VANCOUVER – Following consecutive road trips the (6-2) UBC Thunderbirds look forward to returning to home court to host the (3-5) Lethbridge Pronghorns for a two-game series this weekend at War Memorial Gym. It all gets going Friday, November 29 with an 8:00 p.m. tipoff followed by a second-meeting the next evening, Saturday, November 30 and a 7:00 p.m. start time.
The T-Birds and Pronghorns last met 23 months ago in January of 2018 in Lethbridge and came away with a split. UBC opened the series with an 84-71 victory before dropping the second decision by a closer 106-101 score line.
Last Action
The 'Birds are fresh off two resounding road victories against the UBC Okanagan Heat last weekend. Game one saw UBC cruise to a 112-57 win in an effort that saw six T-Birds reach double digit scoring.
Manroop Clair and
Zack Moore each recorded double doubles with Clair pouring in 25 points and adding 10 rebounds while Moore chipped in with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Meanwhile Kelowna native
Grant Shephard made his presence felt in his return to Kelowna with 21 points and seven rebounds.
UBC followed up with a 107-77 win on Saturday, Shephard recorded a game high 23 points and added six rebounds while
Grant Audu put 19 on the board and
Jadon Cohee delivered 18 points. Of note
Taylor Browne found his shooting stroke and was dangerous from long range hitting five of his eight three point attempts en route to scoring 17 points.
Lethbridge split their weekend series visiting the Fraser Valley Cascades, opening up the series with a thrilling buzzer beating 73-72 win on Friday night. Forward Keanu Funa led the way with 19 points and seven rebounds while guard Brett Warren added 13 points and four rebounds.
In Saturday's 102-81 loss to UFV it was forward Scott Mazutinec who led the way with 16 points while Colton Gibb was just behind with 15 points.
Coach's Take
UBC assistant coach
Sean Shook spoke to some of the work habits that impressed the staff the most coming out of last weekend's wins.
"We knew going in that the Heat were a team that was really good at rebounding the ball offensively," said Shook. "They were averaging almost 18 offensive rebounds per game so that was one of the items we keyed on in practice and we were able to hold them to 10 offensive rebounds the first night and 11 the next, so we were pleased with how we neutralized that element. We were also happy with how we keyed on limiting a couple of their specific players, taking them out of their comfort zone, the guys did a good job of sticking to the scouting report."
Shook also looked ahead to what he expects to see from the weekend competition.
"They're a team with a healthy dose of veteran guys, guard Kyle Peterson has been around for a few years and is very good at pushing the tempo in transition for them and forward Chad Oviatt has done a nice job of replacing some scoring with the way he attacks the rim, averaging almost 16 points per game. They have some nice balance and depth and are coming off a gritty win at the buzzer against UFV last Friday, so we expecting a tough test while looking forward to returning to action on home court after two straight weeks away."
