KELOWNA – The U SPORTS No.5-ranked UBC Thunderbirds (13-5) pulled out a nail-biter against the UBCO Heat (4-12) on Saturday night, winning 92-88 at the UBC Okanagan Gymnasium after T-Birds captain Brian Wallack broke a tie with just 37 seconds remaining in the game.

UBCO's Hafith Moallin capped a big comeback for the home side by drilling a three with just under a minute remaining to tie the game at 88. Wallack went right to the hoop on the next possession, taking a hard foul before hitting his 11^th free throw of the night to break the late fourth quarter tie. A subsequent James Woods steal and more free throws from Tobi Akinkunmi and Brendan Sullivan sealed the four-point victory.

Wallack was 11-12 from the line on the evening, 17-18 over the course of the weekend, leading the team with 23 points in each game in Kelowna. Fareed Shittu once again followed him in scoring, pouring in 17 points to go along with eight rebounds. Woods chipped in with 16 points, seven rebounds, two steals and a block.
 

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It was certainly as surprise to see this game go down to the wire after the start from UBC. The T-Birds first quarter quickly cooled off the crowd at The Furnace, with Adam Olsen hitting threes on three consecutive possessions to push the 'Birds to a 25-12 advantage with two minutes left in the first.

The Heat proved resilient however, a theme throughout the night, cutting the visitors' advantage to seven before the end of the quarter, 25-18.

The second frame was much of the same, UBC pulling out to a seemingly comfortable double-digit advantage for most of the quarter before a late 10-2 UBCO to finish the half brought the gap down to five, 48-43.



The third played to a near-draw, with the T-Birds managing to maintain a decidedly uncomfortable advantage that was as little as a single point late in period, ultimately finishing at 71-67. The Heat's ability to hang with their Vancouver campus rivals seemed to fire up the fans at The Furnace once again as it was a charged atmosphere heading into the fourth.

UBC tried to take the life out of the building with a dominant stretch to start the final frame, beginning with a 13-2 run to go up 84-69 less than four minutes in for their biggest lead of the night.

Yet, the Heat refused to be extinguished.



UBCO steadily shaved down the deficit until they trailed 88-80 with just over two minutes remaining. Then they quickly ripped off eight straight points to knot the game up at 88-88 with 52 seconds left, setting up Wallack's heroics to secure the narrow win.

The Thunderbirds now have a weekend off before playing their final regular season games at home against the Calgary Dinos on February 9^th and 10^th. With Canada West adopting a new, neutral site tournament format for its playoffs, the games against the Dinos will be the final chance to see the T-Birds at War Memorial Gym this season.