The University of British Columbia Athletics

Vancouver – The UBC Thunderbirds took down the previously undefeated Winnipeg Wesmen in a 95-93 thriller that went right down to the wire on Friday night at War Memorial Gym.
 
After a controversial goaltending call with 21 seconds left gave UBC a 93-90 lead, Winnipeg senior point guard Andrew Cunningham made a quick slash to the hoop and finished through contact, earning three the hard way to tie the game up with 17 seconds left.
 


But Tonner Jackson responded for the 'Birds with a tough drive through heavy traffic as time expired, earning a trip to the free throw line where he hit both shots with under a second left on the clock to get UBC the win.
 
"Interesting basketball in the last couple minutes there with situations happening on both ends," said UBC head coach Kevin Hanson. "I was just happy we showed poise. We haven't shown that poise at the end of these games in a long time, so that was positive."
 
UBC led 91-84 with under two minutes remaining before the Wesmen made a hard late charge to knot things up again. But the T-Birds were buoyed by some key players returning to form coming off injuries, giving them enough depth to keep the energy level high in the closing minutes.
 
Isaiah Solomon made his season debut, playing 32 minutes with seven assists and six points.
 
"Isaiah obviously made a huge difference for us dictating the game," Hanson said. "We kind of wanted to limit his minutes but he was just too good to not play him. That was a real big adjustment for our guys, and yes it will take some time to build the chemistry, but I thought we did a lot of really good things with him on the floor."
 
And Brylle Kamen, who had been playing under restricted minutes as he recovered from a leg injury, turned in easily his biggest performance of the year so far, with 19 rebounds and 13 points in 30 minutes.
 
His imposing presence in the low post also helped open things up for David Wagner to go off for a career-high 29 points on 13-for-16 shooting.
 
"I thought Brylle played really well tonight. He hit some big shots that we really needed, and rebounded really well," Hanson said. "Everybody knows we're going to David, and David's improving because he's getting better when they are taking things away from him, making second and third reads on things."
 
Although the exciting finish will grab peoples' attention, it was the third quarter where UBC really did the work that translated to a win. The 'Birds won the turnover battle 5-1 in the quarter against the Wesmen, who led the conference in turnover margin coming into the game, which led to an 11-0 advantage in points off turnovers.
 
UBC also got the low post offence rolling in the third, scoring 16 of 26 third-quarter points in the paint.
 
Andrew McGuinness was another big performer for the 'Birds, scoring 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting, including a pair of crucial offensive rebounds leading to points in the first half.
 
Cunningham led the Wesmen with 27 points on 12-for-16 shooting, adding 12 assists and four steals in an impressive two-way performance. He was the catalyst for Winnipeg's 25-2 fastbreak advantage.
 
Steven Wesley added 23 points for Winnipeg, and Kurtis Sansregret had 16. The Wesmen outshot UBC 57 percent to 49 percent.
 
Winnipeg, now 6-1 on the year, will take on Trinity Western tomorrow in Langley.
UBC improves to 3-4, and will look to climb back to .500 when the Manitoba Bisons come to War Memorial Gym on Saturday at 7 p.m.
 
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