Box Score LANGLEY, British Columbia– Led by fifth-year guard Josh Belvin's (Long Beach, Calf.) near triple-double of 28 points, 10 rebounds, and a TWU record-tying seven steals, the Trinity Western Spartans defeated the No. 2 UBC Thunderbirds 83-68 Friday night at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. The win improves the Spartans to 8-7, while the loss drops the Thunderbirds to 10-5.
 
Second-year Jack Vandenberg (Vancouver, B.C.) also hit double-digits in scoring finishing with 17 points. While Adam Olsen with 20 points, Nikola Guzina with 15 points, six rebounds, and five assists, and Fareed Shittu with 12 points, and seven rebounds led the Thunderbirds.
 
UP NEXT
The Spartans will go for the sweep tomorrow night against the Thunderbirds. Game time at the Langley Events Centre is set for 6 p.m. (PT) and can be seen live on Canada West TV.
 
QUOTABLE
TWU head coach Trevor Pridie.
""It was obviously a really slow start. We came out and it was a really sloppy start. It was fortunate we could survive it and Juice came in the game and was a massive spark for us. He was incredible. He and Jack were unbelievable tonight. It felt like there were two Juice's out there at times. We have so much confidence in Jack as a player to shoot the ball and he was amazing.
 
"Jack came in the game and changed the game in the third quarter. I couldn't be happier for him. I thought Tyrone had his best game as a Spartan. Defensively he was really good and he made some big plays for us. Some of our key guys didn't have their best games tonight but we had other guys step up.
 
"To beat the No. 2 team in the country, you have to have big performances, and we got that tonight. It was a really big win for our program. It's nice to see us play to our potential.
 
"If you look at where we were when we played these guys at the start of the season to know – we're a completely different team.
 
"David is one of my favourite players ever. I couldn't be happier for him. He's the best teammate, best player, best kid. He's amazing and any accolades he gets are well-deserved. I'm really proud of him."
 
 
AS IT HAPPENED
The first half saw the Thunderbirds take an early lead over Trinity Western, finishing the half with a 23-16 advantage. In the second quarter, the Spartans started to turn things around and outscored the Thunderbirds 24-14. To take a 40-37 lead into the half-time break.
 
TWU continued their strong play to start the second half. Limiting the Thunderbirds' opportunities the Spartan outscored UBC 17-9 to take an 11-point lead, 57-46, into the final 10 minutes. Trinity Western continued to outscore UBC in the fourth quarter and extended their lead to 16 points, 70-54, midway through the final frame. The Thunderbirds never got the game to single digits as the Spartans took the 15-point win, 83-68.
 
NOTABLE 

• The Spartans finished the night shooting 41.4 percent (29-70) from the field, 37 percent (10-27) from the three-point line, and 68.2 percent (15-22) from the foul line. While the Thunderbirds shot 40.9 percent (27-66), 24 percent (6-25), and 66.7 percent (8-12) respectively.
• The Spartans had a 43-41 edge in rebounding.
• TWU had a 16-8 edge in steals. The Spartans had 16 turnovers to the Thunderbirds 20.
• TWU lost to the UBC 99-78 on November 2 to open up Canada West play earlier this year.
• The Spartans are currently 16-61 lifetime against the Thunderbirds.
• The last time Trinity Western had a double-digit win over UBC was a 96-73 win on February 21, 2004, in the Canada West playoffs at UBC.
• TWU's largest margin of victory over UBC is 24 points, 83-59, January 21, 2000.
• The last time UBC failed to score 70 points against the Spartans was a 73-66 TWU win on November 9, 2013.
• Mutabazi scored his 1,000 career point in tonight's match, finishing with eight points.
• Last week the Spartans defeated the UBC Okanagan Heat 98-87 in their lone game at home on Thursday, January 23.
• Last week the Thunderbirds lost to the No. 1 Victoria Vikes 90-88 at the CARS in Victoria, B.C.
• Josh (Juice) Belvin broke the TWU career steals record against UNBC and currently has 132 career steals.
• Connor Platz currently has 165 total blocks in Canada West conference games. He is one block shy of tying Brett Layton (MRU) for third spot with 166. Myron Dean (MAN) holds the CW career block record with 197.
• Platz leads CW with a career average of 2.55 blocks per game. Including tonight, TWU has six games left in the CW regular season. This puts him on pace to move into second spot in CW by the end of the season. Greg Stewart (TRU) is second with 174.
• Marcus Shankar is currently at 47.5 percent for three-point shooting percentage.  TWU's current record is 46.3 percent set by Daniel Horner in the 2010-11 season, when TWU made it to the U SPORTS championship final and came second to Carlton.

 
About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 13 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, cross country, and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes as an independent team in men's rugby. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 14 U SPORTS team championships and 34 Canada West team championships.
 
About Trinity Western University
Recognized for quality, TWU has received seven consecutive A+ rankings for Quality of Teaching and Learning, holds three Canada Research Chairs, and wins national championships in U SPORTS. More importantly, lives are changed at TWU through its whole-person, Christ-centred approach to education. With a wide array of undergraduate, graduate, and adult degree-completion programs, TWU equips leaders of character and competence to make a positive impact in the lives of others.
 
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