VICTORIA – It was a game that was fitting for the prize that was on the line.
With the Canada West Pacific Division regular season title at stake, the No. 6 Victoria Vikes men's basketball team beat the No. 5 UBC Thunderbirds 90-83 in front of 2,400 fans at McKinnon Gymnasium on Friday night.
"This has been our best road game but once again, we gave up 90 on the road and you're not going to win games doing that," said UBC head coach
Kevin Hanson.
With the score tied at 83, Victoria guard Ryan MacKinnon hit a catch-and-shoot three-pointer from the top of the arc with 26 seconds left in the fourth quarter to give the home team the win.
But UBC had its chances after that shot.
Nathan Yu (5th, Prince George, BC) missed a baseline jump shot with 21.6 seconds left. Then Terrell Evans of Victoria missed both of his ensuing foul shots to allow
Kamar Burke (5th, Mississauga, ON) to grab the rebound after the second miss.
But unfortunately for UBC, Burke's outlet pass to
Tommy Nixon (2nd, Vancouver, BC) sailed out of bounds.
The Thunderbirds had to foul again and the Vikes' Zac Andrus made both foul shots to ice the game.
Burke recorded a double-double, with 18 points and ten rebounds.
"We didn't score a field goal the last four minutes of the game, I thought our guys got a little bit tight," said Hanson.
Both teams traded heavy blows like two champion boxers leading up to MacKinnon's final dagger.
The teams went into the fourth tied at 64 but UBC re-took the lead at 7:44 after Yu stole the ball and went in for a bucket to make it 71-69 in favour of the visitors.
The momentum changed on spectacular play from Michael Acheampong with just over four minutes to go as he was fouled while making a three-point shot from the right side. He converted the free throw to cap the four-point play that gave Victoria the lead back at 80-79.
Two Nixon foul shots with 1:57 remaining tied the game at 83, setting the stage for MacKinnon's heroics. Nixon would end the game with a team-high 21 points to go with eight rebounds.
The final period was a continuation of a back and forth third quarter and the game featured ten ties and nine lead changes.
A Yu triple at 7:50 of the second period capped off a mini 7-0 run that bridged the first break of the game to put UBC up 29-18.
But a Victoria surge closed the gap to just one at halftime.
"I thought they (Victoria) played one of the their better basketball games of the year too, hitting 13 three-pointers," said Hanson. "In the second quarter, they were five for six."
Both teams employed some sharp shooting. Victoria shot 53.4 percent from the field, while UBC was even better at 56.9.
The T-Birds also out-rebounded the Vikes 29-22 but were outscored 22-14 in points off turnovers.
Yu and
Doug Plumb (5th, Pitt Meadows, BC) chipped in to the Thunderbird cause with 17 points each.
Acheampong had 28 to lead Victoria.
UBC finishes the regular season with a record of 13-5, which puts the team in third place in the Canada West Pacific Division standings.
The Thunderbirds will open its best-of-three first round Canada West playoff series on Friday, Feb. 24 at Alberta.
The tip-off in Game One will be 6:00 p.m.
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