VANCOUVER – The pre-season is young and the sample size is small but UBC Head Coach Kevin Hanson must be pleased with the depth and determination his team showed in a weekend sweep of the Lethbridge Pronghorns at War Memorial Gym.
 
The 'Birds followed up Friday's 94-81 victory with a convincing 101-73 drubbing on Sunday afternoon. Conor Morgan was his usual self these days for UBC with 21 points and 8 rebounds, but it was a resilient member of the 'Blue and Gold', fourth-year forward Luka Zaharijevic, who took centre stage in the win.
 
"Tonight he really proved he's capable of stepping in there and being a force," said Hanson. "He believed in our program from the beginning by coming right out of high school and sitting on the bench a lot in his first three years. The coaching staff and his teammates are very happy that all his hard work is starting to pay off."
 

Luka @LukaBazookaZ with his career high 24pts-8rebounds in 20 minutes of action. Becoming a big force.#GoBirdsGo #localproduct pic.twitter.com/q9s3fHlkOv

— Kevin Hanson (@UBCCoachHanson) October 17, 2016

 
"The Bazooka" hit for a career-high 24 points and grabbed 8 rebounds in only 20 minutes of play. There were times during the game where his combination of soft hands and brute strength was unstoppable in the blocks for the smaller Lethbridge defenders.
 
"For me personally I've really been working on getting those deep seals," said Zaharijevic, describing his penchant for setting up an immovable shop underneath the basket. "Then I don't have to take multiple dribbles. It's just catch and go up or maybe one dribble and power up."
 
Hanson challenged his team after Friday's victory to focus on defence and to take pride in dominating both ends of their home court. He was generally pleased with how his team responded Sunday.


 
"For three quarters I though we played some really solid defence," explained Hanson. "Going into that fourth quarter we let things slide defensively a little bit. Lethbridge is a good athletic team that likes to penetrate and we need to be a bit better at guarding our guy. We sometimes relied on our team defence a little bit too much."
 
UBC will continue it's pre-season on Oct. 21st and 22nd when they head to Edmonton for the Alberta Golden Bear Invitational. The 'Birds will tip-off against Western on Friday and Nipissing on Saturday.