VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds men's basketball team ended its preseason campaign with a scrappy 83-71 win over visiting Warner Pacific College.
BOX SCORE
The Warner Pacific Knights from Oregon had played Trinity Western on Thursday and beat them resoundingly, and for a while it looked like they had the Thunderbirds under some real pressure before the 'Birds turned it on in the third quarter and pulled away.
UBC ended up outscoring WPC 50-33 in the second half with
Tonner Jackson and
Tommy Nixon leading the way.
A Doug Thomas jumper put WPC up 34-19 with 3:28 left in the second quarter but UBC responded with an extended run that bridged halftime. A Nixon three-pointer gave UBC a 44-43 lead with 4:55 left in the third quarter.
Andrew McGuinness followed that up with another trey to cap off a 28-9 run by UBC over nine minutes and seven seconds.
Every time WPC threatened to close the gap after that, UBC had a response. The Knights got to within five points early in the fourth quarter only to watch Nixon and McGuinness hit threes. In all, the Thunderbirds made 12 shots from behind the arc against the Knights.
Jackson scored 15 of his 23 overall points in the second half. He also grabbed nine of 15 rebounds in the final two quarters of play, finishing the night with a fantastic double-double. Nixon, meanwhile, had 16 of his 17 points in the second half. McGuinness also had 17 points while
Jordan Jensen-Whyte recorded 12 assists.
Both teams were unsettled in the first half with UBC going into the mid-game break down 38-33 after surrendering 21 turnovers.
The T-Birds made just over half their shots (28-for-55) while the Knights shot a respectable 43.3 percent from the field (29-for-67). The home team also had a 24-11 advantage in foul shots.
UBC will now prepare for its first regular season games of the year, taking place Nov. 1 in Regina and Nov. 2 in Brandon, Man. The Thunderbirds' home-opening weekend will be Nov. 8-9 when the team hosts Trinity Western University at War Memorial Gymnasium.
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