, in the back of our minds we want to win that provincial conference title but that berth to nationals is going to be based on if we win or lose our first game," Jordan said. "If we can get through that one, then we'll shift our focus."
The Timberwolves defeated the Mariners 84-65 in last year's B.C. final and then went 3-0 at nationals in Calgary. In the final, UNBC topped the host SAIT Trojans 96-63.
The T-wolves will now practice for the next week and a half, in preparation for either the Blues or Chargers.
"The team that we're going to play is going to be a really good team," said veteran UNBC guard Inderbir Gill, who scored a game-high 41 points against the overwhelmed Bearcats (1-17) on Saturday. "It's going to be about the next two weeks, how we prepare ourselves and how we get ready for that first game. We've got to look at every game with a one game at a time attitude and I think we'll be fine as long as we work hard and stay focused on what we have to do."
Saturday's game marked the final home-court appearances for Gill and fellow guard Matt Mills, who are in their fifth and final years of eligibility. See Tuesday's Citizen for the story.
