Team B.C. got into the win column Sunday at the Tim Hortons Brier in Halifax.

Kelowna’s Jeff Richard rink — with Cranbrook third Tom Shypitka — defeated the host province’s Ian Fitzner-Leblanc 9-5 in nine ends yesterday evening.

Richard had entered Draw 5 with an 0-2 record, starting the tournament by dropping one-point matches to a pair of national and world champions.

Their first game — the televised tournament opener on Saturday — needed an extra end before Manitoba’s Jeff Stoughton slid away 8-7.

With a bye in the second and third draws, Team B.C. faced Glenn Howard’s Ontario Rink in Draw 4.

After Richard evened the score with a deuce in the seventh and single in the ninth, Howard scored an open draw to the four-foot in the 10th.

While Shypitka curled in the 1991 Brier, Richard, second Tyler Orme and lead Chris Anderson are rookies.

As Richard told the Canadian Press, he wasn’t intimidated by opening the tournament against top-flight skips.

“You’ve got to stay close with them. If you let those guys get ahead they’re going to run you out of the building,” he said.

“It takes a while for everyone to catch on to the ice, even Stoughton and Howard’s rinks, so we gave ourselves good chances to win.”

Howard, whose team is 3-0, told reporters the Sunday matinee was a real battle.

“B.C.’s really solid and they don’t make many mistakes. Fortunately we had the brick coming home.”

Richard’s row doesn’t get any easier to hoe today, as they face Alberta’s sharpshooting Kevin Koe in the morning draw. Like Howard, Koe enters the day undefeated and atop the leader board.

B.C. is back in action tonight, closing out the day with a game against Quebec’s Serge Reid (2-1).