Prince George, B.C. – The UNBC Timberwolves are back at .500 following an emotional home split with the UBC Thunderbirds. Saturday night at the Northern Sport Centre the UNBC Men (7-7) fell 85-73 in their rematch with the UBC Thunderbirds (11-5). The top scorer on the night for the visitors was Victor Radocaj who finished with 16 points on eight-of-nine shooting while adding 10 rebounds. Evgeny Baukin countered with a team-high 15 for the TWolves while adding five rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal en route to a Mr. Mike's Player of the Game award.
 
 A defensive battle in the opening 10 as UNBC held UBC to six-of-17 shooting and led 20-16. Spencer Ledoux (6) and Darren Hunter (5) combined for 11 points for UNBC while Fareed Shittu and Arnaud Konan each had four for UBC. UBC began the game on a 7-4 run, with four points coming from Shittu. The early buckets for UNBC came from Spencer Ledoux and Josh Gillespie. Chris Ross, the hero from a night ago, got UNBC back even at 9-9 with three straight free-throws. Then a steal from Dylon Matthews results in a Ledoux layup to make it 11-9 UNBC. The Ledoux layup was all part of a 7-1 run that led to a 16-9 UNBC lead. It also included an Evgeny Baukin deep two and an elbow three from Hunter. Baukin later got the Pride Night crowd on its feet with a slam dunk, putting the TWolves up 20-11. Toni Maric, Arnaud Konan and Karan Aujla (a free throw) all supplied buckets for UBC in the final moments to spark a 5-0 run of their own to round out the first quarter scoring.


 
A much different story in the second quarter as UBC missed only five of their 22 attempts en route to a 52-39 half-time lead. Six different T-Birds supplied buckets in the opening five minutes of the second, sparking a 24-10 run and an eventual 10-point lead. The go-ahead bucket came from Tobi Akinkunmi in close on a turnaround layup, but the star of the quarter for UBC was forward Victor Radocaj who supplied 12 points on six-for-six shooting. Justin Sunga did his part to spark a UBC comeback with a deep elbow two, but Brendan Sullivan came back the very next possession and drilled a three to make it 44-32. Evgeny Baukin provided five late points for the TWolves who faced a 13-point gap at halftime. The Russian forward led the TWolves with nine points and five rebounds through 20.
 
The TWolves responded well, outscoring the 'Birds 24-17 in the third. Josh Gillespie supplied seven third quarter points and got help from the likes of Darren Hunter (5), and Spencer Ledoux (4). Three separate threes from Tobi Akinkunmi helped UBC to a slim 11-10 advantage through the first 4:30, but Todd Jordan's club got some offensive energy in response from Hunter who rattled off five unanswered points to get UNBC to within 10. The gap got a little closer when Ledoux and Gillespie each hit tough layups from the post, and the score read 69-63 for UBC through three.


 
The TWolves had their moments in the fourth, but ultimately the defense of the Thunderbirds held their ground en route to an 16-10 fourth quarter edge. Brendan Sullivan hit back-to-back early buckets for UBC to start the fourth before Spencer Ledoux countered with two more for UBC, sparking a 7-0 run. A triple from Chris Ross and a layup from Justin Sunga pushed the Wolves to within three which was as close as they'd get. James Woods responded with a three for UBC, quieting the NSC crowd, then four straight points from Shittu moved UBC up by 10. The final dagger from UBC came off an 'And 1' from Shittu that pushed the score to 83-71. Shortly thereafter, UBC was able to celebrate an 85-73 victory, and a split with UNBC.
 
UNBC held a slim +3 rebounding edge while UBC had three fewer turnovers.
 
UNBC will now shift their attention to the TRU WolfPack and a road double-header that begins Friday night from Kamloops.