Box Score Saturday night at the Northern Sport Centre, the UNBC Timberwolves (1-2) dropped a 74-67 overtime decision to the #10 nationally ranked Alberta Golden Bears (3-1). Isaac Simon led the way offensively for Alberta with 16 points including eight in the third quarter. Evgeny Baukin once again led the TWolves with 23 points. His seven boards and five assists were also team highs.
 
UNBC jumped out to a 20-18 lead after one. Three Timberwolves: Baukin, Danilo Gonzalez and Haukur Davidsson each had five in the opening quarter. Nash Semeniuk and Ethan Egert led the Golden Bears with four apiece in the first, and Nate Waldron hit a buzzer-beating three at the end of the quarter to pull Alberta within two.
 
The TWolves began the second quarter on a 14-3 run as Tony Kibonge, Haukur Davidsson and Milan Pasquale (twice) all hit from deep. Alberta answered with buckets from Simon and Caiden Kushnir but found themselves down by nine (34-25) at the halfway point of the quarter.
 
Kibonge struck from distance again with less than two minutes remaining, pushing UNBC's lead back to double-digits at 40-29. For Kibonge it marked his third triple of the night, and the eighth of the evening for Todd Jordan's club as they went into the halftime break with a 45-34 lead. The explanation point on the night, and arguably the weekend also came in the second quarter as Baukin finished off an incredible give-and-go alley-oop with Justin Sunga that brought the crowd to it's feet.
 
At half Todd Jordan's club had managed eight threes with Kibonge supplying three of them. Baukin led all scorers through 20 with 12 points, six boards and three assists. Kushnir led the Golden Bears at half with nine points.
 
A three-point play from Simon to start the third for Alberta was quickly followed by a Waldron layup, and Alberta snuck back within six.
 
 It was a low-scoring quarter altogether as Alberta outscored the TWolves 14-9, but four of the nine third quarter points for the hosts came from Baukin who led all scorers with 16 through three.
 
 Simon had eight of the 14 third quarter points for the Bears who trailed 54-48 after three.
 
The visitors began the fourth on a 10-2 run thanks in large part to eight points from Varner (two threes and a layup).
 
A single free-throw from Baukin pushed UNBC back within one, before Varner drilled another three, to push Alberta ahead by four (61-57).
 
Sunga hit two free-throws with 1:09 to go, making it a two-point game again, and after a defensive stop, the TWolves got the ball back with 15.4 seconds left.
 
Milan Pasquale tied the game with an incredible second-effort bucket from underneath, but missed the free-throw, giving Alberta a chance for the win with 2.3 seconds remaining.
 
Isaac Simon took the inbound feed and threw up a corner three that fell short, sending the game into overtime with the score tied 63-63.
 
Varner opened overtime with two successful free-throws for Alberta and after misses at both sides, Nash Semeniuk doubled the Bears lead with an elbow jumper.
 
Sunga responded with a tough layup, but Alberta answered with a layup from Simon. Waldron then converted a put-back off his own offensive board, giving Alberta a 71-65 lead with 1:41 to go.
 
Baukin put UNBC back within four after capitalizing off a Sunga steal, but unfortunately the pushback was too little, too late for UNBC. Defensively the Bears kept the door shut from there and secured a 74-67 come-from-behind win.
 
Todd Jordan's club now sits at 1-2 and will look to climb back to .500 when they host Trinity Western next Friday night at the NSC.