In the closing two minutes of the Canada West Quarterfinals, the UBC Men’s Basketball team was clinging to a four-point lead against the University of Manitoba Bisons. As the No. 4 seed, UBC was the favourite headed into the winner-take-all game, but Manitoba was doing their best to make the T-Birds’ future uncertain.
Manitoba was battle-tested coming into the game, having already won their play-in game the day prior against Brandon University, taking it 79–68. For a roster that features six fifth-year players — five of whom hail from Manitoba — every playoff game carries extra weight. For the Bisons, each time their group steps onto the court, it could be the last time this local, veteran core would get the chance to play alongside one another, surely adding fuel to their flame. It’s a rarity to see any team in university sport feature this much regional representation on a roster, and even UBC interim head coach Phil Jalalpoor was keen to spotlight this in his post-game interview.
“They have an outstanding group that went through their five years [together],” he said. “They did an amazing job [representing] the brand of U Sports basketball, [and] the guys were local … so, I want to congratulate them on the careers that they’ve had.”
Early on, the future of that Manitoba core was given a boost. UBC’s leading scorer, Nikola Guzina, did not start the game, coming off the bench to help manage an injury — as Jalalpoor explained, “We’re trying to manage him and not run him into the ground.”
The absence of Guzina, who acts as a defensive anchor for UBC in the paint, was felt early, as Manitoba scored twice in the paint to begin the game. Despite the early success in the paint, the Bisons shot four three pointers in the first four minutes, missing all of them — a pattern that would continue throughout the game.
Manitoba’s goal was clear from the onset, they wanted to play with as much pace as possible and shoot the three-ball. By the end of the game, Manitoba had taken 16 more shots than the ‘Birds and attempted 36 three pointers. Of those 36, they only connected on five of them.
While Manitoba struggled from distance early, they were still in it, as UBC did not come out as hot as they have in prior games this season. Fifth-year forward Tobi Akinkunmi, a critical spark for the T-Birds, picked up two quick fouls in the first two minutes — forcing him to the bench for a substantial portion of the first half. The Thunderbirds finally scored their first points a little more than two minutes in and slowly began to settle into their offence.
UBC’s Nylan Roberts converted on an and-one layup three minutes in, to build momentum for the Birds. Gus Goerzen also contributed on back-to-back plays, collecting three offensive rebounds and scoring on two putback layups.
As the offence started working, the defence began to click too. Jalalpoor also implemented a zone defence early on in the 1st, which appeared to be doing its job, mucking up many of Manitoba’s set-plays and holding the Bisons to just 34 per cent field goal shooting in the first half.
“We communicated and it went really well … [I’m] proud of the guys, that we were able to switch it up [to zone defence] and they were able to deliver,” said Jalalpoor.
The second quarter saw the ‘Birds playing the best they had all afternoon, and the work they did in the second would prove to be critical down the stretch. UBC’s defence continued to trouble the Bisons, as they allowed Manitoba to score only two points in the opening five minutes of the second.
Their offence also seemed to have finally settled in with Roberts scoring a flurry of points to begin the quarter alongside Edouard Gauthier throwing down an emphatic dunk in the half court. In the second half of the quarter, Manitoba was finally able to generate some offence, and they ultimately only found themselves down by 11 headed into halftime. However, two key pieces for Manitoba — team-leading rebounder, Cieran O'Hara, and fifth-year guard, Tito Obasoto — both picked up two personal fouls, which would prove to be costly.
The third quarter was peculiar. Both teams connected on seven attempted field goals, however, the Bisons did so on nearly twice the number of attempts. This largely had to do with UBC’s struggles to secure defensive rebounds off of jump shots. Manitoba grabbed seven offensive rebounds in the quarter, while UBC only snagged six rebounds total. Rebounding was what ultimately allowed Manitoba to stay in this contest, as they continued to struggle with their offence.
As a whole, offence and highlights were sparse in the third. However, after five minutes of hard defensive and busted offensive schemes — UBC’s Raj Dhadda hit back-to-back three pointers to open up a 15 point T-Birds lead. The War Memorial Gym crowd was suddenly energized — as heading into the fourth, it seemed that UBC would finally put the game to rest. However, Manitoba did well to respond, finally connecting on a couple of their three-point attempts to end up behind only ten heading into the final ten minutes.
In the final frame, the ‘Birds struck first, and once again led by 15. But facing down the end of their careers, Manitoba’s conviction was palpable.
Throughout the game, it had felt as if every time UBC had an ounce of momentum, Manitoba was able to crush it — and that continued in the fourth. The Bisons’ relentless crashing of the glass continued, this time hauling in six offensive rebounds in the frame. Manitoba also played an exceptionally clean quarter, only turning the ball over twice, while forcing a ridiculous 11 UBC turnovers.
Manitoba found themselves within four points of the ‘Birds — the closest the game had been since the start of second quarter — with just two minutes remaining. They wouldn’t get any closer. Their shooting woes continued, and after shrinking the lead to four, they only made one of their last six attempts from the field.
UBC was able to score when it mattered most, however, and veteran guard Holt Tomie converted all six of his free throw attempts in the closing two minutes of the game to ice out the Bisons.
Manitoba was the better team for the majority of the fourth quarter. Their eventual demise, however, came at their inability to convert on their three point attempts and be reliable from the free-throw line. Despite generating plenty of open looks from their dominant rebounding, the Bisons went zero for eight on three point attempts in the fourth. Both teams also took a very high amount of free throws in this game — 28 attempts for UBC and 24 for Manitoba — however, UBC converted 78.6 per cent of their attempts while Manitoba only shot 50 per cent from the line.
The Bisons played this game wearing their hearts on their sleeves, and dictated the pace for almost the entire contest. Despite coming up short, for that core group of veterans they fought in the last game of their careers to the bitter end. As for the T-Birds’, they’ll be gearing up to play their next playoff match Friday, against Manitoba's crosstown rival, the University of Winnipeg Wesmen, in the semifinals. While Winnipeg is a step-up from Manitoba, having beat the Bisons twice in the regular season and finishing atop the CW Prairie Division, Jalalpoor’s crew will be calm, prepared and raring to go.
“It’s business as usual — we’ll start right now with our prep,” he said. “[We have to] try to figure out things to get better at and improve … [to] give ourselves the best chance we can in each game.”
