Sunday afternoon at the NSC, the UNBC Timberwolves (0-1) dropped a narrow 73-71 decision to the UBC Okanagan Heat (1-1). UNBC's Evgeny Baukin kicked off the 2025-26 campaign with 30 points, matching his previous career best while UBCO's Jalen Shirley led the Heat in response with 27 on 11-for-19. The next highest scoring player for UNBC was Justin Sunga who poured in 17. The leading rebounder for the TWolves was Haukur Davidsson who pulled down 11 while Julien Mayfair had 10 in response for UBCO.

Baukin nailed the first field goal of the season for UNBC off a triple. Shirley responded immediately with a triple of his own for UBCO, but Sunga answered right back with a three of his own, opening up an early 7-3 lead for the hosts. Baukin stayed sharp early for the TWolves as he recorded 10 of the UNBC's first 13 on the day. A 5-0 run of free-throws late from UBCO pushed the score to a 20-15 UNBC lead through one.

Baukin drilled two of the first three field goals of the second for UNBC giving him 17 of their first 29 on the day. He was efficient too going six for his first seven. Baukin's final field goal of the quarter were also the loudest as he threw down a huge slam dunk that got the NSC crowd into a frenzy! He nailed the free-throw as well to finish with a game-high 20 first-half points.

For most of the first half, the TWolves did a good job defensively on UBCO  Shirley who was held to just three points in the opening 25 minutes. Shirley would tack on seven though in the back-half of the quarter and led all UBCO scorers with 10 first-half points.

At half the score was 39-37 for UNBC, with Baukin leading with 20 points, three rebounds and three assists.

UBCO roared out of the gates in the third quarter with a 7-0 run – five of which came from Isaac Moore. Shirley followed with a pair of makes to open up an 11-2 run for the Heat with Sunga providing the lone bucket in that sequence for UNBC. Tony Kibonge drilled his second three of the night to restore some balance to the TWolves, and then Sunga got hot, pouring in nine more points over the duration of the quarter. But Shirley's 12 third quarter points led all scorers, and UBCO led 59-56 with 10 minutes to go.

The fourth quarter went back-and-forth with the team's top scorers trading barbs. Shirley led his squad with five fourth quarter points while Baukin recorded 10 of the 18 total points for UNBC. After trading fouls and free-throws in the waning minutes, the TWolves had a chance to tie the score with only four seconds left on the clock. But unfortunately Baukin was unable to convert a layup off a long in-bound pass, allowing the Heat to escape UNBC with a 73-71 win.

The Heat improve to 1-1 on the season while UNBC heads into next weekend's home battle with Alberta at 0-1.