BRANDON, Man. – The UBC men's basketball team continued its strong play of late, easily handling the Brandon Bobcats 85-67 on Friday night at the Healthy Living Centre.
 
The T-Birds, ranked seventh in the nation, are looking to ride momentum through the end of their season and playoffs as they know an automatic home berth in the CIS Final 8 Men's Championships awaits in mid-March.
 
UBC, now 13-4 in conference play, used a balanced offensive attack as five players hit double digits with David Wagner's (Kamloops, B.C.) 18 points leading the way.
 
Jordan Jensen-Whyte (Calgary) was next with 17 points, Conor Morgan (Victoria, B.C.) and A. J. Holloway (Tacoma, Wash.) both added 13, and Phil Jalalpoor (Schifferstadt, Germany) rounded out the group with 12.
 
Chris Stanhope had a strong showing in a losing cause for the Bobcats with a game-high 20 points.
 
D.J. Jordan added 15 points and Earl Thompson Jr. scored 14 points as Brandon fell to 1-16. 
 
UBC led 22-18 at the end of the first quarter and 42-34 at halftime. The team opened up a double-digit lead late in the second with a 7-0 run, which was sparked by layups from Morgan and Jalalpoor and capped off by a pair of Holloway free throws. It turned a two-possession game at 35-31 in favour of UBC into one in which the separation was 11 points (42-31) with just 32 seconds to go in the opening half.
 
The Thunderbirds took control to start the third quarter with an early 11-5 run to extend their lead to 14 and maintained the majority of the momentum going into the fourth quarter with a 62-49 advantage.
 
They carried that confidence into the fourth quarter to seal up their third straight conference victory.
 
The Bobcats and T-Birds are back at it on Saturday with the rematch set for a 5 p.m. PT start.
 
UBC's stretch run to March is on, as the 'Birds prepare to host the CIS Men's Basketball Final 8, which will see the absolute best basketball players in Canada make their way to the UBC campus. Get your tournament packages and single tickets now, as the national championship is set to take place from March 17-20 at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. UBC will be playing in a quarter-final game at 8 p.m. Get your tickets now.