VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds scored a decisive opening night win over the visiting Lethbridge Pronghorns, taking the game 98-76. After a slow offensive start the T-Birds scored 25 or more points in each of the final three quarters as they led nearly wire to wire.
UBC's pair of fifth-year seniors provided plenty of production on the court as James Woods led all scorers with 28 points on 11-17 shooting, and Brian Wallack had a big double-double with 20 points and 13 rebounds. Fareed Shittu also double-doubled with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 3 steals.
Kymani Pollard led the Pronghorns in scoring with 22 points and 4 steals although he shot just 8-23 from the field. Shae Gibb also played well with 20 points, 5 rebounds and a game-high 6 assists.
Pollard was hot early on with 7 points in the first few minutes but back-to-back dunks by Wallack and Shittu and stifling defence by the T-Birds led to UBC taking a 17-12 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Thunderbirds did a great job getting to the free throw line, shooting 7-10 from the stripe in the quarter.
A pair of big blocks early on in the second frame from Nikola Guzina and Micah Jessie helped push the UBC lead to 24-16, but the Pronghorns then went on a 14-6 run to tie things up at 30 a piece.
The Thunderbirds, however, ended the half on a 15-1 run on their own, powered by an alley-oop pass from Woods up to Shittu who slammed it home to a massive roar from the home crowd. Woods scored 12 of his 28 points in the second to lead the UBC offense.
The back-and-forth nature of the game continued in the 3
rd as the Pronghorns cut the lead to just four points in the first few minutes of the second half, but that was as close as they would get as UBC soon roared back to a double-digit lead.
A 10-4 T-Birds run to begin the fourth-stanza put the game out of reach, as UBC maintained a comfortable lead to close and pushed their advantage over 20 points with back-to-back threes late on from Tobi Akinkunmi.
The two teams will face off again in a rematch on Saturday night. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. PDT at War Memorial Gym.
