Any scoring fears that pundits may have had about the UNBC Timberwolves men’s basketball team have been quickly washed away in the first six games.
The T-Wolves earned a hard-fought split over the Fraser Valley Cascades down in Abbotsford.
On Friday, UNBC dropped 79-75 heartbreaker to the Cascades. The main difference in the game was the battle inside the trenches.
Micah Jessie is smooth pic.twitter.com/Pv84jWk1md
— UNBC Athletics (@UNBCATHLETICS) November 20, 2022
Fraser Valley outscored the Timberwolves 46-34 in the paint. Dihvaan Bhogal was a force recording 22 points and 16 rebounds while Dario Lopez had 14 points and nine boards.
For UNBC, Darrin Hunter was the high-scorer with 18 points while Fareed Shittu tallied 15 points and 10 rebounds.
On Saturday, the Timberwolves came out hungry and pounced on the Cascades en route to an 88-67 victory to improve to 3-3.
Micha Jessie led the charge for UNBC with 19 points followed by Chris Ross (18) and Fareed Shittu (14).
"Timely and effective…Chris Ross."
Well said, @AndrewJSavory pic.twitter.com/Dtdjx2kqji
— UNBC Athletics (@UNBCATHLETICS) November 20, 2022
Nine Timberwolves had 5 points or more, capitalizing on 25 Fraser Valley turnovers.
Bhogal once again led Fraser Valley in points with 17.
In women’s action, the offensive woes for the Timberwolves continued to persist against the second-ranked team in all of U-SPORTS.
A 68-57 defeat at the hands of the Cascades on Friday was followed up by a 78-45 drubbing on Saturday.
In the first game of the double header (Friday), a poor third quarter is what sunk UNBC getting outscored 21-6.
The Cascades converted 47.3% of their field goals while UNBC was just 32%.
Fun Fact: Shakirova is Russian for "can make rainbow floaters over much-taller defenders"
UNBC up 15-9 after ten minutes pic.twitter.com/nJ352GOMRr
— UNBC Athletics (@UNBCATHLETICS) November 20, 2022
Maddy Gobeil led the way for Fraser Valley with 14 points while Alina Shakirova had a game-high 12 for the Timberwolves.
The next night (Saturday), the shooting woes continued for UNBC going 16-for-61 on field goal attempts. The Cascades, on the other hand, was 36.5% on their shot attempts.
Gobeil once again drove the bus for the undefeated Cascades (6-0) with 17 points.
Sveta Boykova and Sarah Kuklisin only mustered 9 each for UNBC, who dropped to 0-6 on the campaign.
Both UNBC basketball teams are back in action this weekend against the Calgary Dinos.
Game time on Friday is at 5 pm and 7 pm, while Saturday tip-off times are 4 pm and 6 pm.
You can catch all the action at the Northern Sport Centre.
Cookie pulls up for the midrange jumper in transition, and @UNBCWomensBball leads 9-7 in the first quarter pic.twitter.com/vHxpM4xv45
— UNBC Athletics (@UNBCATHLETICS) November 20, 2022
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