The only thing standing in the way of a weekend sweep for the UNBC Timberwolves men’s basketball team was Jack Vandenberg.
His buzzer-beating three-point shot gave the Trinity Western Spartans a weekend split in Prince George, defeating the T-Wolves 65-64 at the Northern Sports Centre.
The nip and tuck game literally came down to the final possession as Evgeny Baukin previously put UNBC ahead with three seconds left on an off-balance lay-up that found its way through the hoop.
Trinity Western was up by as many as nine points during the game and led pretty much the entire way aside from the see-saw final minutes with both teams exchanging late leads.
The Spartans enjoyed a much-improved shooting performance, especially from three-point range going 13-for-37.
Vandenberg had a team-high 18 points for the visitors. Baukin put up another monster performance for UNBC with a game-high 30 points as well as 14 rebounds.
UNBC’s undoing was a 3-for-15 showing from beyond the arch.
On Friday, the Timberwolves put on a three-point clinic in their 75-65 win on Friday over Trinity Western.
UNBC went 16-for-33 (48.5%) from long range, including a 6-for-10 showing from local product Tony Kibonge.
Baukin chipped in with 21 points while Justin Sunga added 10 as well.
Vandenberg was again the high scorer for the Spartans with 20 while Connor Platz tallied a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
The Timberwolves are 2-3 while the Spartans are 2-4.
In women’s action, UNBC fell to 0-5 following a 55-53 heartbreaker against Trinity Western on Saturday.
A clutch performance by third-year Russian Viiktoria Filatova wasn’t quite enough as she balled out with a game-high 26 points including a 6-for-8 showing from long range.
However, a sub-par showing from the free-throw line was the difference as UNBC only went 7-for16 from the charity stripe.
Collette Van der Hoven was the X-Factor for the Spartans with a team-high 16 points as Trinity Western improves to 4-2.
On Friday, the Spartans outscored UNBC by a 42-23 margin coasting to a 64-51 victory.
Van der Hoven and Mavleen Chahal tallied 12 points each while Moriah Jansen had a team-high 13 points in 27 minutes of action off the bench.
Filatova hooped 20 points for UNBC in defeat while Amrit Manak put her best game of the season with 17 points, going 5-for-12 on field goals.
Both varsity teams hit the road this weekend to Kelowna as they take on the UBC Okanagan Heat.
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