VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds were charging hard down the stretch but couldn't complete the comeback in Victoria on Saturday, losing 74-71 to the Vikes in the regular season finale.
BOX SCORE
The T-Birds were down 10 points late in the fourth before they kicked things into another gear offensively, ripping off 18 points in the final five minutes of play. A Connor Morgan three pointer with 2:54 left made it 65-62 Victoria, and then the teams traded three-point plays at the foul line, with Terrell Evans and
Doug Plumb each scoring baskets and hitting their free throws to bump the score up to 68-65.
Evans went hard at the rim again on the next Vikes possession, but was met with much stiffer resistance this time. He wound up going down hard after contact under the basket and stayed on the floor while trainers tended to a cut on his chin. Michael Acheampong took the free throws for Evans while he got patched up, but he did return in the last minute of the game.
Acheampong hit one of two to make it 69-65. That miss could have been key, but
Tommy Nixon couldn't make them pay, missing both his free throw attempts at the other end. Plumb hit a jump shot to pull UBC within two, and then the teams continued to swap fouls for the next four possessions, with the shooters knocking down all the free throws to make the score 71-69 with 14 seconds remaining.
UBC intentionally fouled Brandon Dunlop, who led the Vikes in scoring with 24 points on 8-10 shooting in the game. He missed the first free throw to give the 'Birds a chance, and hit the second, with five seconds left. Plumb rushed up court for a running three-point attempt but it fell short, giving the Vikes the series sweep.
Plumb's last quarter of regular season CIS basketball was an impressive performance. The fifth-year wingman scored 13 of his team-high 24 points in the fourth, including UBC's last nine points of the game.
O'Brian Wallace,
David Wagner and Morgan all scored in double digits for UBC as well
But the 'Birds couldn't overcome Victoria's hot shooting from the first half. The Vikes shot 58 per cent in the half before both teams lost the scoring touch in the third quarter, with Victoria outscoring UBC 9-8 to take a double digit lead into the fourth.
The T-Birds finish the regular season with the best record in the conference at 18-4, while the Vikes move into a tie for the second-best record in the conference with Prairie division-winning Saskatchewan at 16-6. That means the Vikes will host the Prairie three-seed Manitoba in the first round of the playoffs.
UBC hosts Alberta, the fourth-place finishers in the Prairie Division (14-8), in a best-of-three playoff series next weekend at War Memorial Gym. The winner moves on to the conference Final Four, which the T-Birds will host the following weekend if they advance.
UBC and Alberta square off on Friday, February 22 and Saturday, February 23 at 8 p.m. Game three, if necessary, will be on Sunday at 4 pm.
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