VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds basketball team hits the road this week for an important divisional battle against the Thompson Rivers WolfPack, another 2-2 team trying to get some separation in the crowded Pacific Division.
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Injuries have given UBC trouble to start the season, including the second half of their back-to-back series against the high-energy Trinity Western Spartans last week. With only eight players dressing for the game, and just seven getting significant minutes, fatigue became a factor for the 'Birds, who scored just five points in the fourth quarter as the Spartans came from behind to win.
Second-year point guard
Jordan Jensen-Whyte has shouldered a heavy load this season with point guard partner
Isaiah Solomon out. Jensen-Whyte leads the team with 35 minutes per game, and he's averaging 12.8 points as one of five T-Birds scoring in double figures.
David Wagner leads the team with 15.3 points per game and 9.3 rebounds. While the T-Birds have gotten offensive contributions from a lot of players at times, Wagner has been their most consistent and efficient offensive threat this season.
A lot of his production comes from his activity on the offensive glass, where he is averaging almost four rebounds per game. Until the team gets all its pieces back to full health, those cheap buckets will continue to be an important source of offence for the T-Birds.
As long as he avoids foul trouble, he should have ample opportunity to exert himself on the boards in Kamloops, because the WolfPack have struggled to rebound so far this conference season. Getting crushed by a -16 rebounding margin in their conference opener led to a blown fourth quarter lead and a close loss to Saskatchewan, and even in their sweep of UNBC last week, the 'Pack did not impress on the boards.
Thompson Rivers boasts one of the conference's best offences in terms of points per game and field goal percentage, and they also lead Canada West in free-throw shooting, which is an area that has hurt UBC this year, and particularly in their most recent loss, when they went 20-35 at the line.
The 'Pack also lead the league by a wide margin in three point percentage at .471. It's unlikely they can sustain their long distance game at that level, especially as they go against the league's top three-point defence in the T-Birds, who hold opponents to .290 shooting from the arc. But if Ta'Quan Zimmerman can stay anywhere near as hot as he's been through the first two weeks, the WolfPack will have a constant threat from deep, not to mention everywhere else on the floor.
Zimmerman is on a tear to start the conference season, hitting 14 of 23 three-pointers and averaging 23.5 points per game on 55 percent field goal shooting. He's also a perfect 20-for-20 at the free throw line so far.
The offensive efficiency drops off considerably behind Zimmerman though, and the WolfPack are actually shooting a significantly better percentage from three than they are overall this year, so closing out hard on perimeter shooters and forcing them away from their strength will be important for the 'Birds as they look to slow down a hot offence and string some wins together.
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