Thanks to Kevin Hanson Head Coach for the UBC Thunderbirds Men’s Basketball team for the note.
FRIDAY NIGHT GAME RECAP:
Going into the weekend, we were ranked No. 3 nationally and Alberta was ranked No. 6.
They have a very powerful offensive punch so our focus all week was on the defensive side of the ball and mainly how we were going to defend their ball screens and three-point shooting.
As a team, they were shooting the ball very well and had one of the highest team three-point percentages in the country.
They were averaging 11 made three-pointers a game and had five players shooting over 42 per cent from behind the arc.
On Friday night, we defended the three-point line very well and limited them to 6-20 shooting from there. We felt that this was key to stopping them.
We were forced to play their post players one on one and our post players did a great job.
The score was close the entire game until the last few minutes of the fourth quarter. It was two good teams battling every possession at both ends of the court.
We outrebounded them 38-33 and won most of the statistical categories with both Will Ondrik and Jordan Jensen-Whyte strong defensively as well as prevented their top two scorers for further additional points.
We were up 4 after the first quarter (21-17), up one at half (35-34), down 2 entering the fourth quarter (53-51), but outscored them in the fourth 27-15 to eventually win by a score of 78-68.
KEY STATS:
JORDAN JENSEN-WHYTE: 25 PTS, 3 REBS, 3 STEALS, 3 ASSISTS
CONOR MORGAN: 24 PTS, 6 REBS, 2 STEALS, 2 BLOCKS
LUKA ZAHARIJEVIC: 6 PTS, 6 REBS
UPCOMING GAMES:
- FRIDAY JANUARY 20 AT MOUNT ROYAL UNIVERSITY (AWAY GAME)
- SATURDAY JANUARY 21 AT MOUNT ROYAL UNIVERSITY (AWAY GAME)
- FRIDAY JANUARY 27 UBC VS BRANDON (HOME GAME)
- SATURDAY JANUARY 28 UBC VS BRANDON (HOME GAME)
