OTTAWA - The UBC Thunderbirds hopes of their first national title since 1972 at the CIS men's basketball national championship were dashed on Sunday night in Ottawa as the upstart Saskatchewan Huskies took home the W.P. McGee Trophy with a 91-81 victory at Scotiabank Place.
Trailing 45-31 at the half, the T-Birds finally started to have some success on offence late in the third quarter and were able to cut the deficit to 10 points heading into the fourth quarter.
UBC then continued to chip away at the Huskie lead, and cut their Canada West rivalsadvantage to single digits but every time the T-Birds got close the Huskies seemed to have a response.
Back-to-back threes, including one from Saskatchewan game MVP Showron Glover, pushed the Huskie lead back to 11 after UBC had cut it to five.
The T-Birds continued to press and got the lead back down to eight, however, despite three consecutive stops UBC couldn't capitalize as a pair of missed lay-ups in heavy traffic and an unforced turnover allowed Saskatchewan to stay ahead with less than five minutes left in the contest.
Kamar Burke, who was named UBC's player of the game and a tournament all-star, hit a three-pointer with 2:47 remaining to make the score 81-76 but Michael Linklater responded with a long three of his own to restore the eight point cushion.
Linklater then sealed the win with a steal when UBC looked to have a chance to make it a one possession game with a minute to play. Tournament MVP Troy Gottselig finished off the play with an uncontested dunk to seal Saskatchewan's first-ever CIS title.
The trio of Glover, Linklater, and Gottselig proved too much on Sunday as they combined for 70 points. Glover had a game-high 28, 10 assists and six steals while Gottselig added 22 and eight rebounds.
The T-Birds were led by another double-double from Burke who had 16 points and 12 rebounds (five on the offensive glass).
Josh Whyte added 16 points while fellow starters
Blain LaBranche and
Graham Bath had 12 and 11 points respectively.
UBC struggled offensively in the first half and only ended the game 28-of-69 (40.6%) from the field despite owning the glass, out rebounding the bigger Saskatchewan team 44-31 which also included a 19-7 adavantage in offensive boards.
Saskatchewan, on the other hand, started extremely hot from downtown and were able to take advantage of an aggressive UBC defensive effort that was stretched over the last three quarters. The ball-hawking Saskatchewan duo of Glover and Linklater, who both played all 40 minutes in tonight's final, were effective against the UBC backcourt as the T-Birds committed 18 turnovers compared to just 11 for the Huskies.
A furious finish to the first quarter saw the teams exchange four baskets in the final 60 seconds, however, it was a Huskies 13-0 run that brought them back from an early seven point deficit to lead 20-16 after 10 minutes of play.
The Canada West champions carried over their momentum into the second quarter as they out scored UBC 25-15 thanks to 5-of-7 shooting from three-point land, capped off by a Glover bank shot from five feet behind the arc.
For the half, the Huskies were 7-of-13 from downtown while UBC was only 2-of-12 on long range attempts as they struggled to 35.1% shooting from the floor (13-of-37).
Saskatchewan couldn't maintain their torrid pace from the perimeter in the third frame but they did enough to withstand a UBC charge near the end of the third and led 67-57 heading into the final quarter.
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