The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack put their unbeaten streak on the line in Canada West men's basketball this weekend.
The Pack will take on the Heat at the University of British Columbia Okanagan in Kelowna, BC on Friday and Saturday (Nov 8-9). Friday's game has a 12:30 pm start time while Saturday's match up has a 6 pm tip off. It is the first road trip of the young season for the Pack.
Thompson Rivers is coming off a sweep of the Trinity Western University Spartans to open the season last weekend. UBCO is winless after falling victim to the Bisons in Manitoba 86-58 and 91-66.
The WolfPack dumped Trinity 108-80 and 85-70.
Joe Davis (5
th year forward, Kamloops, BC) is third in the Canada West in points (averaging 22 per game)and fourth in field goal percent (66.7). Teammate
Michael Rouault (5
th year, guard, Vernon, BC) stands third in the league in rebounds per game (10.5).
The Heat have a new head coach in Clay Pottinger. The former University of Alberta player coached the last eight seasons in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference at Red Deer College where he won two ACAC titles.
The Heat are led offensively by Owen Keyes (2
nd year, post, Kelowna, BC) is next at 10 points per game.
Keyes and Imoudu Ibrahim (1
st year, wing, Calgary, AB) lead the team in rebounds at 5.5 per game.
UBCO has no fifth year players on their roster. This is the latest chapter of the "President's Cup" series between Thompson Rivers and UBCO. The two schools are tied at a win and a tie. TRU men's soccer beat and drew with UBCO while the Heat men's cross country team beat the WolfPack. Thompson Rivers is the defending men's and women's champions in the President's Cup.
The WolfPack enter the weekend with a three game winning streak against UBCO. The last time the Pack lost to the Heat was November 5, 2019 when they fell 57-53. Rouault had 15 points in a losing cause for TRU.
Last season, TRU won both games here (Nov 23-24, 2018): In the first ever "School Day", the Pack won 82-66 powered by Rouault's 12 points and Davis'10. The following day, TRU won 84-75 where all five TRU players had double figure offensive outputs.
Anton Bilous (5
th year, guard, Cerkassy, Ukraine) had 16, Rouault and Davis each had 11 with Tyus DeVries (3
rd year, guard, Chilliwack, BC) adding 10. This Friday's (Nov 8) game is the UBCO 'school day' contest.
Both of the games will be webcast on a pay-per-view basis on Canada West TV presented by Co-op by accessing:
https://cw.yaretv.com/.
Results will be available on the WolfPack social media platforms and their website
www.goWolfPack.ca.
For the 10 th straight year, the WolfPack men's basketball team is participating and raising money during 'Movember". If you want to contribute, the link to their donation page is
https://moteam.co/wolfpack-hoops?mc=1.
Comments of WolfPack head coach Scott Clark:
https://twitter.com/GoTRUWolfPack/status/1192315415755517953
Comments of WolfPack forward Elan Kimpton-Cuellar (1st year, forward, Roberts Creek, BC):
https://twitter.com/GoTRUWolfPack/status/1192315507698884609
