VANCOUVER – The No. 2 UBC Thunderbirds men's basketball team came from behind to squeak out a 96-93 overtime victory over the host Winnipeg Wesmen on Saturday night.
BOX SCORE
“For being such a young team in, terms of playing together, they believed in themselves when they needed to,” said UBC head coach
Kevin Hanson. ”They hung together and gave themselves a chance to win on the road against a very tough team. We were down to eight players due to injury and some food poisoning issues and some guys logged some big minutes."
"It was a game that could have gone either way and we were fortunate to make some big plays at key times. We have been on the road for a long time now so we are looking forward to getting back home and again in War Gym.”
UBC's
Brylle Kamen (Paris, France) scored the final five points of regulation, sending the game into overtime. The Thunderbirds found themselves down 84-79 with 27 seconds left in the fourth quarter after Winnipeg's Jordan Clennon hit a pair of free throws to put his team up by two possessions.
In overtime,
Tommy Nixon (Vancouver, BC) three-pointer allowed UBC to claim a five-point advantage with 3:38 to go but Winnipeg battled back to even the score going into the final minute.
With 50 seconds remaining in overtime,
Doug Plumb (Pitt Meadows, BC), standing at the top of the three-point circle delivered a perfect pass to Kamen, who was cutting towards the hoop, and the big man made the layup for the game-winning basket. It was the final two of his team-high 26 points in the game.
Plumb followed by hitting one of two foul shots with 18 seconds left, allowing UBC to clinch the victory after a final three-point attempt by Winnipeg's Andrew Cunningham was off the mark.
Plumb had 22 points and seven assists while Wallace and Nixon chipped in with 14 and 13 points respectively. Rookie guard
Isaiah Solomon (Richmond, BC) led the team with eight assists.
UBC made 33 of 66 shots from the field but saw Winnipeg hit 37 of its 71 attempts. The 'Birds benefited from excellent free throw shooting, going 24 of 28 from the foul line and they also out-rebounded Winnipeg 38-28.
Despite this, UBC needed the late comeback after giving up a 13-point lead late in the third quarter. The T-Birds led 57-44 with 1:55 after a basket from
O'Brian Wallace (Toronto, ON) but the host Wesmen went on 20-6 tear over the next 5:20 to go ahead by one early in the final period.
UBC led 35-30 at halftime after a back-and-forth opening 20 minutes, in which neither team had an advantage bigger than five points.
The T-Birds improve to 10-2 on the season and extend their current winning streak to four games. They also hand the Wesmen (9-4) their first loss at home this year.
UBC will now return home to prepare for games against Brandon and Regina on Jan. 18 and 19, respectively, at War Memorial Gym.
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