VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds are still perfect on their current homestand after a 94-58 win over the Lethbridge Pronghorns on Thursday night at War Memorial Gym.
The T-Birds took a firm grip on this one early on and never let go, leading by double digits after one quarter and extending the advantage to 26 by halftime. The 'Horns fought back in the third quarter but were only able to keep pace with the T-Birds, failing to make up any ground thanks to another stellar performance by UBC's point guard tandem of
Josh Whyte and
Alex Murphy.
"I thought Alex did a good job of finding guys and creating offence, and Josh started out 3-for-3 from the three-point line so he got comfortable and got his feet set," said UBC head coach
Kevin Hanson. "They feed off each other and play really well together, and they get better the more minutes they play together."
Both players sat for most of the fourth quarter with the game well in-hand for the home side at that point, but still put up impressive numbers in limited action. Whyte led all scorers with 22 points while hitting four of his five three-point attempts, and Murphy had a game-high 11 assists and three steals.
The offence was rolling for the T-Birds, who shot 48 per cent from the field, but their defensive effort was what impressed Hanson. Despite their success in the win column on their current six-game homestand, the 'Birds had been giving up a lot of points over the past few weeks, but that changed on Thursday. They held the Pronghorns to 34.4 per cent field goal shooting and forced 28 turnovers which led to 34 UBC points.
"Giving up 78 points a game is not going to cut it for us so we really got after our defence in practice this week and it's nice to get a result like that," said Hanson. "The last couple teams we played averaged a lot of threes but these guys don't so we were able to pack them in and I thought our posts did a great job defensively. We did a good job of containing their penetration and forcing them into jump shots they didn't want to take."
The big UBC lead allowed Hanson to spread the minutes around generously, and many of his role players took full advantage. The T-Bird bench outscored Lethbridge's 43-7, with
Melvyn Mayott's 12 points leading the way.
Balraj Bains' impact was felt on the defensive end, where he had three blocks, two steals and five rebounds.
"I'm really happy with Balraj. He came in and challenged shots and did some really good things defensively," said Hanson.
Quinn Van Gaalen led the 'Horns with 17 points, and Randy Davis chipped in 15.
The win keeps UBC on top of the Canada West standings at 9-2, and they can head into the semester break with a six-game winning streak if they can complete the sweep over the Pronghorns tomorrow night. The T-Birds and 'Horns cap off the first half of the regular season schedule at War Memorial Gym on Friday at 8 p.m.
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