VANCOUVER – The T-Birds (13-4) got back into the win column on Friday night, taking down the UNBC Timberwolves (2-15) in their penultimate regular season home game.
 
"We stuck with the process, did what we've done the whole season, didn't worry as much about wins and losses and more about what we want to do," said UBC head coach Phil Jalalpoor. "I think we got back more to what we do, which obviously gave us a good chance to win tonight and we were successful."
 
Nylan Roberts led the way for the 'Birds with 19 points and six rebounds, while Nikola Guzina tallied 15 points and five boards. The Thunderbirds recorded a monstrous 50 points in the paint as a team, with that carrying the bulk of the offensive load on a night when the three-pointers weren't always falling.
 
"We want to read and react, and take the high-quality shots that we're given," added Jalalpoor on the high volume of inside scoring. "It's more of an outcome of how we were defended and the advantages that we had…we're just trying to get good shot quality overall."


 
Justin Sunga led the Timberwolves in scoring with 12 points, as UNBC – like the T-Birds – had four players in double figures. Chris Ainsley scored 11 while Isaiah Bias and Wesley Ainu'u had 10 each.
 
The Thunderbirds were up by 10 at the end of the first, led by Guzina who attacked the hoop relentlessly to the tune of nine points in the opening frame.
 
A four-point play for Milan Pasquale midway through the second provided a big highlight for the visitors and cut the UBC lead down to seven, but the T-Birds hit right back with a pair of Gus Goerzen buckets – an alley-oop layup assisted by Edouard Gauthier and then a floater to beat the shot clock buzzer.
 
Jacob Antchak ended the first half of play with a fastbreak dunk, putting the home team up 47-31 at the break.
 
The two sides played each other pretty much even in a lower-scoring third, with the T-Birds inching their lead out to 19 points, their largest of the night to that point. The Timberwolves defence did a good job to hold UBC to just 15 points in the frame, but were unable to get their own offence going well enough to cut into the deficit.


 
The Thunderbirds were able to see things out from there, setting up a rematch on Saturday that serves as both UBC's Senior Night as well as the chance to clinch a top-two seed in the Pacific Division and homecourt advantage in the opening round of the Canada West playoffs.
 
"I think there's some extra motivation," said Jalalpoor, looking ahead to the final regular season home game for his six graduating seniors. "But at the same time, it's business as usual in some sense – we've got to come prepared, be focused, and hopefully use that extra edge. Hopefully they all enjoy the night."
 
That game tips off at 6:00 p.m. (PT) inside War Memorial Gym.