Aldrich Berrios’ first game as a starter this season proved a career-best and sparked the UBCO Heat men’s basketball team to its first win in 2015-16 CIS Canada West play.
Berrios played a team-high 30 minutes and scored 32 points as the Heat improved to 1-3 by defeating the visiting University of Northern B.C. Timberwolves 78-57.
The second-year guard was especially effective from outside the three-point line, hitting on five of his eight attempts, while being perfect (9-for-9) from the free-throw line.
Overall, the Heat’s shooting showed a marked improvement from the night before when they stumbled to a 39 per cent mark from the field and lost 64-48. They went 26-for-57 (46%) in the second game and were 6-for-17 in three-point shooting (1-for-15 on Friday).
Second-year, Dean Johnston (Port Coquitlam), contributed 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds, while Kelowna’s Mitch Goodwin also hit double digits with 11 points. In all, eight Heat players scored in the team’s initial win.
On Friday, the Heat played the Timberwolves (1-3) even (30-30) for the first two quarters, but they left their offence in the locker room. UNBC outscored them 15-4 in the third quarter . . . and the Heat never recovered.
Poor shooting is reflected Goodwin's team-best 11 points. Randall Mosca netted seven and Cameron Servatius added six.
The Heat out-rebounded the visitors 31-26, but the Timberwolves scored 22 points on turnovers, while the UBCO managed just six in that category.
Up next for the Heat is a two-game series against the Mt. Royal University Cougars of Calgary on Friday (8 p.m.) and Saturday (7 p.m.) at UBCO.
If you get value from KelownaNow and believe local independent media is important to our community we ask that you please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter.
If you appreciate what we do, we ask that you consider supporting our local independent news platform.
