VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds overcame a sluggish start to down the Bishop's University Gaiters 87-75 in an exhibition game on Friday night at War Memorial Gym.
Fifth-year guard
O'Brian Wallace (Toronto, ON) sparked a third-quarter run that made the difference for UBC on the night with some hot three-point shooting. He finished with a game-high 22 points while fellow fifth-year
Doug Plumb (Pitt Meadows, BC) had 21 for UBC.
Things started tough for the home side though, with a lot of trouble on the defensive glass early on. The Gaiters had eight offensive rebounds to four defensive boards for UBC after one quarter, and that advantage on the glass coupled with turnover troubles for the 'Birds continued through the second quarter, allowing the Gaiters to take a 40-36 lead into the locker room at halftime.
“We did an awful job of defensive rebounding,” UBC head coach
Kevin Hanson said of his side's first half effort. “One of the strengths of their team is they are pretty relentless and have some guys who can crash in from the wing. At halftime they had 13 offensive boards and we had 16 turnovers so that's what we talked about at halftime.”
The talk seemed to work, as the rebounding advantage whittled away for the Gaiters in the second half. The 'Birds still had trouble taking care of the ball, finishing with 27 turnovers, but Wallace got hot from beyond the arc and led UBC on a 12-0 run in the third quarter to take their first lead since starting the game up 2-0.
Wallace was 4-5 from three-point range in the second half, including a couple early in the shot clock in the third quarter, and one tough contested shot in the fourth.
“He's a very streaky scorer,” Hanson said. “Did a lot of scoring two years ago at Brandon and sometimes it's almost like the higher difficulty his shot is, the higher percentage it has of going on. You're going no no no – yes! on a lot of his shots, but he's capable of getting those runs going and obviously that was big for us when he hit those threes.”
Wallace also had seven rebounds in his home debut for the T-Birds.
The Gaiters' Jeremy Leonard-Smith hit a few late threes to keep Bishop's in the game in the fourth quarter, drawing them to within one point with about five minutes left. But the T-Bird defence closed strong to earn the win in their first home game of the season.
Hanson was pleased with the way his team responded to a tough defensive system in the second half.
“They have some really good defensive structure in place. It's a match up 2-3 zone and this early in season you are playing mostly man in practice, not working on your zone stuff so much,” said Hanson. “It was a really good game for us to play to see that defence and make ourselves ready. Against that type of defence, you have to make good plays and can't just run your structured system. It took us awhile to get into that offensive flow.”
Next up for UBC is the Wilfrid Laurier Tournament in Ontario next weekend. After that the 'Birds have two more weeks of exhibition games at home before starting conference play on November 2.
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