VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds men's basketball team (3-1) capped off a successful weekend with their second straight win over the visiting Trinity Western Spartans (0-4) on Saturday night.
 
Unlike Friday night's dominating victory where UBC held a 20-point lead for a majority of the game, Saturday night's 85-75 victory was more of a back-and-forth contest.
 
UBC head coach Kevin Hanson acknowledged the Spartans' good play early in the game.
 
"We struggled in the first quarter… and they shot the ball better than they did last night, especially in the first half" said Hanson. "Defensively we still need to make adjustments and keep improving."
 
Depth was again a major factor in UBC's win. For the second night in a row, six players logged double-digit performances: Jordan Jensen-Whyte (Calgary, Alta.), Philip Jalalpoor (Shifferstadt, Germany), A.J. Holloway (Tacoma, Wash.) and Conor Morgan (Victoria, B.C.) with 12 each, while Patrick Simon (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) and David Wagner (Kamloops, B.C.) had 11 and 10 points respectively.
 
Hanson was pleased to see so many players contributing points and that his team logged 17 assists.
 
"It's nice when you've got that kind of scoring punch. We're doing a good job of sharing the basketball."
 
TWU relied heavily on the performances of three players in particular: Vartan Tanielian with a stellar 24-point night and Kelvin Smith and Lucas Mannes with 16 apiece.
 
TWU's early-game accuracy improved significantly compared to Friday night's. In the opening quarter the Spartans were 64.3 per cent from the field (9-of-14) and nailed three of their five three-point attempts.
 
A pair of layups from TWU's Lucas Mannes in the opening two minutes helped the Spartans gain an early 6-0 lead.
 
A series of three-pointers from from Tanielian and Smith helped the Spartans maintain a decent lead throughout the first fifteen minutes of the game.
 
With the Thunderbirds down 19-12 by 4:32, Halloway delivered a stellar one-man effort to get his team back in the game. He drained a three-pointer and four from the free-throw line in just over a minute.
 
Holloway's efforts, coupled with a three-pointer from Will Ondrik (Vernon, B.C.) in the dying seconds, helped UBC end the quarter with a one slim 24-23 lead.
 
The T-Birds carried that momentum forward into the second and dominated offensively until the half, with 29 points coming from seven different Thunderbirds.
 
Jensen-Whyte picked up his own rebound and Wagner sunk a layup late in the quarter, helping push the 'Birds a comfortable 52-38 lead heading into halftime.
 
UBC's offensive dominance depleted early in the third quarter as they didn't register a point for nearly five minutes. A jump shot from Tanielian and a layup from Dean Richey brought the Spartans to within three.
 
Back-to-back layups from Simon rejuvenated the Thunderbirds, who found more of a rhythm late in the quarter, and secured a narrow 65-58 lead heading into the final frame.
 
The back-and-forth final quarter kept things close, but UBC was able to maintain a steady double digit lead thanks in part to six points from Wagner and four from Jensen-Whyte.
 
Pressure in the final minutes from TWU, who managed six points in the closing two minutes compared to one from UBC, wasn't enough to close the gap.
 
The Thunderbirds will look to extend their three game win streak when they travel east to face the Saskatchewan Huskies (1-3) next weekend.
 
The Spartans will be on the hunt for their first win of the season when they head to Winnipeg to take on the Winnipeg Wesmen (1-3).