The goal was gold for the second consecutive year. The best the UNBC Northern Timberwolves can do now is bronze.
The Timberwolves lost 81-66 to the Lethbridge College Kodiaks in their opening-round game at the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association men's basketball national championship tournament Thursday in Oshawa, Ont. The Kodiaks held UNBC's Inderbir Gill, the CCAA player of the year, off the scoreboard in the first half and to 13 points for the entire game. With Gill struggling, the T-wolves never did find their groove. Their up-tempo transition game only showed up in brief flashes and, in the half-court offence, they weren't often able to penetrate into the paint against the larger Kodiaks.
"Guys were fighting the ball a little bit and we didn't do as good of a job moving the ball as I would have liked," said UNBC head coach Todd Jordan. "Sometimes we were attacking into a set defence a bit too much and sometimes we got into turnovers and run-outs and that hurt us, for sure."
Gill, a fifth-year point guard who averaged 21.28 points per game during the regular season, was a non-factor in the first half. His first bucket was a three-pointer in the latter stages of the third quarter. He did spark to life after that but, by that time, the Timberwolves were in a hole that was too deep.
Jordan gave credit to the Lethbridge defenders for the job they did.
"You don't get to this tournament without being a pretty good defensive team to begin with, and they're a good defensive team," he said. "Indy wasn't his best tonight and that's unfortunate but that's no excuse. We've got other guys that have got to step up if he's struggling and fighting a little bit. We just didn't have enough jump offensively to get it done."
Guard Sebastien-Kevin Louis led UNBC shooters with 17 points, while fellow backcourt player Matt Mills hit for 12. UNBC's posts were shut down almost completely, as Dennis Stark, Jesse Smith and Josh Jebose combined for just two points, those by Stark. Sam Raphael, playing at forward, scored six.
Meanwhile, the Kodiaks got big performances from three of their stars. Post player Dominyc Coward was a force around the bucket and scored a game-high 21 points, and guards Logan Reiter and Jordan Reiter hit for 17 each. Guard Morgan Duce added 14 points. The six-foot-seven Coward also yanked down 15 rebounds.
"We just played our game, which is just running up the floor and getting some good looks," said Coward, who was also a candidate for the CCAA player of the year award. "We also got some big stops."
The Timberwolves trailed 7-0 in the early stages of the first quarter but battled back for a 13-11 lead at the end of those first 10 minutes. At the start of the second quarter, they went up 16-11 on a three-ball by Mills and, minutes later, were ahead 20-15. The Kodiaks, however, generated a couple of steals that turned into easy points and slowly but surely took back the momentum. They led 31-28 at half-time and 56-43 after three quarters.
UNBC shooters made just 29.6 per cent of their field goal attempts, while the Kodiaks operated with 41.3 per cent efficiency.
For the UNBC players, especially those who were part of last year's national championship team, the loss was devastating.
"Guys are really down," said Louis. "Our expectations were a lot higher than this and we're all very disappointed. But we'll regroup and get it together."
On the consolation side of the draw, the Timberwolves will meet the host Durham College Lords this afternoon (3 p.m. ET, noon PT). The Lords were beaten 70-61 by the top-seeded Vancouver Island University Mariners on Thursday night.
In other Thursday games, the seventh-seeded Vanier College Cheetahs upset the second-ranked NAIT Ooks 75-73 and the sixth-ranked Mount Saint Vincent University Mystics knocked off the third-seeded Humber College Hawks 65-56.
In today's semifinals, Vanier will battle Mount Saint Vincent and Lethbridge will take on VIU.
