iz sports November 30, 2011 - Over the Edge VETERAN GUARDS LEAD T-WOLVES PAST ROYALS 92-74 Ind Half Efforts Propel UNBC to 2-0 PUNEET HAYER SPORTS EDITOR ee Sandman INN & SUITES | PRINCE GEORGE OFFICIAL HOST HOTEL OF THE UNBC TIMBERWOLVES! The stellar play of Francis Rowe (#4) propells the UNBC men to a 92-74 win over Douglas College. he UNBC Timberwolves de- feated the Douglas College Royals this past Saturday in men’s basketball action this past Sat- urday 92-74. Much like their home opener against Columbia Bible Col- lege the Timberwolves found them- selves in a tighter game than they expected in the first half. The Roy- als led by former T-Wolf Harmeet Mahal and promising point guard Aurel David did not back down to the Timberwolves and the capacity crowd at the Northern Sport Centre cutting a 14 point deficit to just 3 at halftime. Unfortunately, for the Royals UNBC starting guards Francis Rowe and Samuel Raphael saved their best per- formances of this young PACWEST season for the second half. That re- sulted in a 54-39 second half in favour of UNBC that encompassed 30 points between Raphael and Rowe alone. The Timberwolves did not look like themselves in the first half. Center Kevan Madsen played only two min- utes in the first half because of foul trouble and star guard Jose Araujo was uncharacteristically missing open jump shots and was only 2/9 from the field in the first half. Furthermore, Francis Rowe was not his usual self all weekend as he had difficult defen- sive responsibilities the night before with Kevin Ford of Columbia Bible College and this game with Aurel David. Plus, Rowe probably was not naive with the play of freshman Billy Cheng cutting into his playing time. Therefore, Rowe knew he had to pick it up in the second half as he we was scoreless and only played 6 minutes in the first half. However, it was not all bad for UNBC in the first half as starting power forward Dennis Stark went 7/8 from the free throw line and accounted for 11 first half points. Secondly, and more notably 4th year guard Sam Raphael who is returning from an injury plagued year had one of the best games that any UNBC player has had in quite some time. Raphael in addition to his usual strong defensive play added some much needed offensive production for the Timberwolves by scoring 16 points in the first half alone. The Royals much like the Timber- wolves had struggles of their own in the first half. Starting Center Harpreet Randhawa much like his counterpart Madsen picked up three quick fouls and only played 3 minutes in the first half. However, Royals reserve forward Malcolm Mensah filled in admirably for Randhawa and main- tained a strong presence for the Roy- als. Additionally, the Royals only shot 38% in the first half much because of the defensive play of UNBC guards Sam Raphael and Joel Rybachuk. De- spite the foul troubles and shooting struggles, the Royals went on a 2-4 run to end the first half to cut the lead to just 3 points. At halftime the entire crowd thought this would be a close second half and both teams would continue to struggle. Fortunately, the Timber- wolves never got that memo. Francis Rowe looked every bit the star player that he is in the second half by scoring 20 points in the second. While, Raph- ael continued to build off his strong first half by adding another 10 points including 2 three pointers as the shot clock expired. Raphael finished with a game high 26 points in addition to 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals in 36 minutes. With Kevan Madsen and Gabe Aubertin struggling with foul trouble, the Timberwolves turned to newly acquired forward Charles Barton who recorded the team’s first double double of the year by netting 10 points and 10 rebounds all in the second half. Barton seemed to give UNBC new life in the second half by exploiting the middle of the Douglas frontcourt with Randhawa struggling with foul trouble. The Royals continued to play hard and were led by point guard Aurel David who had an impressive second PUNEET HAYER half of his own that saw him go a per- fect 9/9 from the free throw line and score 16 of his 26 points in the second half. However, Mahal went just 2/9 in the second half as he struggled to keep pace with UNBC. As a result, this was a game of two halves, where the Timberwolves came alive and were too much to handle for Douglas College. You can make the case that this would have been a closer game if Randhawa did not get into foul trouble, but you can the same about Kevan Madsen in the same regard. Plus, Jose Araujo, Billy Cheng and Gabe Aubertin were not their usual selves in this game. There- fore, Coach Jordan has a lot of depth; something he did not have last year! That proved to be the difference last year and could very well again this year, but with a different outcome. It looks promising for Coach Jordan and his team but we will find out for sure this week against VIU and Camosun and the Northern Sport Center.