VANCOUVER – A fourth-quarter comeback by the No. 2 UBC Thunderbirds fell short as they dropped their final regular season home game 91-86 to the Victoria Vikes on Friday night at War Memorial Gymnasium.
BOX SCORE
“Offensively, we competed in the second half but we just didn't get after it defensively,” said UBC head coach
Kevin Hanson. “There were far, far too many mistakes, especially for this time of year and effort was a big part of it.”
Down 68-54 going into the fourth quarter, the Thunderbirds cut their deficit to just a bucket when
Isaiah Solomon set War Memorial Gym in a cheering craze as he stole the ball from Kyle Peterson and finished in the paint. With just 5:38 to play, UBC trailed just 69-67.
Victoria's Michael Acheampong replied with his third three-point basket of the night to push the Vikes' lead back up to five only to see Solomon hit a triple of his own to get UBC within two points at 72-70.
But that was as close as the T-Birds would get. A Chris McLaughlin dunk pushed the score to 77-70 in favour of Victoria. Brandon Dunlop later added a backbreaking three-point shot to make it 80-72 with just 2:07 left in the game.
UBC continued to battle, with
Tommy Nixon's three cutting the T-Birds' deficit to five points with 48 seconds to go. But Victoria was nearly perfect from the foul line in the final two minutes, making 11 of 14 free throws down the stretch to clinch the victory.
With four seconds on the clock and UBC down by six, Plumb was fouled on a three-point play. Playing in his final regular season game at home, Plumb made all three shots but an ensuing UBC foul sent Acheampong to the line, where he made no mistake on both attempts to round out the scoring.
Four T-Birds shot in double digits with second-year Nixon topping the scoresheet with 23 points. Plumb and
O'Brian Wallace were the other big shooters of the night with 21 and 12 points, respectively.
Brylle Kamen impressed with a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Acheampong scored 23 points to pace the Vikes.
Wallace opened the game with a three-pointer but Victoria controlled most of the opening half. Nixon tied the game at 23-23 by converting a layup with 8:27 to go in the second quarter. But the Vikes immediately went on a 13-4 run, capped by a Peterson jumper.
Only a buzzer-beating three by Plumb at the end of the first half prevented the Vikes from going into the break with a double-digit advantage.
In the third quarter, Plumb put back his offensive rebound to cut the Victoria lead to just 49-46 at 6:19. But the Vikes had an instant reply, in the form of back-to-back three-balls from Reiner Theil and Dunlop to open up a nine-point bulge.
“We just didn't do the things we needed to do at the end, especially to get the stops,” remarked Hanson. “We'd make our run and then we got content again as opposed to getting another stop and another stop. So it was a good learning experience and hopefully the boys will learn from it.”
The loss is the first for UBC of the 2013 calendar year and it ends the team's winning streak at 12 games. The T-Birds' record falls to 18-3. Victoria improves to 15-6.
The two teams will face each other on Saturday night in Victoria to cap off the 2012-13 regular season. The tip off at McKinnon Gymnasium is at 7 p.m.
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