VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds men's basketball team suffered a tough loss in their Canada West opener Friday night, falling at home 79-74 to the Alberta Golden Bears at War Memorial Gymnasium in Vancouver.
 
Jordan Jensen-Whyte scored 21 points to lead UBC while Mamadou Gueye recorded 17 for Alberta.
 
UBC opened the game on a promising 17-0 run over the first five minutes of play.
 
"It was obviously pretty disappointing after the start we had," said head coach Kevin Hanson following the loss. "Going up 17-0 and then letting a team score 79 points in 35 minutes just isn't going to cut it for us. Our defence in the first five minutes was the best defence we've played all year and then after that we just let them do whatever they wanted to."
 
Third-year guard Phil Jalalpoor opened up scoring with a three-pointer. Jensen-Whyte followed up on his assist on the first basket with a jumper from the top of the key. Third-year sensation Conor Morgan (Victoria, B.C.) then went on a spree. He recorded a block, then completed a layup, threw down the first of his two slam dunks in the game and grabbed a rebound to contribute to UBC's potent offence in the first.
 
Jalalpoor made another jumper and fifth-year forward David Wagner (Kamloops, B.C.) sank a three before Jensen-Whyte collected a rebound, converted the layup and the ensuing foul shot to finish the 17-0 run.
 
Then the game turned. Alberta forward Gueye would break the Golden Bears' drought with a jumper with 4:47 remaining in the opening quarter and help pioneer five fast breaks against UBC's defence. In doing so, Alberta mounted a comeback that would send the teams into the second quarter tied at 20.
 
In the second, the teams continued to trade the lead. Will Ondrik (Vernon, B.C.) scored UBC's first seven points but the balanced Alberta attack – which saw six different players (Gueye, Brody Clarke, Colby Jackson, Sheldon Pittman, Rav Dhaliwal and Sebastien Denault) make its first six field goals of the quarter – built an eight-point lead late in the quarter.

Ondrik finished the night with 11 points and eight assists, while Morgan scored 14 points. Jalalpoor also had 11. Wagner had nine points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
 
Pittman, Denault and Jackson were the other Alberta players in double digits on Friday with 16, 13 and 12 points, respectively. Jackson also had eight assists.
 
The Golden Bears still led by eight early in the third, but the Thunderbirds responded with a 10-0 run, capped off by a Morgan layup, to reclaim the lead, which they took into the fourth.
 
Morgan opened the final frame with a dunk, hoping to rejuvenate the Birds. His layup and foul shot sparked a mini-run that brought UBC back to even terms at 68-68 after Alberta went up by seven points.
 
A. J. Holloway (Tacoma, Wash.) put the 'Birds ahead 72-71 with 1:12 left but Gueye responded with a layup on the next possession, part of an 8-2 surge to end the game. The final six points came on free throws.
 
"It was just the flow of the game," Coach Hanson said. "We'll have to look at the video tape and try to see really what happened. It was just the flow of the game. We didn't get some bounces, some guys didn't get some easy shots, but more importantly we missed some defensive assignments and we'll have to make some serious adjustments for tomorrow."
 
UBC shot 38.4 per cent (28-73) from the field, similar to Alberta, which shot 38.6 per cent (27-70). Twelve of the Golden Bear field goals were from behind the arc. The Thunderbirds made five on the night.

The Thunderbirds and the Golden Bears meet again tomorrow at War Memorial Gym.  The opening tip is set for 8 p.m. PT and is part of UBC Thunderbirds Super Weekend.