EDMONTON – The 2018-19 Canada West men's basketball regular season concluded Saturday as the No. 4 UBC Thunderbirds fell 87-79 at No. 7 Alberta in Edmonton.
 
The Golden Bears finish their Canada West regular season with a 15-5 record, while UBC falls to 17-3.

Fourth-year power forward Brody Clarke scored a career-high 40 points along with 11 rebounds in his team's win. Third-year guard Andre Kelly chipped in with 17 points and five rebounds.
 
Guard Jadon Cohee, in his fourth year of eligibility, led UBC with 25 points and five assists, while second-year forward Grant Shephard had a team-high seven rebounds to go with 10 points. Senior forward Patrick Simon posted 11 points.

Shephard concluded the regular season with a .677 field-goal percentage, putting him inside the Canada West all-time Top 15 for best FG percentage in a single campaign.

Guard Manroop Clair also cracked the Canada West record books, making the Top 20 for single-season free throw shooting percentage at .905.
 

Alberta got off to a much stronger start than the night before. They jumped out to an early 8-0 lead and set the tone. Shephard's lay in with just under four minutes to go cut the deficit to just one point (13-12), which was also the margin at the quarter break. The Golden Bears finished the second quarter strong by taking a 42-36 lead at the half.

After scoring 15 points in the first half, Clarke dominated the third quarter, scoring 17 points on his own, but freshman forward Jonah Morrison hit two clutch treys in the late stages to give UBC a 66-64 lead heading to the final quarter.

Yet Clarke and the Golden Bears weren't going to be denied in the final period. Fourth-year guard Dwan Williams hit a buzzer-beater trey with the shot clock winding down, then Clarke hit a pull-up jumper moments later with the shot clock set to expire to give Alberta an 80-74 lead with just over two minutes left.
 

"We didn't have an answer for Brody (Clarke)," said UBC head coach Kevin Hanson. "He played tough. He scored inside and out. He's such a tough match-up for any team and we just couldn't stop him tonight."

There were positives to take from the weekend for the Thunderbirds.
 
"We're happy with the effort, but we made a lot of little mistakes that cost us," said Hanson. "We have to work on the little things and you can't make the little mistakes, or it will cost you in the playoffs."

Both UBC and Alberta have earned first-round playoff byes and won't hit the court until February 14-16 when they both host Canada West quarter-final best-of-three series.