This past weekend, UBC Men’s basketball faced their rivals — the University of Victoria (UVic) Vikes — in a crucial doubleheader, where the top seed in the CW Pacific Division, and the No. 2 seed in the Canada West conference, was on the line. With these being the last two games of the season and the playoffs starting next week, the stakes could not have been higher. While UVic entered with the better conference record, having a two-game advantage over the ‘Birds, UBC took down UVic earlier in the season — meaning that a weekend sweep could leapfrog them past UVic for the No. 1 spot with a head-to-head tiebreaker. Losing either game would clinch the No. 2 seed for the Vikes.
In the first game of the weekend, the T-Birds did their job, outplaying the Vikes and winning 85–76. Veteran guard Holt Tomie posted a season-high 26 points to lead the way, while the ‘Birds also held down the fort on the defensive end — keeping UVic to just 33 per cent field goal shooting.
With the first win in the books, the stage was set: one final regular-season showdown between two longtime rivals to determine first place in the CW Pacific Division.
Guard Gus Goerzen, who struggled in the first game — missing all of his shots and going scoreless — came out confident and intent on bouncing back. He put UBC on this board 20 seconds into the game, connecting on his first three-point attempt. The ‘Birds, who had primarily generated offence through two players in their last game — Tomie and forward Nylan Roberts — seemed to be sharing the ball better this time around. Seven T-Birds scored in the first quarter, as opposed to four in the prior game.
UVic also did well swinging the rock in the first quarter with four of their seven baskets coming off an assist. The Vikes ended the quarter up one, 21–20, but both teams had clearly shown up intent on playing clean, team-oriented basketball — the two clubs combined for only three total turnovers in the first.
Once again, no singular player stood out for the T-Birds in the second quarter. UBC continued with their well-rounded offensive scheme and were able to generate points — half of their tallies in the quarter — from their bench players. As part of that effort, two of the younger members of the Thunderbirds squad — first-year guard Zeru Abera and second-year forward Jacob Antchak — made their presence known after entering the game early in the quarter.
Abera announced himself to the raucous Victoria crowd by connecting on his first triple attempt of the quarter. Meanwhile, Antchak was being loudly heckled by the crowd during his first two free throw attempts. After hitting both, Antchak sarcastically waved at the crowd, as if to say “bring it on” — only to overshoot and brick a wide open three off the side of the backboard moments later. The crowd let him have it.
Nevertheless, Antchak and Abera were able to weather the Victoria storm, as Abera dropped off a smooth, no-look pass to Antchak for a two-handed slam. Visibly fired up, Antchak pounded his chest defiantly at the crowd and, just 31 seconds later, Antchak ripped down the rim again. This time around, Antchak was assisted by Karan Aujla, giving UBC a narrow 33–32 lead.
In direct contrast to the ‘Birds, the Vikes generated the majority of their offence through one player in the second quarter — fourth year guard Ronoldo Robinson. Robinson scored 11 points in the quarter, while no one else for the Vikes mustered more than three points. While Robinson drove the offence for the Vikes, it was a team effort on the defensive end for UVic, making key hustle plays to close out the quarter. With seconds left, Cam Slaymaker made a put back layup to bring the Vikes within one point of UBC, while on the other end, just seconds later, UVic prevented UBC from scoring to close out the quarter.
Even though the ‘Birds had established a more well-rounded offensive attack, they went into second half with just a narrow 42–41 lead.
The third quarter was about as even as you can get. While the Vikes came out swinging, taking and extending the lead to as many as eight points in the quarter, the ‘Birds kept within reach. With just over a minute remaining, UBC was only down by five. Tomie then found Roberts for back-to-back three-pointers, leaving the two teams at a total deadlock. They finished dead even in scoring, and across every major statistical category — points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks and turnovers — no team closed the quarter with more than a one-unit advantage. This meant UBC just maintained the one-point lead they had coming into the quarter, while UVic, despite their best efforts, had not moved the needle at all.
Going into the fourth, it seemed like the game was headed for an absolute show-stopping finish. Buckets had been traded all night, the crowd had been getting into it, and both squads seemed hungry to win it all.
Then, out of nowhere, Victoria easily ran away with the game in the closing ten minutes.
In the final frame, UVic turned up their defensive intensity, with Robinson picking the pocket of two UBC players on the first two possessions of the quarter. Robinson was able to turn both of these steals into fast break layups, which opened up a three-point lead for the Vikes, just 41 seconds in. UBC’s offence continued to struggle, Nikola Guzina, UBC’s leading scorer on the year, only mustered two shot attempts in the entire quarter — a reflection of UVic’s great paint defence — while the rest of T-Birds shot just one for six on their three point attempts.
The Vikes ultimately committed four fewer turnovers than UBC and were far more efficient than the ‘Birds. That was the difference in a quarter where the T-Birds were outscored by 9 points, after the previous three quarters all ended with less than a two-point gap between the teams.
Thanks to their end-of-game performance, the Vikes won the game 93–85, capturing the second seed for next week’s playoffs, ensuring that they’ll have home court advantage throughout the majority of the post-season.
With the loss, UBC fell to the No. 4 seed, meaning they will host their first playoff game — but will likely be on the road the remainder of the post-season. The ‘Birds will face off against the winner of the first play-in match between the Brandon Bobcats and Manitoba Bisons, a game the T-Birds will host. As the No. 5 seed, Manitoba posts the better record and, on paper, appears to be the favourite.
Still, the ‘Birds should hold their heads high. They nearly won back-to-back games against the top team in not just the conference, but nationally, did so while showing flashes of brilliance, and for the most part, maintained a level of offensive and defensive consistency. Last year, the T-Birds lost all three of their games to the eventual national champion Vikes. This year, they won two of three, and came within a quarter of getting a third. While there’s work to do in the playoffs, interim head coach Phil Jalalpoor appears to be well on track toward his goal of constructing the “most improved team in the country.”
