Over the Edge »- November 30 sports a 310-0001 ive} 7 Ms oN” Sap Proud to support UNBC Timberwolves Columbia Bible phenom guard Kevin Ford (left) was heavily guarded all night by UNBC guard Joel Rybachuck. NEW LOOK: T-WOLVES DEVOUR THE BEARCATS The Strenath of fhe UNBC Bench Overwhelms CBC 94-4? PUNEET HAYER SPORTS EDITOR pening night of the UNBC Men’s basketball season gave us all a first-hand look at the future of team in impressive fashion. Prized recruits Gabe Aubertin and Billy Cheng made their debuts and played better than advertised. A close 16-13 first quarter forced Timber- wolves Head Coach Todd Jordan to make some adjustments and dip into his bench. Enter Aubertin and Cheng, who are both playing behind estab- lished starters, Kevan Madsen and Francis Rowe respectively, helped the Timberwolves weather the early storm on the way to a blowout 94-42 victory in front of a capacity crowd at the Northern Sport Centre. The first quarter saw the arrival of a new star in the PACWEST, Columbia Bible starting point guard Kevin Ford. Ford, a first year point guard from Se- attle, Washington playing in his first PACWEST game dictated the pace in the 1st quarter allowing the perennial bottom feeding BearCats to keep the game close by controlling much of the clock in the 1st quarter. This resulted in the ball being kept away from Timberwolves sharpshooter Francis Rowe and their up-tempo game plan. Clearly, Coach Jordan knew that he had to slow down Ford and force some turnovers to play Timberwolves basketball. Coach Jordan inserted a combina- tion of his best man to man defend- ers Joel Rybachuk and Sam Raphael to limit Ford for the rest of the game. That tactic clearly worked and paid off as Ford committed 8 turnovers and struggled to get his teammates involved for the rest of the game. Additionally, the Timberwolves threw a zone defense for a majority of the game that limited the passing lanes for Ford. “It was like I had 13 guys on me after the Ist quarter and they found ways for my teammates to not come back to the ball, so they did a great job,” said Ford after the game. Despite, the significance of the defensive adjustments on Ford, this game came down to the dominance of the UNBC bench who outscored the CBC bench 45-4. Specifically, new- comers Billy Cheng and Gabe Auber- tin both revitalized a shell shocked UNBC squad who were surprised to be in such a close game after the first quarter to an inferior oppon- ent. Cheng, the anointed future point guard of UNBC basketball, who much like Kevin Ford, played in his first ever PACWEST game and orches- trated a 35-8 second quarter. With the departure of Hall of Fame point guard Inderbir Gill, the Timberwolves lacked a natural point guard. That void was short lived as Cheng ran the floor for much of the game and hit key jumpers that started many scor- ing spurts for the Timberwolves. Sub- sequently, it looks like the Timber- wolves have a long term answer at point guard. Aubertin, who played most of the second half, picked up the production for starting Center Kevan Madsen, who was battling injury and foul trouble for much of the game. Aubertin led the Timberwolves in re- bounds and field goal percentage on way to an impressive 10 point and 7 rebound performance in twenty min- utes of playing time. Along with Kevan Madsen, this home opening game saw the return of starting shooting guard Jose Araujo to the Timberwolves who led all scor- ers with 23 points. This game marked the first PACWEST game for the two since their national championship victory in 2009-2010. Despite the impressive performance from Billy Cheng, starting point guard Francis Rowe continued his strong play by adding 13 points. As a result, with the combination of the starters and bench producing, CBC was bound to crash and burn after the first quarter. That is PUNEET HAYER exactly what happened with 6 of their players logging over 25 minutes of playing time. Consequently, this ex- plains a lot of this Timberwolves vic- tory because of the strength of their bench in comparison to the BearCars. What will get lost in this victory will be the masterful coaching of Todd Jordan and his staff. The game clearly changed as Coach Jordan put his best defenders on Ford in conjunc- tion with a zone defense that CBC could not react too. Plus, it was the recruiting of Coach Jordan that netted Aubertin and Cheng to be a part of the Timberwolves for years to come. In doing so Coach Jordan filled his biggest needs from a year ago: front court depth and a future point guard. Only time will tell how this will play out in the PACWEST, but for now we know that it was too much for CBC.