VANCOUVER –
Edouard Gauthier knocked down the game-winning shot in the dying seconds for the second night in a row as the UBC Thunderbirds surged late to seal an 88-86 comeback win against the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack on Saturday night at War Memorial Gym.
"I mean, it was kind of the same play [as last night]," reflected Gauthier on his showtime bucket. "I knew they were gonna play the shot, so I just went to the [hesitation] and then got to the lane, but yeah, I don't even know what I did, to be honest. I just got to the hoop."
Alongside the near buzzer-beater, Gauthier closed out the night with 26 points, 11 rebounds and six assists.
Roko Maric was next up for UBC, tallying 18 points on a whopping 88 per cent shooting, while
Zeru Abera added 12 points and snatched a game-high four steals.
Both sides traded shots in the early going, but the T-Birds posted an 11-2 run near the midway point of the first quarter, highlighted by a 10-point barrage from Maric while collecting four rebounds throughout the frame to help create some breathing room for the home side. TRU fired back as Jayden Stephens knocked down a pair of shots in the final minute to cut the deficit to 23-16 in favour of UBC.
The second quarter was a different story, as Stephens and Jaeden Bynoe were shooting lights out. The duo combined for half of the team's 30 points in the frame while shooting at a more-than-efficient six-for-seven from the floor, handing the visitors a 46-41 lead heading into halftime.
Coming out of the break, Gauthier began to heat up. The Montreal product connected on a three and poured in 11 points in seven minutes of action, all while adding a pair of rebounds and an assist. But as the 'Birds were clicking on offence, the WolfPack responded with buckets of their own, leading to both sides exchanging 24 points apiece to head into the final frame with the visitors maintaining the five-point advantage.
As expected, the back-and-forth battle continued throughout the fourth. With each side exchanging small runs, it all came down to the final minute of action. TRU tied up the game at 86 apiece after a trip to the free-throw line with 20 seconds remaining. Then the 'Birds regained possession. Gauthier slowly carried it up the floor with the clock ticking down, and off a solid screen, the second-year guard drove towards the paint, spun around heavy traffic before putting one up and knocking down the go-ahead bucket with just 1.5 seconds left on the clock.
The WolfPack had a chance with little time left, but a tremendous effort from UBC's Abera to knock the inbounds pass away to start the clock and end the game secured the 88-86 victory in dramatic fashion for the second night in a row.
"In that moment, 'relax a bit' because I think we start pushing it too much. We kept shooting ourselves in the foot with turnovers in transition that were unnecessary, not reading mismatch situations, and on one-on-ones," said UBC head coach
Phil Jalalpoor on his message to his team ahead of the fourth-quarter comeback. "But the key is to just kind of relax and trust that we'll be in the game, we'll have one more run in us, and hopefully that'll be enough. And it was today."
The T-Birds will stay on the Point Grey campus for their next pair of games, as they take on the MacEwan University Griffins for a two-game set at War Memorial Gymnasium. The weekend opener tips off at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, November 20, before following with another clash at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 21.
