VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds' offence was firing on all cylinders at War Memorial Gym on Saturday night, as they completed the weekend sweep over the Winnipeg Wesmen with a 114-86 win.
Saturday's action had many parallels to game one between the 'Birds and Wesmen. Again Winnipeg relied on a hot three-point shooter to keep them in the game early, as Lynden Drayton-Barrow finished 5-for-7 from beyond the arc, but again the difference between the teams was the T-Birds' offence exploding in the third quarter. UBC quickly stretched a significant halftime lead into an insurmountable one, scoring 31 points in the third quarter and 30 in the fourth.
And again, it was
Nathan Yu who lit the fuse.
The fourth-year guard followed up a huge second half performance in game one with an even bigger one in game two, scoring 20 of his team-leading 22 points after the halftime break to give the T-Birds more than enough cushion for the win.
"He was just an absolute spark and he's playing with some great confidence right now," said UBC head coach
Kevin Hanson. "He got to start in the second half and came out and sparked us again. He's playing some of his best basketball right now and we just want him to continue that throughout the year."
Another common thread in this weekend series was the play of UBC's
Kamar Burke, who regained a spot in the starting lineup this week and made the most of it with back-to-back double digit rebounding performances. He had a game-high 10 boards to go with nine points on Saturday.
"That's a great weekend for Kamar and I'm really happy for him," said Hanson. "He got back in the starting lineup and showed that he really wants to be there and contribute on that defensive end. I wasn't happy with our overall rebounding but obviously if he's getting double digits rebounding he is doing his part."
The Wesmen shot 40 per cent from three-point range to round out a strong perimeter shooting weekend for themselves, but the T-Birds were even better at 50 per cent on Saturday. Yu led the three-point assault with a 3-for-4 mark from behind the arc. Burke was 2-for-3.
Doug Plumb had one of his best nights as a Thunderbird, pouring in 21 points through three quarters before getting a rest in the fourth.
Josh Whyte had 16 points and nine assists in just 22 minutes of play. Fellow point guard
Alex Murphy had seven assists, as the 'Birds got plenty of open looks on the night. That was reflected in their 58.6 field goal percentage.
Nolin Gooding led the Wesmen with 23 points and seven assists. Drayton-Barrow finished with 19 points but had his night cut short when he fouled out early in the fourth quarter.
The T-Birds are tied for second in Canada West at 6-2, and they have a good chance to build on that as they remain at home for the next two weeks. The Fraser Valley Cascades are next on the list. They will be at War Memorial Gym on November 19 and 20 with both games beginning at 8 p.m.
Winnipeg falls to 1-4 on the year and will look to regroup next weekend in Saskatchewan against the 5-3 Huskies.
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