With a young inexperienced group, the UNBC Timberwolves showed some bite to begin the Canada West men’s basketball season.
Vova Pluzhnikov played the hero on Friday night at the Northern Sport Centre as the T-Wolves clawed out an 88-81 victory over the Victoria Vikes.
His heroic triple-double, which consisted of 25 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists led UNBC to a spirited victory over a Vikes team that had a clear size advantage.
After the game, the fourth-year player from the Ukraine told MyPGNow, they wanted to reward their home fans.
“We were playing in our house, in front of our crowd. The best crowd in Canada West. We had to get that win. We owed our crowd.”
Pluzhnikov’s performance was the first triple-double in UNBC history since joining the conference in 2012.
“It feels good, I won’t lie. But it is all because of my teammates,” said Pluzhnikov. “All nine guys balled out. It was awesome to see everyone coming on the floor with fire in their eyes. I am so grateful for this team.”
POSTGAME: Hear from @VovaPluzhnikov after he made some @UNBCBasketball history with the first triple-double in @UNBC‘s @CanadaWest history. Watch the video, and you hear a lot more ‘we’ than ‘I’. Great leader after a great TWolves win over a good @uvicvikes program! #gotwolves pic.twitter.com/4H4hjB9KGj
— UNBC Athletics (@UNBCATHLETICS) November 2, 2019
Not to be outdone, local product Tyrell Laing came out guns a blazing with a team-high 27 points, including a 12-for-12 outing from the free-throw line.
UNBC went 23-for-27 from the charity stripe, while Victoria struggled only going 11-for-21.
Saje Gosal also chipped in with 14 points in 29 minutes of action.
Jason Scully led the way offensively for the 0-1 Vikes who stated the team lacked a killer instinct on the court.
“Their guards came out and killed us, honestly,”
“They came out with more energy and more pace attacking the paint. Our bigs know they need to do a better job taking advantage of the size advantage we have.”
POSTGAME: Hear from @uvicvikes‘ Jason Scully after his Victoria team fell 88-81 to @UNBCBasketball. Scully had 15 points, 9 rebounds & 6 assists. Rematch tomorrow at @NorthernSport at 7! pic.twitter.com/VGYL1j3BbC
— UNBC Athletics (@UNBCATHLETICS) November 2, 2019
On the women’s side, a 36-point performance from Alina Shakirova was all for not as UNBC fell in overtime to Victoria 97-93.
“I would take the victory over 36 points because it was a really tough game,” said Shakirova.
“We want to come out with a win, and stats don’t matter to us. It doesn’t matter unless we win.”
Foul trouble proved to be the undoing for the Timberwolves as Madison Landry, Cevanna Carlson, Maria Mongomo and Emma vanBruinessen all fouled out of the game.
The Vikes were led by Marissa Dheenshaw who recorded 28 points.
While she admits the thrilling victory is nice, it was far from a perfect effort.
“It feels really good to get a victory first game and not at home, which is really nice,”.
“We didn’t really stick to the game plan like we wanted to, so we had to fight in different ways to get it back. UNBC is really good, so it’s good a hard-fought game all the way through.”
The two teams clash again tonight at the Northern Sport Centre with a tip off of 5:00 while the men begin play at 7:00.