OTTAWA - The No. 3-seeded UBC Thunderbirds are off to their second consecutive CIS men's basketball national final after defeating the No. 7 Calgary Dinos 77-63 Saturday night at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa.
UBC will meet the winner of second semi-final which sees defending CIS Champion and host Carleton Ravens pitted against the Canada West champion Saskatchewan Huskies.
It could be the first time that two Canada West teams face-off for the national title since Brandon and Alberta met in the 1996 CIS final if the Huskies prevail. If Carleton wins, it will be a re-match of the 2009 CIS final which the Ravens won 87-77.
"I thought our defence was solid and we got some offensive rebounds in a timely fashion tonight," said UBC head coach
Kevin Hanson. "After the game last year against Carleton we set some goals, and we're going to use those tomorrow. But it doesn't matter who we end up playing tomorrow. It will be a tough battle either way."
In tonight's all-Canada West semifinal,
Kamar Burke ignited a 17-2 T-Bird run in the fourth quarter that put to bed another classic between two conference rivals who met in the CIS semis for the second straight season.
After Calgary's Ross Bekkering threw down a huge dunk on the first possession of the fourth quarter to make it a 46-42 UBC lead, Burke finished off UBC's first offensive possession with a slam of his own along the baseline.
Alex Murphy then converted an old fashioned three-point play on UBC's next possession before Burke added three points to the T-Bird lead which grew to 54-42.
Kyle Watson picked up UBC's next basket as the 'Birds then ran their lead to 63-44.
Burke, UBC's player of the game, finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds, including five on the offensive glass. Murphy was nearly as outstanding for the T-Birds scoring 14 points and adding a team-best three assists in 21 minutes off the bench.
Josh Whyte had a team-high 16 points with fifth-year
Blain LaBranche netting 10.
The Dinos were led by rookie Jarred Jackson-Ogungbemi who scored all of his 16 points in the last three in a half minutes but it wasn't enough to lead the Dinos back as they had no response to the T-Birds run early in the fourth.
Bekkering, a two-time All-Canadian, earned player of the game honours for the Dinos, however, he played just 21 minutes due to early foul trouble but did recoup with a 13-point, four rebound second half.
Fellow starters Tyler Fiddler, Robbie Sihota, and Jamie McLeod were a combined 7-of-37 from the field as the T-Birds forced the Dinos into a multitude of difficult shots.
The T-Birds ended the game 26-of-57 (45.6%) from the field while holding Calgary to 23-of-65 shooting (35.4%). The Dinos didn't help themselves from the free throw line, going 12-of-23 (52.2%) from the charity stripe.
The biggest events of the first quarter transpired in the opening minute as Bekkering picked up two quick fouls and sat until the second half.
The Dinos got a good boost from their bench in the opening frame, out scoring UBC's 6-0, and led 16-13 after a cagey first 10 minutes.
UBC took advantage of the Dinos foul trouble, which saw their top three scorers on the bench for most of the second frame, out scoring Calgary 23-12.
Murphy hit a pair of buckets in the final 20 seconds, including a buzzer beating three-pointer to put UBC ahead 34-28 at the break.
In the third quarter, the T-Birds took a 46-32 lead on a
Nathan Yu bucket with two minutes to play in the frame, but the Dinos responded with an 8-0 run to close the quarter with seven points from Bekkering.
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