LANGLEY, B.C. – The No. 2-ranked UBC Thunderbirds defeated the Trinity Western Spartans 104-72 to conclude Canada West conference play Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The win improves the Thunderbirds to 19-1, while the loss ends the Spartans season at 3-17. It was the final regular season league game for T-Birds seniors Jordan Jensen-Whyte, Will Ondrik and Harpreet Randhawa.
 
UBC will now move on to the Canada West playoffs, with a first-round bye. The team will host a best-of-three quarter-final series the weekend of Feb. 24-26, with the exact schedule to be determined.
 
The Thunderbirds, who had five players hit double digits in scoring, were led by fifth-year guard Jensen-Whyte with 23 points, eight rebounds, four assists, and four steals and rookie guard Isaiah Familia, with 20 points, and 11 rebounds.
 
Guard Pogus Trunyan with 21 points, four assists, and four rebounds, and forward Tee Maberry with 10 points, and seven rebounds led the Spartans.
 
The two teams were tied at 15-15 in the opening quarter when UBC used a 11-5 run to take a six-point, 26-20, lead going into the second quarter.
 
The Thunderbirds broke the game open in the second, outscoring the Spartans 22-11 to take a 48-31 lead at the half. Ondrik and Luka Zaharijevic had eight points each the pace UBC in the quarter. Ondrik finished the night with 12 points, while Zaharijevic recorded 16 off the bench.
 
Guard A.J. Holloway was the other T-Bird in double digits in scoring with 16 points.
 


In the second half, UBC outscored TWU 56-41 to make the final a 32-point win for the road team.
 
TWU finished the night shooting 37.1 per cent (26-70), while UBC shot 45.8 per cent (33-72). The Thunderbirds converted 41 per cent (9-22) of their attempts from the three-point line in the second half, while the Spartans shot 33.3 percent (5-15). UBC's 38 three-point attempts is the most for the team since 2001.
 
UBC made 26 of its 29 shots from the foul line. TWU finished the night 12-16 in free throw shooting.

Despite not playing Saturday, UBC forward Conor Morgan will likely finish as the Canada West scoring champion with an average of 23.1 points a game during conference play. There is one contest to be played Sunday – between Alberta and Lethbridge – and the player who has the best chance to Morgan is Elliott Sentence of the Pronghorns, who is posting 18.1 points a game. If Morgan does win the scoring title, he would be the second T-Bird in three years to do so, after Tommy Nixon achieved the feat during the 2014-15 campaign.

Morgan's 23.1 points per game in Canada West contests is also the highest for a UBC player since Kyle Russell's 25.6 mark in 2001-02.

Jensen-Whyte ends his five-year career with 101 Canada West regular season games played, seventh most in UBC history. His 87 league starts is the most for a T-Bird in a career since 2001-02.