VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds kicked off the 2009 exhibition season with a nail-biting 80-78 victory against the visiting Laval Rouge et Or Thursday night at War Memorial Gymnasium.

A surprisingly intense first game of the season came down to the final seconds with the two squads going blow for blow down the stretch.

Approaching the final minutes of regulation time, UBC grabbed a two-point lead thanks to eight straight points from Blain LaBranche who came off the bench to give the home side a much needed boost.

One of the keys to finally getting out front, UBC had trailed for much of the game, was shutting down Laval's Etienne LaBrecque, who finished the night with 22 points but was held silent in the last half of the fourth.

"Our defence was a little too aggressive at first," said UBC head coach Kevin Hanson. "We were working hard but we weren't really working smart. There's a big difference."

Laval fought back, however, with the Rouge et Or's other standout, Jerome Turcotte-Routhier, tying the game at 78-78 thanks to an old-fashioned three-point play with 17 seconds remaining.

With the game clock ticking down to one second, UBC's Josh Whyte beat two Laval defenders and made a tough lay-up in the lane to give the T-Birds the two-point victory after Laval missed a tying shot as time expired.

Hanson was pleased with the win, especially considering the possibility of meeting Laval at the end of the season.

"Laval is a top 5 team coming into tonight," said Hanson, "and a team that's going to be there at Nationals."

If the two teams do meet again this season, the T-Birds will needed to be sharper down the stretch as their chance at winning was almost given away with three bad turnovers late in the fourth quarter.

"It's a good lesson that they have to be mentally ready to go coming off the bench," said Hanson. "[The players committing the turnovers] were older, experienced guys that normally won't do that. One of the things we're working on this year is not turning the ball over, so that will be good video to show them."

In the first quarter, Laval looked like the more cohesive team, moving the ball and shooting like a unit in mid-season form, while the T-Birds took a little longer to find their groove.

However, the 'Birds built momentum through the second quarter, closing the gap from eight points to one by half time. Alex Murphy helped spark UBC late in the second when he followed up a three-pointer with an assist to Denny Dumas, who drained a triple of his own from the corner.

The third quarter went back and forth, with UBC taking a one-point lead. Forward Kamar Burke put on an aggressive display down low, grabbing four rebounds and draining four of his nine points in the frame.

Whyte led UBC with 16 points as all but one T-Bird scored on the night. Laval was led LaBrecque and Turcotte-Routhier who each had 22 points on the night.

The T-Birds continue their stout preseason schedule with a match-up against 2008-09 CIS Top 10 mainstay Windsor on Friday night at War Gym. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.