The T-Birds tipped off their 2015-16 campaign on a new court in the Doug Mitchell Sports Centre. The new location, which will host the 2016 CIS Final 8 this spring, was assembled just for this weekend’s UBC Invitational. To christen the new hardwood, the T-Birds faced off against the University of Guelph Gryphons.
Excited to get things going, the 'Birds opened their warm up with six consecutive dunks including a reverse double-pump jam by new starting forward, Will Ondrik.
But after UBC won the opening tip, their excitement switched to timidity. On his first play, new T-Bird point-guard Phillip Jalalpoor threw a pass that was nearly intercepted and ultimately knocked out of bounds. The quarter proceeded with turnover after turnover by both teams as they worked out their pre-season jitters.
The T-Birds found offensive success though as they attacked the rim with Jalalpoor sinking two floaters and Morgan slamming in two dunks. Newcomers Ondrik, Patrick Simon and A.J. Holloway also hit on drives to the hoop.
Guelph struggled at first with their outside shooting, but found success when they started funnelling the ball down low to 6’6’’ forward Kingsley D’Silva who lead the Gryphons with 12 points for the night.
After one quarter, the score was tied at 16.
The second quarter was marked by UBC’s solid defence and Conor Morgan’s break-out performance leading the game in scoring with 12 points. He finished as the game leader with 21 points. Energy bursts in the form of six quick points from Thunderbird forward Luka Zaharijevic helped UBC enter the half with a 40-32 lead.
The T-Birds and Gryphons traded baskets throughout the third quarter finishing up with UBC ahead 56-47. However, the scoreboard didn’t reflect UBC’s much improved defence. Nerves had turned back to excitement for the 'Birds as they dove for loose-balls, forced jump-balls and near shot-clock violations.
The only thing holding back the T-Birds from blowing the game wide open was their rusty offence — save for Morgan who continued his offensive onslaught to end the quarter with 19 points.
UBC began to come away with it in the fourth quarter as they extended their lead to 15 at one point. This was largely thanks to a lay-up, a three pointer and a monster two-handed slam all from SFU transfer Patrick Simon — But the game was far from over.
Thanks to a put-back slam by D’Silva, Guelph was injected with new life. They went on a run courtesy of back-to-back threes bringing the game to within five points with just a minute and 32 seconds remaining.
After a UBC time-out, Guelph guard Jonathan Wallace brought the ball down the floor and quickly launched a three-pointer to bring the score within two points — but he missed. Guelph then committed four fouls in a span of 45 seconds to permanently halt their momentum. And after the foul-spree, Zaharijevic muscled his way down low to put up two more for the Thunderbirds. Ondrik put in a fast-break layup while having his jersey yanked back by a defender shortly after.
As Ondrik shot the unsportsmanlike foul-shots, a wave of relief swept over the T-Birds' faces. It was a messy game, but they held on for the 79-68 win.
Jalalpoor lead with 6 assists and 35 minutes. “It’s always a rough start because we’re a new group, right? We’re finding each other. We had a couple of good moments, but on defence we had a lot of mess ups,” said Jalalpoor. “But I think we can build on this and be better next time.”