Vancouver, BC – In what will be the first meeting between the two teams this season, the UBC men's basketball team travels to Calgary this weekend for a two-game series against the Mount Royal Cougars. Both Friday and Saturday's matchups will be no easy task for the Thunderbirds on their road to the playoffs, as the Cougars boast the best home record in the Canada West Pacific Division with a 5-1 record. UBC swept last year's season series against the Cougars while eclipsing the 90-point plateau on both occasions.
After falling to Alberta last Friday, UBC bounced back the following night with a thrilling victory over Saskatchewan, handing the Huskies just their third loss of the season. The Thunderbirds look to reverse their road woes as UBC is just 1-5 away from home, eclipsing the 70 point mark just twice in that span. Conversely, Mount Royal has looked dominant on home court, with their sole loss coming against Lethbridge this past weekend in overtime. The Cougars followed up that loss with a win on Saturday thanks to a last second bucket that gave them the victory over Calgary.
Mount Royal currently sits in fifth place in the Canada West Pacific Division with a 6-6 record and is on the hunt for their first Canada West playoff berth in program history. UBC sits two points back in sixth with a 5-7 record and could vault themselves up in the standings with a pair of wins this weekend. Just four points separate second place Thompson Rivers from sixth placed UBC in the highly competitive division.
David Wagner leads UBC in scoring this season, averaging just over 12 points per game to go along with six boards.
Tommy Nixon boasts similar numbers while being a threat on the floor with a team-leading 34 steals on the season. Perhaps the hottest player of late has been
Brylle Kamen. In his second season as a Thunderbird, the Canada West third star of the week is averaging 22.5 points over his previous two games, collecting a double-double in each. Kamen's 7.3 rebounds per game are good for ninth in the Canada West in that category.
At the opposite end of the floor, Awet Abraha leads the way for Mount Royal averaging 13 points a game on the season but has been particularly good of late, averaging 20 points his past three games.
Game one is Friday night at 7:00 pm (PST) while the weekend series wraps up Saturday at 6:00 pm (PST). Both games will be played at Mount Royal's Kenyon Court and you can watch the action live at
canadawest.tv.
