Vancouver - Following an opening round bye week, the No. 6 UBC Thunderbirds look forward to beginning their post season with a best-of-three quarter-final meeting against the visiting the Fraser Valley Cascades beginning Thursday night at War Memorial Gym.
 
It all gets started on Thursday, February 14 at 7:00 p.m. followed by game two Friday, February 15 with another 7:00 p.m. tipoff and if a game three is necessary it will also get underway at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 16.
 
It will be the first regular season meeting between the T-Birds and cascades in over 15 months dating back to late October 2017 where UBC was able to sweep the weekend road series with scores of 118-78 and 105-64.


 

Last Action

 
Two weekends ago the 'Birds (17-3) who enter as the third seed in the Canada West playoffs, suffered a pair of rare setbacks to conclude the regular season in Edmonton, dropping an 85-75 decision on Friday night to register their first loss since October 27, 2018 ahead of falling 87-79 on Saturday night.
 
The Cascades (13-7) and ranked as the sixth-seed are in post season mode already having earned the right to advance to the quarter-finals thanks to a 67-59 home court victory over UNBC in a Canada West play in game last Thursday. It was UFV's third win in a row following the previous weekends home and home series sweep over The Trinity Western Spartans, beginning with a 106-75 triumph on home floor followed by a 94-73 win on the Spartans home court.


 

Players to Watch

 
Jadon Cohee – (#12, G) The fourth-year guard finished the regular season as the T-Birds scoring leader averaging 19.3 points per game which was also good for third overall in the Canada West rankings. The Langley B.C. native, in his debut season with the 'Birds also led the squad in average minutes per game with 33.4.
 
Grant Shephard – (#10, F) The second-year guard concluded the regular season with an impressive 66.7 field goal percentage to lead all of Canada West in the category. The Kelowna, B.C. boy finished third overall in team scoring averaging 16.2 points per game while also being dominant on the boards in averaging 8.9 rebounds per game to rank fourth overall in the conference.

Coach's Comments

"It would have been nice to have everyone healthy down the stretch here as you hope to build momentum heading into playoffs," said UBC head coach Kevin Hanson. "I mean coming off a couple losses at Alberta against a very solid team but I think that actually made us better in terms of understanding what we have to do during the games to execute better on offence and the defensive side of the ball."
 
Hanson then discussed the elements that lead to victory in the post season and thinks his squad is up for the challenge.
 
"In terms of years of playing together we're quite inexperienced," added Hanson. "So, it's taken a long time to get the feel for each other and with some of the key injuries that we've had for some extended time, trying to get them back in the flow has been a bit of a challenge for us. Certainly, we feel we have a lot of talent and pieces and we need to play together as a team and if we do we'll be successful."
 
Finally, Hanson sized up what he expects from UFV in the 'Birds first round matchup.
 
"We know their personnel quite well," continued Hanson. "We know they're coming in here fired up to give us a couple good games, it's going to be a physical battle with two high scoring teams that are quite familiar with each other. I think there is going to be a lot of emotion behind it, with the winner advancing and do or die time now but this is what you play for all year is having home court advantage. What we've done all season has led us to this point so we're going to try and continue and carry it forward into this playoff run."