UBC Okanagan men’s basketball were unable to take win from division leading and tenth ranked foes, the Thompson Rivers WolfPack, fall 69-57.
Friday, January 9th, 2016
UBC Okanagan, Kelowna, BC
FINAL 1 2 3 4 T Thompson Rivers (8-1) 16 14 13 26 69 UBC Okanagan (4-5) 9 22 12 14 57
KELOWNA, BC – The UBC Okanagan men’s basketball team start the 2016 year off with a 69-57 loss to the Thompson Rivers WolfPack in Kelowna on Friday night in front of a large crowd on hand at the UBC Okanagan gymnasium.
The 12-point loss drops the Heat record below .500 at (4-5), while improving the division leading WolfPack’s to (8-1).
A tight low-scoring game for the first three quarters, the No. 10 ranked WolfPack would pull away early in the fourth, eventually outscoring UBCO 26-14 in the frame and hanging on for a 12-point victory.
The lack of finish ultimately lead to UBC Okanagan’s first loss 2016, as they shot (20- 63) 31.7% from the field compared to the WolfPack’ s (26-58) 44.4%.The Heat also trailed the Wolfpack with (8-31) 25.8 % from beyond the arc compared to TRU’s (6-22) 27.3 %.
Aldrich Berrios, for the fifth time in the last six UBC Okanagan games, led the team in scoring. Against TRU he finished with 19 points. Randall Mosca continued his super-sub role and scored nine points off the bench. Second year guard Cam Servatius also finished with nine points, highlighted by a breakaway dunk at the end of the game. Servatious, from his guard spot, was also able to claim 11 of the team’s rebounds, tops for UBCO.
Volodymyr Iegorov led the ‘Pack with 23 points and 11 rebounds giving him a double-double. Josh Wolfram followed with 13 points and six boards, and Albert Medrano had 10 points.
Ball movement and a couple of quick threes sent Thompson Rivers out to an early lead which they held until the end of the first quarter. The TRU lead grew in the second quarter until the Heat’s second year guard’s Cam Servatius, Aldrich Berrios, and Randall Mosca combined with second year forward Dean Johnston on a 15- 9 scoring streak to take the (31-30) lead into the half. Mosca led the Heat at the half with nine points and Berrios followed with six.
Both teams were slugish to start the third quarter but the Heat were able to maintain the lead against the tenth ranked team in Canada right up until the the final two seconds of the quarter when TRU’s Luke Morris finished with a layup to tie the score 43-43.
The final quarter ultimately led to the Kelowna loss as the WolfPack pulled ahead with a quick (7-0) scoring streak just two minutes into the final frame. The Heat were unable to find any rythym on offense and the run by TRU effectively closed out the game for the home team. After the final buzzer sound the Heat fell 69-57.
The Heat were able to win the battle of the boards against the well known size of the Kamloops squad and claimed 39 boards compared to their 37.
The Heat will be looking for redemption as the weekend series continues tomorrow in Kelowna tip-off is at 7 p.m.
~ Tia Sadler // Heat Communications