On the eve of their final PACWEST Men’s and Women’s Basketball Provincial Championship both University of Northern British Columbia Northern Timberwolves basketball teams are already scoring accolades.

UNBC women’s basketball coach Loralyn Murdoch has been named Coach of the Year for the first time. Murdoch has been involved with the UNBC women’s program since 1997 and was instrumental in its early development, becoming head coach in 2000. This year, Murdoch brought the T-wolves from a fourth place showing last year--they won bronze at the provincials--to first place in the Province with a 15-1 record in league play.

“We have a great bunch of athletes on the team and they worked really hard all season and deserve a lot of credit,” says Murdoch, who was born and raised in Prince George. “We’re excited to see how things turn out next year when we take on the challenge of Canada West, but for now we’re really excited to play our best and make it through to the National Championship again.”

Several Timberwolves were named to the All-Star and Rookie-of-the-Year teams:

• Jennifer Clyne and Mercedes VanKoughnett, both of Prince George, were named First-Team All-stars
• Sam Raphael of Prince George, Francis Rowe of Victoria, and Jose Araujo from Toronto were named 2nd team All-stars
• Bill Cheng of Richmond was named to the All-Rookie team

“It’s great to see the number of Timberwolves being recognized for their efforts and excellence in PACWEST,” says UNBC Director of Athletics Jason Kerswill.  “The majority of this year's recipients will be returning to represent the T-Wolves again next year and as a result we should be in good shape moving up into Canada West.”

The women’s basketball team enters the tournament as the number one seed (15-1) and recently moved up to the number seven spot in the country. The men’s team enters the provincials for the second consecutive year as the number two seed (13-3) and is ranked eighth nationally.

Both teams have byes into the PACWEST BC Provincial Championship semi-finals this weekend.  The women play Friday afternoon at 3pm and the men play at 6pm.

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Click on a thumbnail to access a high resolution image UNBC women's head coach Loralyn Murdoch.