VANCOUVER – There was little to separate the Thunderbirds (1-0) and the Trinity Western Spartans (0-1) in UBC's home opener. In fact, the two teams scored the exact same amount of points in the second quarter, and then followed it up by scoring the exact same amount in the third.
Minute differences in the points totals of the first and fourth proved to be the difference in the end, and the 'Birds pulled out the win with Nylan Roberts leading the charge. The third-year forward recorded 25 points, 15 rebounds and three assists in an impressive beginning to Canada West play, while Edouard Gauthier and Raj Dhadda each tallied 12 points in support.
Tyus DeVries poured in 29 points along with 11 rebounds for the Spartans, his highest scoring total in a Trinity Western uniform. Marcus Shankar scored 19 points of his own, including eight of his team's 12 total in the first quarter.
Shankar and the Spartans did their damage in the paint in the opening frame – so much so that they didn't score a single basket outside of it until early in the second quarter. After 22 straight paint points it was a Jack Vandenburg triple that ended that streak, briefly putting the Spartans up by two.
While the 'Birds didn't have the same level of efficiency on the inside, they were buoyed by some three-point shot making as well as good offensive rebounding, in particular from Roberts and Immanuel Oludele.
The two sides remained attached at the hip for most of the remaining portion of the first half. Even when the T-Birds were able to stretch out their lead to seven with a minute left, the Spartans fought back and a DeVries floater right before the buzzer made it a 38-34 ballgame heading into the break.
Outside of a 25-second period between dueling three-pointers from Roberts and Shankar, neither team led by more than four points in the third. The same sort of pattern continued into the fourth, with the Spartans rebuking all attempts by the Thunderbirds to create a little breathing room.
After the visitors briefly took a slim lead with about six minutes to play, the 'Birds responded with some sweet shooting, first from Gauthier before Dhadda took over and exploded with three triples in the final five minutes of regulation.
The Spartans continued to battle hard until the end, and had the chance to tie the game with less than 10 seconds to go, but Roberts came up with the clutch defensive moment of the night by taking a charge on DeVries as he drove hard to the basket.
Following their opening night success, the T-Birds will head to Abbotsford on Saturday to take on the UFV Cascades, who are coming off a 108-83 loss to defending Canada West champs Victoria.
