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."
See The Citizen and pgcitizen.ca on Monday for more.
