Alex Roth's first long bomb gave the UBC Okanagan Heat a flicker of life. His second gave them an upset victory against the defending national champions.
Roth, a fourth-year guard, nailed a pair of long three-pointers in the final 20 seconds of a Saturday night men's basketball game between the Heat and UNBC Northern Timberwolves and lifted his team to an 86-85 win. He drained the decisive bucket with 7.9 seconds left on the Northern Sport Centre clock. On UNBC's last possession, a driving Inderbir Gill didn't get the roll off the rim and the T-wolves then failed to convert on a pair of rebound opportunities.
Game over, in front of about 1,300 shellshocked fans.
"They were big," Roth said of his two treys. "I missed a bunny at 80-80 and then hit a lucky one. Then Dave (Mackay) gave me a great pass and I was lucky enough to knock it down and we got a (defensive) stop.
"We definitely battled hard. We've been kind of on a roller coaster early in the season. We haven't been able to put a full game together and tonight we played four pretty good quarters and were able to beat a very, very good team."
For the game, Roth was 5-for-7 from three-point land.
In the last 32 seconds, Dennis Stark and Gill went a combined 2-for-4 from the foul line and those misses proved costly. But, really, UNBC wasn't strong enough on defence most of the night. The T-wolves had a 26-18 lead after the first quarter but did little to slow down the Heat in the second and went into half-time in a 42-42 tie. The game remained tight for the entire second half and Roth was on the money when he needed to be.
"Roth is a veteran guy and he made some big shots," said UNBC head coach Todd Jordan. "But I just said to the guys, 'That game wasn't lost in the last five minutes, that game was lost in the first 35.' We amped up our defensive intensity near the end. We gave them too many uncontested, easy jump shots early on and I think that was the difference in the game. Giving up 86 points is not going to get it done for us."
For the T-wolves to have any chance of repeating as national champions, they must correct their defensive deficiencies. Through their first seven games in the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association, they have allowed 520 points, an average of 74.3 per contest.
"We play good defence in spurts, but it's just the focus to play for 40 minutes and that starts in practice," said Gill, a fifth-year guard and two-time All-Canadian. "In practice we've got to be more focused and that's going to carry over into the games."
On Saturday, the Timberwolves were missing guard/forward Sam Raphael, their top defensive player from last season. An ankle injury kept him out of his second consecutive game, and both of them have been losses. On the season, the T-wolves now hold a 5-2 record, which has them third out of 10 teams. The fifth-place Heat improved to 4-3.
In the standings, the Timberwolves trail the Capilano University Blues (7-0) and the Vancouver Island University Mariners (7-1). The Blues are coached by Prince George product Jordan Yu.
The UNBC men have now finished the 2010 portion of their league schedule. They'll be in Calgary during the Christmas break for a tournament at SAIT, an event they won last year. Then, in March, they claimed their national title on the same floor.
The next regular-season action for the T-wolves is Jan. 14-15 in Squamish against the Quest University Kermodes. The next home games are Jan. 21-22, with the Blues as the opposition.
