VANCOUVER – An incredible shooting night from the UBC Thunderbirds led to a 102-76 win over the Guelph Gryphons in an exhibition game at War Memorial Gymnasium on Thursday night.
UBC shot 62.5% in the game, hitting 35 of 56 field goals, compared to 35% for Guelph.
Doug Plumb (5th, Pitt Meadows, BC) led all players with 29 points. He hit ten of his 14 shots from the field, buried nine of 11 from the free throw line and grabbed seven rebounds in the game.
The Thunderbirds opened the game on a 7-0 run and eventually led 48-39 at the break in a high scoring first half.
Then UBC came out on fire in the third quarter, outscoring Guelph 30-16, putting the game away.
“I was fairly happy with the defence in the second and third quarters, and then for the first five minutes of the second half, we were pretty solid,” said UBC head coach
Kevin Hanson. “We did more things, communicated better, so we're seeing signs of improvement and that's what our goal is, to get better every single day.“
UBC also got 17 points off the bench from
Tommy Nixon (2nd, Vancouver, BC) and 14 points from rookie
Malcolm Williams (1st, Maple Ridge, BC).
“With
Nathan Yu at the Pan American Games playing for Canada, a lot of our young guys are getting the opportunity to get some great experience and hopefully, that will pay off down the road,” said Hanson.
Daniel Thompson and Jack Beatty led Guelph with 13 and ten points respectively.
This was the last CIS team UBC will face before the Canada West regular season. The Thunderbirds will host a club team, the Seattle Mountaineers, on November 4 at War Memorial Gymnasium.
