VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds survived a third quarter hiccup to down the Thompson Rivers WolfPack 82-70 in their home opener at War Memorial Gym on Friday.
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MBB: T-Birds v. TRU (Nov. 9, 2012) Gallery
TRU's Will Ondrik and Kevin Pribilsky combined for 51 points, but the WolfPack got just 19 from the rest of the squad combined on Friday. For a moment it looked like those two might be enough to pull off the upset, as TRU outscored UBC by 10 in the third and then were just two points off the lead after Pribilsky stepped into a transition three two minutes into the fourth, but the 'Birds got a big rally-killing play on the offensive glass soon after.
After
Doug Plumb hit two free-throws to make it 64-60 UBC, the T-Birds appeared to have been stopped on their next offensive trip. TRU's Blaz Bozinovic and DJ Oates both elevated to grab a defensive rebound unchallenged, but they got in each other's way and the ball squirted free to
David Wagner, who collected the board and finished through contact for a three-point play. That made it 67-60 UBC with six minutes to play, and seemed to sap TRU's energy.
“Something we have to do is play that full game,” said UBC head coach
Kevin Hanson. “You can't have a bad quarter like that. We have to make our adjustments and a lot the time it's just straight effort and getting after the ball. I thought we also got a little selfish with the basketball offensively in the end.”
The T-Birds knocked down their free throws consistently, hitting 23 of 26 on the night. Plumb was 9-for-10 at the line, finish with 13 points total and nine rebounds.
Rookie point guard
Isaiah Solomon had a great home debut, coming off the bench behind fellow rookie point guard
Jordan Jensen-Whyte to score a team-high 18 points, adding two assists and two steals. Jensen-Whyte had three steals and four rebounds.
“They're both going to get their time and opportunities, and both give us different looks. They both are capable of great games like we saw last weekend so we're just going to ride whoever's playing well,” Hanson said of his rookie guards.
Both offences started a little slow on Friday, but the first quarter turned into a three-point shootout almost on coach Hanson's cue at the halfway point. After
Tommy Nixon passed up an open shot to pass to
Geoff Pippus with about five minutes left in the first, Hanson shouted “shoot the ball, Tommy!” from the bench. Nixon immediately got the ball back and drained his second three-pointer of the night, and that opened the floodgates.
Seven of the final eight field goals of the quarter were threes, with most of those going UBC's way. The 'Birds finished the quarter 6-for-9 from behind the arc, including a 3-for-3 mark from Nixon, and led 25-15 heading into the second.
The 'Birds continued play well through the second quarter, extending the lead to 15 by the break. But the UBC shooters started to cool off from range in the second half, and that's when the WolfPack heated up.
Pribilsky poured in a game-high 28 on 6-for-12 shooting from three, while Ondrik added 23 and chipped in seven rebounds.
“We were quite poor defensively in the second half and a lot of that stemmed from conditioning,” Hanson said. “
Brylle Kamen only practiced 20 minutes the last two weeks because of his hamstring, and Doug had food poisoning, so we're recovering a bit from some health issues but still we missed too many assignments and our focus really left us.”
The T-Birds improve to 3-0 with the win, while TRU falls to 1-2. The teams get back at it tomorrow to finish off their weekend series, beginning at 7 p.m. at War Memorial Gym.
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