VANCOUVER – The No. 2 UBC Thunderbirds are the Pacific Division champions in Canada West men's basketball.
The team clinched the honour tonight with a convincing 93-61 victory over UNBC in Prince George on Saturday night. The victory gives UBC home-court advantage throughout the Canada West playoffs.
BOX SCORE
Second-year forward
David Wagner (Kamloops, BC) led all players with 20 points.
Geoff Pippus (Colorado Springs, CO) added 17 while rookie
Isaiah Solomon (Richmond, BC) chipped in with 14. Another rookie,
Conor Morgan (Victoria, BC) scored 11 points off the bench on 3-4 shooting from behind the three-point line.
Brylle Kamen (Paris, France) led UBC with 12 rebounds.
“It's always tough to play the same team back-to-back nights but we responded very well,” said UBC head coach
Kevin Hanson. “The young guys played very well tonight when the older guys were struggling. It was nice to see the future of our program play well on the road in back-to-back games.”
UNBC was a much tougher opponent for UBC tonight, sticking with the country's No. 2 team for most of the first half. The Timberwolves were down 27-23 until Wagner nailed a jump shot with 3:59 before halftime to ignite a 16-2 run that extended into the early parts of the third quarter.
From there, UBC put the game away by knocking down seven three-point baskets in the third quarter to widen its lead to 31 points. Morgan made all three of his triples in the final 1:14 of the period.
The Thunderbirds made 35 of their 69 shots from the field, including 12 of their 26 attempts from behind the arc.
They also out-rebounded the Timberwolves 48-32 and outscored them in the paint 28-6.
UBC (18-2) has now won 12 games in a row and will look to extend that streak next weekend. The T-Birds will play the Victoria Vikes in a home-and-home series, with Friday's game at War Memorial Gymnasium. That will be followed by a trip to Victoria on Saturday to round out the regular season schedule.
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