VANCOUVER – Taking on some local opposition in the UFV Cascades, the Thunderbirds prevailed on their home court with an 85-67 victory to begin the Canada West season.
 
While they led from start to finish, the Thunderbirds were never allowed to be fully comfortable as the Cascades continuously made pushes to get themselves right back into things.
 
Earning the win in his first conference game as UBC head coach, Phil Jalalpoor was pleased to see his team weather the UFV punches and remain in front through to the final whistle.
 
"A lot of guys had good spots even off the bench, which tipped us over when the runs happened," said Jalalpoor. "But that's what this division is about – everybody is such a good team that you can never relax. They're just too good of players, the coaching staff is good there and they know what they're doing. I like how we solved it as a team, with the guys pulling it out in the end."


 
Speaking of bench scoring, the Thunderbirds led 36-12 in that category. First-year guard Raj Dhadda poured in 14 points on 5-7 shooting, 4-6 from the outside, while Nylan Roberts nearly double-doubled off the bench with nine points and 10 rebounds.
 
When it comes to the starters, Nikola Guzina scored a team-high 19 points to go with seven boards, while Tobi Akinkunmi had 15 points and three assists while playing just 17 minutes due to foul trouble.
 
For the Cascades, Bennett O'Connor led the way with 22 points, seven rebounds and three steals. Ismael Hernandez tallied 14 points and seven boards in support.
 
It was fifth-year forward Toni Maric, making just his sixth career Canada West start, who got the first UBC bucket. He received a feed inside from Guzina and laid it up and in through traffic for the first conference points of the season for the T-Birds.
 
A Gus Goerzen corner triple put the home team up 12-6 midway through the first. Matteo Kells pulled down an offensive rebound and cashed in a tough putback attempt to get a much-needed bucket for the Cascades, but points were hard to come by for the visitors as they notched just nine in the first 10 minutes of action.


 
Karan Aujla made an impact on both ends on a series late in the opening frame, finishing a layup off a nice feed from Roberts before then recording a block on the other end. Dhadda then drilled his second three-pointer of the quarter to make it 20-8 UBC, and the T-Birds maintained a double-digit lead through to the second quarter.
 
Neither team could score through the first two minutes of the second, before O'Connor got UFV going with a nice driving layup. An and-one from Hernandez looked to give the visitors some momentum, but a three-pointer from Akinkunmi followed by a steal and fastbreak layup by Holt Tomie reasserted UBC control.
 
An Edouard Gauthier slam dunk made it 39-20, and despite a renewed surge of effort to end the half from UFV, the T-Birds went into the break with a big lead.
 
The Cascades weren't done, however, and ripped off a 15-6 run to begin the third quarter. A layup from O'Connor briefly cut the lead to single digits for the first time since late in the first quarter, before a transition layup from Guzina and a pair of triples from Maric and Roberts stemmed the bleeding for the Thunderbirds.


 
UFV continued to hang around through the latter portion of the third, not letting the Thunderbirds establish quite as large of a lead they'd had previously, but also unable to get it within a couple possessions. When Guzina received a sweet dish from Tomie to score as the horn sounded, he put his team up by 15 heading into the final frame.
 
Hayden Sansalone started the fourth with an acrobatic and-one finish for the Cascades, before O'Connor nailed a three to cut the lead to single digits for a second time in the half.
 
Once again though, the Thunderbirds had the counter-punch, with a quick burst featuring five straight points from Dhadda that made it a 15-point game once again. The blue and gold closed it out from there, sending the War Memorial Gym crowd home happy with the opening night win.
 
"It should give us some confidence that we are competitive, and a Canada West win means a lot," added Jalalpoor when asked what this result meant for the team. "I think as a group that was a cool moment to get the first one of the season, but we've got to put our head down, grind and play through mistakes, and know that there will be a lot of ups and downs."
 
Next up for the 'Birds is a trip to Langley to take on Trinity Western in the Spartans' home opener tomorrow night. That game tips off at 8:00 p.m. (PT) in the Langley Events Centre.