VANCOUVER – The UBC men's basketball team held off a late-charging Concordia Stingers squad 74-71 on Saturday at the Thunderbirds pre-season men's tournament at War Memorial Gymnasium in Vancouver.
“I certainly commend our guys for the effort they put together,” said UBC head coach
Kevin Hanson. “Our execution is still lacking but the effort and energy level was much improved from last night.”
Hanson's team blew open a close, back and forth affair by closing the final 2:58 of the third quarter on a 12-2 run.
Former John Oliver Secondary star
Glenn Gravengard (4th, Burnaby, BC) scored six of the 12 Thunderbirds points in that run, and added a steal.
A six-point lead for UBC turned into a 16-point advantage.
In the fourth quarter, though, Concordia worked itself back into the game, taking advantage of nine UBC turnovers in a span of 5:55.
Over that stretch, the Stingers cut the deficit from 16 to two, getting to within a bucket with just over a minute to go.
But, two missed Concordia layups in the final 34 seconds allowed UBC to escape with the victory.
“It was a good test for us to have to play with composure,” said Hanson. “Concordia's got some experienced players, they've got some talented players. I thought there wasn't much flow to the game tonight…they got to the free throw line 37 times and they were able to set up their full court defence that way when that happens.”
Graham Bath (5th, Langley, BC) led all players with points. He also recorded nine rebounds and six assists for UBC.
“
Graham Bath had his best game as a UBC Thunderbird,” said Hanson. “His energy was great and he's turning himself into a leader.”
Tommy Nixon (2nd, Vancouver, BC) came off the bench to provide 16 points for the Thunderbirds, while
Kamar Burke (5th, Mississauga, ON) had a double-double with 12 points and ten rebounds.
Decee Krah topped the Concordia scoresheet with 16 points.
“It was a great game for us to play,” remarked Hanson. “We've seen more full court types of defence in these early exhibition games, which is only going to bode well for us and I think it's a great opportunity. So far, we've been very happy with what we've been able to do.”
UBC's next game will be against Memorial at 4:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon at War Memorial Gymnasium.
Saturday's other games saw Thompson Rivers outlast Memorial 90-80 and Fraser Valley beat Laurier 80-70.
