The University of British Columbia Athletics

WATERLOO, ON - The UBC Thunderbirds men's basketball team won the 44th annual Naismith Classic, hosted by the University of Waterloo, by defeating the Queen's Gaels 66-61 victory on Sunday.

With the victory, UBC finished the four-team, round-robin tournament with a perfect record of 3-0; all three wins came by single digits.

The Thunderbirds and Gaels played a closely contested first half, which ended 28-24 in favour of UBC.

The 'Birds were boosted by a strong defence that kept Queen's to just 30% shooting in the game.

UBC won the third quarter 19-11, building its lead up to 12 points.

A fourth-quarter breakout by the Gaels, in which they outscored the Thunderbirds 26-19, was not enough to complete the comeback.

Nathan Yu (5th, Prince George, BC) led UBC with 14 points, including two three-pointers.  UBC was an efficient 7 of 14 from behind the arc and shot 41% overall from the field.

Yu's performance over the three-day event earned him the nod as the tournament's Most Valuable Player.

Kamar Burke (5th, Mississauga, ON) chipped in with ten points and eight rebounds.

Doug Plumb (4th, Pitt Meadows, BC) was the other Thunderbird named to the tournament all-star team.

UBC improves to 4-3 in the preseason and will now return home to host the 2011 Thunderbird Classic, which will take place October 21-23 at historic War Memorial Gymnasium.