VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds rode a dominant first quarter to the win on Saturday, holding the Thompson Rivers WolfPack to a single point in the first ten minutes en route to the 97-63 victory at War Memorial Gym.
BOX SCORE
The 23-1 first quarter marked UBC's best ever defensive quarter, with the lone point coming on a DJ Oates free throw after being fouled by UBC centre
Jared Casey. T-Bird fans can hardly blame Casey for giving up the shutout though, as the big man had three blocks in the quarter to help keep the WolfPack without a field goal.
The WolfPack's scoring woes came despite a great showing on the offensive glass. They pulled down nine offensive rebounds but couldn't get any clean looks around the hoop.
The WolfPack got their first field goal 16 seconds into the second quarter, with Will Ondrik doing the honours from inside the paint. They played UBC much more competitively in the second and third quarters, even outscoring the 'Birds in the third, but couldn't make up enough ground to get back into the game.
“Basketball is a game of runs and you don't really hold a team to one point. They shoot themselves into that situation too, and it's very hard to hold things at that level for a whole game,” said UBC head coach
Kevin Hanson. “But defensively I was happy considering last night. We improved and I was excited to see our young guys get that many minutes and play together.”
The T-Birds let the 'Pack cut a huge lead all the way down to two points in the fourth quarter on Friday, led by huge scoring nights from Kevin Pribilsky and Will Ondrik. On Saturday Ondrik was held to 2-for-10 shooting and Pribilsky went 3-for-7, combining for 19 points.
“I'm really trying to get our guys focused not just on getting their stats but on stopping their guys. There were a couple guys we wanted to focus on who had career nights against us yesterday and I think for the most part we did a pretty decent job on that,” Hanson said.
Hanson noted that his rookie guard pairing of
Isaiah Solomon and
Jordan Jensen-Whyte looked especially good on Saturday and were key cogs in the defensive effort. Both take turns playing the point but they also saw significant stretches of court time playing together and were solid at both ends.
The 'Birds still had 14 turnovers but took care of the ball much better than on Friday. Whyte had seven points, four assists and two blocks, while Solomon chipped in 14 points and three steals.
Geoff Pippus helped put things away for UBC with all 16 of his points coming in the fourth quarter. That tied
Doug Plumb for the game-high in scoring.
Tommy Nixon and Connor Morgan also scored in double digits for UBC.
Troy Grant led the WolfPack with 14 points.
Thompson Rivers falls to 1-3 on the year. They will be playing at Mount Royal next weekend.
The T-Birds are off to a 4-0 start, and will be at home next weekend looking to continue that. They host Fraser Valley on November 16th at 8 p.m. and 17th at 7 p.m.
-30-
