Bounaaja caps season in style

The award capped an impressive 2026 campaign for Bounaaja, who led UNBC with four goals and eight assists. His eight helpers established a new Timberwolves single-season record and helped him climb the program’s all-time leaderboard. Through 41 career games in Green and Gold, Bounaaja has accumulated six goals and 11 assists for 17 points, tying him for fourth in program history.

While the individual accolades are significant, Bounaaja says he’s most proud of how the team came together following the loss of several key veterans from the previous season.

“I think for the team, the way we were able to rebound off the big turnover we had since last year, losing a lot of guys last year, it’s not an easy thing to come back to,” said Bounaaja.

Despite narrowly missing out on bigger results throughout the season, Bounaaja believes the Timberwolves demonstrated they can compete with the conference’s top programs.

“We tied probably four or five of the top ten sports teams in the country,” he said. “So showing that we were just almost there, almost enough to just be basically anybody we wanted, but unfortunately just results didn’t come our way.”

Bounaaja pointed to an early-season draw against UBC as a defining moment for the team.

“We proved that we can show up to the big dogs,” he said.

As for his six-point performance in the season finale, Bounaaja admits he wasn’t focused on the history he was making while it was happening.

“Honestly, I wasn’t really thinking about it because I got the first two and then I was quite happy and content with that,” said Bounaaja. “Then everything just kind of went my way.”

With two years of eligibility still remaining, Bounaaja will have plenty of opportunities to add to his resume and continue rewriting the Timberwolves record book.

by Stephen Lewyta

Bounaaja caps season in style

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