The No. 4 UBC Thunderbirds are on the road for a second straight weekend looking to extend their 12 game winning streak as they get set for back to back meetings against the Brandon University Bobcats.
 
It all gets started with a unique and much earlier start time for the 'Birds Friday, January 18 with an 11:30 a.m. tipoff (1:30 p.m. CT) followed by a 5:00 p.m. start on Saturday, January 19 at the Healthy Living Centre in Brandon MB.
 
It will be the first regular season meeting between the squads in nearly two years dating back to late January 2017 when the T-Birds swept a two-game series at UBC by scores of 127-62 and 87-53.


 

Last Action

 
Last weekend in Langley the 'Birds improved to 13-1 on the season following back to back wins over the Trinity Western Spartans with victories of 112-65 and 100-80. The victory last Saturday night was a significant milestone for T-Birds head coach Kevin Hanson who achieved his 300^th Canada West coaching win. Hanson, in his 19^th season as coach with UBC remains the career wins leader amongst current Canada West coaches and trails just Don Harwood (313) on the league's all-time list.
 
The Bobcats meanwhile fell to 2-12 last weekend following back to back home losses vs the U of A Golden Bears with scores of 84-74 and 93-75.


 

Players to Watch

 
Manroop Clair – (#3, G) The fourth-year guard combined for 41 points and eight rebounds in last weekend's victories over TWU including a game high 30 points in Saturday's win. Clair ranks fourth in conference scoring averaging 19 points per game.
 
Grant Audu – (#15, G) The second-year guard was productive off the bench combining for 37 points and 13 rebounds last weekend vs TWU, this included a season high 23 points scored in Saturday's 100-80 victory over the Spartans.


 

Coach's Take

 
"We haven't even thought or talked about winning 12 straight games, to us that is irrelevant for us," said UBC head coach Kevin Hanson. "We're focusing on still trying to get better, there are certain things that pop up each week that we need to improve upon and we're identifying those focal points each week."
 
Hanson also looked ahead to the weekend and what to expect from the Bobcats.
 
"Anytime you go on the road there are some challenges and this happens to be longer travel and an earlier start time on Friday but it's part of the geography of Canada West and you have to be able to play through that," added Hanson. "We're not used to it but you need to have some of these in order to make yourselves tougher, you can't always have perfect comfortable conditions on home court all the time. It's good for us to play through some adversity to make it through playoffs and beyond which includes travel so we have to be able to handle it and adapt to any circumstances."