VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds men's basketball team ended its own tournament with a 101-82 win over the Memorial Sea-Hawks on Sunday afternoon at War Memorial Gymnasium.
The Thunderbirds used several early runs to separate themselves from visiting Sea-Hawks.
With four and a half minutes left in the first quarter and the score tied at 10, UBC proceeded to outscore Memorial 17-4 over the next 2:52.
After the Sea-Hawks closed to within eight points early in the second, the 'Birds launched a 14-1 run that concluded with a
Balraj Bains (5th, Delta, BC) layup on an offensive possession he started with a steal.
At this point, UBC was up 43-22 with 4:22 left in the half and the lead did not change dramatically the rest of the game.
“I was really happy with the play of Balraj (Bains) and Graham (Bath),” said UBC head coach
Kevin Hanson. “We scored a lot of points in the paint this weekend. And for the first time in a long time, our posts are the main source of our scoring, as we've been such a guard-oriented team for so long.”
Bath (5th, Langley, BC) scored 11 points and grabbed ten rebounds while Bains had 14 points and six rebounds.
Against Memorial, UBC had a 50-28 advantage in points scored in the paint.
Still, coach Hanson stated the need for his team to improve.
“We gave up 30 points in the fourth quarter and that just can't happen,” said Hanson. “We've been giving up some leads late in games and just sloppy decision making, so we're really going to try and work with the players to be a more cognitive team.”
Doug Plumb (4th, Pitt Meadows, BC) led all players with 21 points while
Malcolm Williams continues to impress in his rookie campaign, as he recorded 16 points.
Memorial got 19 points from Robbie Habib, while Mark Woodland scored 14.
UBC finished its own tournament with two wins (against Concordia and Memorial) and a loss (versus Laurier).
The team's pre-season will continue on Thursday, Oct. 27 when the University of Guelph Gryphons visit War Memorial Gymnasium for a 7:00 p.m. tip-off.
