Box Score Friday night at UBCO, the UNBC Timberwolves dropped their season opener by a 91-71 margin to the UBC Okanagan Heat. Jalen Shirley (22) and Gavin Ashworth (21) combined for 43 points for the hosts while Jas Dhudwal pulled in 10 rebounds to go with eight points. Justin Sunga answered with a new career-high of 21 for UNBC while Evgeny Baukin (13) and Josh Gillespie (11) also reached double digits. Gillespie and Will Keyes each had six rebounds for the Green and Gold.

A mid-range jumper from Baukin on the first possession went down as UNBC's first basket of 2024-25. The Heat answered with a three from Shirley and a pair of free throws from Ashworth on their way to a 12-4 run to start the game. Baukin's first of what will likely be many dunks in 2024-25 stopped the UBCO run. Gillespie then put home a slick inbound pass from Sunga for his first two points of 2024-25, but picked up his second early foul of the evening on the next possession which led to an Ashworth four-point play. Ashworth finished the first quarter with 11 of UBCO's 26 points.

Other first quarter highlights for UNBC included Ben White and Chris Ainsley both getting on the scoreboard along with Wesley Ainu'u getting his first taste of Canada West play. A late dunk from Keyes rounded out the offense for UNBC in the first, as they trailed 26-16 after 10.

Down 32-18 early in the second, the UBC Okanagan bench took a technical foul which resulted in a made free-throw from Sunga. Gillespie then added a layup and Sunga nailed a triple to push UNBC within 10 (34-24). Then with 3:07 remaining in the quarter, Gillespie was left wide open for an elbow three that he converted on, moving UBCO's lead to seven. Back-to-back late makes from Dhudwal, and a buzzer-beating jumper from Shirley pushed the Heat lead back to double-digits (12).

The score at half favoured UBCO 47-35. Shirley led all scorers through 20 with 13 points (6/12 shooting) while Ashworth had 11 and Dhudwal had nine boards. Sunga led the Timberwolves with 11 points (3/8 shooting) while Gillespie added nine on a tidy four-of-five from the field.

The first eight points of the third for UNBC came off a pair of triples and a pair of free-throws from Sunga, who had a game-high 19 points at the half-way point of the third, but the TWolves still trailed by 20. On the other side, Ashworth added eight more to his point totals in the third and Shirley connected for a second time from deep, to lead UBCO to a 25-17 edge in third quarter scoring. Late in the frame, Isaiah Bias nabbed his first career Canada West points for the TWolves with a single free-throw and a corner three.

Evgeny Baukin and Will Keyes both connected on buckets early in the fourth, temporarily moving the deficit to 16. But the Heat did well to not let the TWolves get closer, and eventually they pushed their lead back to 20. Halfway through the fourth, Ben White nailed his first career Canada West three to once again move the TWolves back within 16, but with four minutes left, Todd Jordan elected to rest some of his regulars, which allowed Milan Pasquale, Marcus Wilson, Marcus Nickles, Danilo Gonzalez and Wesley Ainu'u to take advantage of some added minutes down the stretch.

The final score showed 91-71 for UBC Okanagan who improved their record to 1-1 on the season. The TWolves fall to 0-1 and will now look to climb back to .500 when they host the TRU WolfPack Sunday at 4:00 pm at Brownridge Court at the Northern Sport Centre.