EDMONTON - In their first win of the season, the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds were back to their usual form, taking a close 89-84 victory over the University of Alberta Golden Bears, Saturday night at the Saville Community Sports Centre.

Coming off the bench, sophomore guard Kedar Wright had a team-high 19 points, including five baskets from beyond the arc, while senior forward Brylle Kamen added 17 points, getting six buckets from the charity stripe.

After a career-high performance on Friday, the nation's point leader put up 23 more on Saturday, including four more three-balls to bring his CIS-leading total to 24. Sophomore forward Mamadou Gueye recorded 21 points, now sitting fifth in the country, and eight rebounds to lead the team with a total of 43.

The loss drops Alberta's record to 4-2 while UBC improves to 1-3.

Friesen started right where he left off on Friday in the opening minute, throwing down a highlight-reel dunk in front of 1,600 fans that fed the Bears all the energy they needed in the first quarter, putting up 20 points and shooting at 53% while the T-birds struggled at 27%, but getting some help from the charity stripe to stay close on the scoreboard.

Kenny Otieno, fresh off his 1,000th career conference point last weekend, drained a triple near the top of the arc to finish off the opening quarter and started the second with another, the stanza featuring a long-distance clinic as the two teams combined for 10 successful shots from downtown, ending with Gueye's baseline trey with two seconds left to give the Bears a 46-43 lead at halftime.

Alberta's first-half shooting went cold in the third quarter, however, missing seven of nine inside the paint and 10 overall while UBC heated up with 23 points in the 10 minutes, all of it coming in the field.

Leading on the scoreboard for most of the third, the T-birds seemed poised to claim victory when they increased their lead to double digits with 3:47 left to go in the fourth but a monster block by Otieno on UBC sophomore Conor Morgan soon after reinvigorated the massive crowd, getting even louder when Youssef Ouahrig lined up a long-distance shot with 2:30 left to go, cutting the lead to eight.

Some back-and-forth play led to the same crowd eruption when Ouahrig did it again with 48.7 seconds left on the clock, Gueye following with an up-and-ender circus shot with 27.6 left, getting the hoop and the harm to make it a two-point game.

After some successful Tommy Nixon free throws for the visitors, Friesen charged the UBC net but couldn't get the ball to drop, only making his first attempt from the charity stripe while Morgan batted away the live ball on the second.

With three seconds left, a final Friesen triple play to tie the game at 87 bounced off the rim, Morgan putting the game out of reach with two free throws off an Otieno foul.

The Bears take the "bye" next weekend before heading off to Victoria to play the Vikes in the final weekend of November. The Thunderbirds head to Winnipeg November 21-22 to face the Wesmen before heading home to host the Saskatchewan Huskies.