Edmonton, AB - On the strength of 11 successful three-pointers, the No.8 ranked University of Alberta Golden Bears men's basketball team scored their second consecutive win over the No.7 ranked UBC Thunderbirds, this time a 91-68 victory which secured the quarter-final series sweep at the Saville Community Sports Centre in Edmonton.
"I am very proud of what our four seniors have accomplished over their careers," said UBC head coach
Kevin Hanson. "They have had a huge impact on our program and have been great ambassadors for UBC. It is a tough way for them to end their careers but they have a lot of great memories. Tonight they left it all on the court but we got beat by a real good team that played well over the weekend."
The T-Birds were led by fifth-year
Nathan Yu's 23 points, as well as 11 from veteran
Doug Plumb. For Yu, the sixth leading scorer in Canada West this season, it was a complete reversal from the Friday night game when he finished with just eight points.
UBC ends the campaign with a 13-5 regular season record and two playoff losses.
Golden Bears' guards Sahr Saffa, Jordan Baker and Daniel Ferguson combined to bank 10 of those long bombs, while forward Todd Bergen-Henengouwen added the other. Saffa, a third year former Alberta provincial track star, notched 18 points on Saturday night, one night after scoring a career best 23 points. Baker, who is almost averaging a double-double in his first three seasons of CIS ball (16.9 PPG and 9.9 rebounds per game), finished with a game high 25 points on this night, while Ferguson, in his final ever game before the Edmonton faithful, picked up 20 points.
Alberta's offence was simply too much for the Birds to handle, as the Bears shot 51% from the field, including 44% (11-25) from outside. They also hit 75% of their free-throws. UBC shot 42% from the field, but only connected on four three-pointers on 18 attempts, while also draining 63% of the shots from the stripe. Although UBC came into the weekend with the top ranked defence from the regular season, regularly holding opponents to under 60 points, Alberta's three-man guard formation simply presented too many problems.
The Golden Bears now head to the Canada West Final Four championship, to be played next weekend at the University of Saskatchewan.
While game one of the series in Edmonton featured wild scoring runs, lead changes and incredible swings in momentum – Alberta led by 18 in the third quarter, only to watch UBC cut the deficit to one point – Saturday night's affair was all Golden Bears' from beginning to end.
A dynamite first half set the tone for the Alberta win, as the Evergreen and Gold drained eight of 15 three-pointers in the opening 20 minutes, as well as a combined 55% of their shots from field. By the half-time buzzer rang, the Golden Bears owned a lead of 48-32. Baker accumulated 15 points at the break, while Ferguson added nine.
The T-Birds were paced by Yu's nine points, as well as eight points from fifth-year
Kamar Burke, who was a tank on Saturday night.
Alberta's torrid pace cooled down in the second half, but they still shot 46% from the field, and forced the Thunderbirds into committing fouls as the clock drained away on the Point Grey squad's season.
The two finalists from the Canada West Final Four will earn berths to the CIS championship, March 9-11 in Halifax, while an at-large berth remains a backdoor possibility for teams as well.
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