The Province

UBC bounces back from first loss

No. 2 ranked men’s basketball team wins Saturday to split games with Saskatchew­an Huskies

- HOWARD TSUMURA

Conor Morgan scored 30 points, and the UBC Thunderbir­ds men’s basketball team, fuelled by a pair of timely 10-2 runs, got back into the win column Saturday in Saskatoon.

Following a 95-78 thrashing at the hands of the Saskatchew­an Huskies Friday, the Birds’ first loss of the Canada West season, U Sports No. 2-ranked UBC (9-1) bounced back to earn a weekend split with the ‘Dawgs (6-4) after an 83-74 win.

Taylor Browne added 11 points, and Jordan Jensen-Whyte seven points, eight rebounds and six assists for UBC.

The Fraser Valley Cascades (5-5) got back to .500 as the backcourt duo of Manny Dulay and Vijay Dhillon combined to score 42 points and hit on 11-of-14 three-point shots in an 89-82 win over Edmonton’s visiting MacEwan Griffins.

Dulay was 7-of-9 from distance for a team-high 23 points while Dhillon was 4-of-5 from beyond the arc and finished with 19 points.

n In NCAA Div. 2 play, the Simon Fraser Clan remained winless (0-6) in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play after failing to protect a 22-point halftime lead.

SFU led the visiting Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks (2-4) by a resounding 50-28 count at halftime, shooting 60 per cent from the field over the opening 20 minutes, but frittered it all away in the second en route to an 88-83 defeat.

JJ Pankratz and Michael Provenzano each scored 19 points in a losing cause for the Clan.

Women’s Basketball

The Simon Fraser Clan (5-1) find themselves locked in a three-way tie for second place in the GNAC standings after an offensive outburst led the NCAA D2 team to its sixth straight win, 101-89 Saturday in Idaho over host Northwest Nazarene (4-2).

All five Clan starters — Ellen Kett (22 points), Rachel Fradgley (20), Elisa Homer (18), Ozi Nwabuko (15) and Meg Wilson (14) — broke double-figures in scoring.

SFU clashes with visiting Seattle Pacific (5-1) Thursday in a 7:30 p.m. tip.

n In U Sports action, the vastly-improved Trinity Western Spartans (7-5) got 23 points from Kayla Gordon, staging a fourth-quarter rally on the road to upend host Winnipeg 72-68, handing Wesmen (11-1) their first loss of the conference season.

Men’s Volleyball

Trinity Western, ranked No. 1 nationally and undefeated on the season, dropped a surprising 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 27-25) decision to No. 10 Saskatchew­an Saturday at the Langley Events Centre, the defeat TWU’s first at home to the Huskies in more than 14 years.

UBC got 11 digs and 25 assists from Byron Keturakis to help the Birds (8-4) to a 3-0 (25-23, 25-28, 25-23) win over Kelowna’s visiting UBC Okanagan (4-8) and a weekend sweep of the Heat.

Women’s Volleyball

Sophie Carpentier with 14 kills and Elly Wendel with a dozen helped No. 3-ranked Trinity Western (11-1) to a 3-1 (25-23, 22-25, 25-13, 25-15) win over Saskatchew­an at the Langley Events Centre.

The win not only completed a weekend sweep of the Huskies (5-7), but gave the Spartans eight straight Canada West wins.

UBC (9-3) got 16 kills Saturday from Danielle Brisebois, and the host Thunderbir­ds topped UBC Okanagan 3-1 (25-18, 20-25, 25-17, 25-15), earning a weekend sweep of their Kelowna rivals and moving past the Heat (8-4) into third place in the conference standings.

Women’s Hockey

When you’ve been as dominant as the UBC Thunderbir­ds have been this season, losses become bigger news than wins.

On Saturday, the visiting Alberta Pandas (8-4-3-3) scored two unanswered goals on the power play, rallying for a 2-1 win over the ‘Birds as the No. 1-ranked UBC (14-2-2) had its 15-game win streak come to an end.

Nicole Saxvik had opened the scoring for UBC.

 ??  ?? UBC Thunderbir­ds’ Irvan Brar extends for a kill against the visiting UBC Okanagan Heat on Saturday at War Memorial Gymnasium. The Thunderbir­ds swept both weekend games.
UBC Thunderbir­ds’ Irvan Brar extends for a kill against the visiting UBC Okanagan Heat on Saturday at War Memorial Gymnasium. The Thunderbir­ds swept both weekend games.

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