The Canada West men’s basketball championship matchup is set.
The University of Victoria Vikes and UBC Thunderbirds secured the conference’s two automatic berths to the U SPORTS national championship with semifinal wins this weekend, setting up an all-Pacific Division final next Saturday in Victoria.
Alberta Golden Bears (74) at Victoria Vikes (97)
The Vikes punched their ticket to the final with a 97-74 win over the Alberta Golden Bears on Friday, riding a blistering start and a second-half surge to pull away at CARSA Performance Gym.
“I was really proud of how we came out of the gates — we’ve been talking about having better starts — and I think that was one of our best starts of the year,” Vikes head coach Murphy Burnatowski said. “We kept the intensity even through some of Alberta’s runs, which sometimes can be difficult. You’ve got to give a lot of credit to Alberta. They stayed, fairly with us, and didn’t take their foot off the pedal. But I was just really proud of how our starters and our older guys locked in and then how our guys often came off the bench and continued to push.”
Victoria, the second seed, opened the game with a 14-4 run, fueled by forward Ethan Boag, who scored the first five points as both teams traded stops early. The Vikes’ perimeter shooting created separation by the end of the first quarter, with Victoria leading 28-15.
Alberta steadied itself in the second, using a brief Victoria lull to cut the gap to four. Guard Isaac Simon scored three straight baskets to make it 28-24 and force a timeout, while forward Caiden Kushnir established his presence inside — creating second chance looks and drawing contact in the paint.
Victoria answered with its bench. Dylan Gage and Sergio Pereira sparked a nine-point run to restore control and send the Vikes into halftime up 46-33.
The third quarter proved pivotal. Gage and fifth-year guard Geoffrey James hit back-to-back threes to cap a 16-4 run to open the third quarter, and Victoria’s defence held Alberta at arm’s length the rest of the way. The Vikes led 76-54 entering the fourth and cruised to the final buzzer with both teams trading baskets as the clock ran down.
Boag led Victoria with 21 points on a perfect 7-for-7 from the field, including 2-for-2 from three, and 5-for-5 at the charity stripe. James added 19 points, eight rebounds and three steals, while Gage scored 13 off the bench. Victoria shot 55.7 per cent from the field (34-of-61) and went 10-of-29 from deep.
Kushnir paced Alberta with 15 points, and Nash Semeniuk scored 14. Simon finished with nine points as the Golden Bears shot 42.3 per cent (30-of-71) and just 6-of-20 from three.
The Vikes advanced to the conference championship for the second straight season, and will host the final in Victoria next weekend.
UBC Thunderbirds (92) at Winnipeg Wesmen (89)
Raj Dhadda’s fifth 3-pointer didn’t win the game outright, but it broke the dam.
Dhadda and Holt Tomie drilled back-to-back threes in the final minute of regulation to erase UBC’s deficit and force overtime, and the Thunderbirds completed a furious rally with a 92-89 extra-time win over the Winnipeg Wesmen in a Canada West men’s basketball semifinal Saturday night at the Duckworth Centre.
“It took everything we had, so credit to Winnipeg they’re a really good veteran squad,” UBC head coach Phil Jalalpoor said. “I’m really proud of our guys, we kind of chipped away and kept believing.”
UBC, the third seed, trailed by as many as 16 in the first half before steadily trimming the margin and finally breaking through late in the fourth. After the Tomie-Dhadda sequence tied it 80 with 45 seconds remaining, neither team could find a winning shot in regulation.
The T-Birds then struck first in overtime, opening on a 10-3 run to seize momentum. Winnipeg clawed back to within one at 90-89 with 44 seconds left, but Nylan Roberts finished at the rim in the closing moments to push the lead back to three. Wesmen guard Kato Jaro had a clean look at a tying triple at the horn, but it caught the back iron.
Dhadda led five Thunderbirds in double figures with 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc. Tomie and Gus Goerzen added 14 apiece, Nikola Guzina had 13 points and a team-high 13 rebounds, and Edouard Gauthier chipped in 10.
UBC shot 48 per cent from the field (36-of-75) and hit 11 of 26 threes (42.3 per cent), surviving a 9-for-16 night at the free-throw line. Winnipeg shot 36.7 per cent overall (33-of-90) and 12 of 38 from deep (31.6 per cent), but stayed in it by playing with tempo and getting to the line in front of their home crowd.
Alberto Gordo paced the Wesmen with 21 points and 12 rebounds, while Jaro finished with 19 points, eight boards and six assists in a game-high 44 minutes. Elijah Mensah scored 12, and Donald Stewart, Emmanuel Ugbah and Malachi Alexander each had 10 as Winnipeg placed six players in double figures.
“They made some big plays at big times, and we had opportunities to close some possessions that we didn’t and they capitalized, so give them all the credit,” Winnipeg head coach Mike Raimbault said.
With the win, UBC and VIC clinched Canada West’s two automatic berths to the U Sports national championship and advanced to the conference final, where the Thunderbirds and Vikes will meet next weekend.