The University of British Columbia Athletics

VANCOUVER – A 36-point performance by Nathan Yu (5th, Prince George, BC) was not enough as the No. 4 UBC Thunderbirds men's basketball team lost 90-80 at Lethbridge in Canada West regular season men's basketball action on Friday night.
 
UBC (4-1) suffered its first loss of the 2011-12 season. The Pronghorns improved their record to 4-3.
 
Morgan Duce scored 17 points to lead a pack of five Pronghorns in double digits.
 
Kamar Burke's (5th, Mississauga, ON) two foul shots at 5:54 of the fourth quarter gave UBC a 75-74 lead in a back and forth game that was tied on ten separate occasions.
 
But two ensuing foul shots from Daryl Cooper put Lethbridge back on top for good.  The Pronghorns then held UBC without a field goal for the final 2:48 to push their lead to the final ten-point margin. 
 
Lethbridge outscored UBC 25-14 in the final quarter to gain the victory.
 
"The story of the game was turnovers," said UBC head coach Kevin Hanson after the game.  "As a team, we committed 28 turnovers and they capitalized on almost all of them."
 
Indeed, the Pronghorns outscored UBC 32-17 in points off turnovers and had a 28-12 advantage in bench points.
 
"They were hungry tonight and took it to us," said Hanson. "They have a lot of older transfers and some of our guys just didn't match their intensity."
 
UBC took a one-point lead into halftime on the strength of Yu's fine three-point shooting.
 
He hit five of seven shots from behind the arc in the first half, and had a total of 22 points after the first two quarters of play.
 
Yu ended the game 8 of 16 from the three-point line, setting new school records for shots attempted and made from distance. Doug Plumb (5th, Pitt Meadows, BC) was the only other Thunderbird in double digits with ten points.
 
The Thunderbirds did well to rebound from a strong Lethbridge start, which saw UBC trail by ten points (22-12) late in the first quarter.   Baskets from Burke, Tommy Nixon (2nd, Vancouver, BC), Graham Bath (5th, Langley, BC) and Balraj Bains (5th, Delta, BC) allowed UBC to re-take the lead, 35-33, with about four minutes to go before halftime.
 
UBC will travel to Calgary for a game with the Dinos on Saturday night.
 
"Now, we have to regroup and come up with a much better effort tomorrow," said Hanson.
 
Lethbridge will host Victoria on Saturday.