Timberwolves welcome T-Birds and Cascades to kick off 2026 portion of schedule

With only eight games remaining for the UNBC Timberwolves this season, the time to make hay is now. Todd Jordan's club enters this week with a 2-10 record and are current three wins back of Trinity Western for the final playoff spot in the Pacific Division.

To a large degree though, the TWolves still control their playoff destiny, and they'll look to begin the year in winning fashion tomorrow night when they host the UBC Thunderbirds at 8:00 pm for Student Night. Two nights later, the TWolves battle the UFV Cascades at 7:00 pm on January 17.

The UBC Thunderbirds arrive North carrying a 10-2 record. They begin the week one win shy of Victoria for a share of first in the Pacific Division. Interim Head Coach Phil Jalipour has made an early mark on the program and offensively has leaned on the trio of Nikola Guzina (16.1 PPG), Nylan Roberts (12.9) and Edouard Gauthier (10.0). Roberts, a second-year forward from Abbotsford has been equally effective on the defensive side of the floor as he averaging 8.1 boards.

The UFV Cascades enter the week with a 7-6 mark which puts them fourth in the division. They've got work to do if they want to catch the third-placed WolfPack from TRU (10-7) but there's plenty of talent and experience in Abbotsford to help with a late season push. Third-year transfer guard Bennett O'Connor has injected pace, energy and scoring into the UFV attack and leads the way with an average of 14.2 points-per-game. The leading rebounder for UFV is Ismael Hernandez who's averaging 7.2 per contest.

With Evgeny Baukin still sidelined with an injury, the Timberwolves will be leaning heavily on fourth-year guard Justin Sunga to score and facilitate at the elite level that he's proven he can play at. Sunga leads all active TWolves with 9.7 points-per-game, and currently he sits just 10 assists shy of setting a new program record. Second-year big Miller Davies continues to evolve into a reliable two-way presence for UNBC. Davies enters the week with a team-leading average of 5.8 rebounds.

If you can't make it to the NSC this week for either game, you can catch all of the action live on Canada West TV.