Vancouver – The Canada West's third ranked UBC Thunderbirds are primed for post season action as they get set to meet the sixth seed Saskatchewan Huskies for a one-game quarter-final playoff Friday, February 21 with a 7:30 p.m. PT tip off at Calgary's Jack Simpson Gym.
 
By way of finishing the regular season with a (16-4) record good for thirds spot in the conference standings the T-Birds earned a bye week ahead of the quarter-final matchup. Meanwhile the Huskies (12-4) record saw them finish in sixth place which forced a play-in game resulting in a 71-58 victory over Thompson Rivers University last weekend in order to advance and meet UBC.
 
The Huskies and T-Birds last met 16 months ago and split their weekend series on UBC's Point Grey campus, the 'Birds opened with a 92-87 victory before Saskatchewan responded with a 102-93 win the following night.


 

Last Action

 
The 'Birds finished the regular season trending in the right direction with five consecutive victories including back-to-back wins against the visiting Winnipeg Wesmen on the final weekend of the campaign. It began with a 97-85 decision where five UBC players reached double-digit figures in scoring featuring Jadon Cohee's game high 25 points. Grant Shephard added 21 points, Manroop Clair chipped in with 16 points while Grant Audu and Brian Wallack recorded 12 points each, Wallack registered the double-double with an additional 10 rebounds.
 
The rematch saw the T-Birds enjoy a more convincing 91-66 win and once again it was the teams leading scorer Jadon Cohee setting the pace with 26 points while Jack Cruz-Dumont and Grant Shephard added 12 points each. After leading all players on the court over the course of the weekend, combining for 51 points Cohee earned himself the nod as the Canada Wests's men's third star of the week. Cohee also led the T-Birds offence throughout the season as the team's leading scorer averaging 19.1 points per game.


 
The Huskies closed out the regular season two weeks ago with back to back road losses against the Alberta Golden Bears but rebounded the following week on home court with the 71-58 victory against TRU in the play-in game. Leading the way for the Huskies was Alexander Dewar with 18 points followed by Emmanuel Akintunde's double-double, scoring 14 points and adding 11 rebounds. JT Robinson chipped in 11 points, just under his team leading average of 18.6 points per game this season.
 
UBC enters play with the Canada West's top offensive numbers averaging a league high 93.5 points per game while the Huskies offence ranks ninth in averaging 83.7 points per game. On the other side of the ball the T-Birds rank fifth in points allowed per game giving up an average of 77 while Saskatchewan sits in 10^th spot allowing an average of 82.5 points per game. The winner of Friday night's matchup will advance and have a quick turnaround to Saturday evenings semifinal game.


 

Coach's Take

 
"We've had a good week at practice, we're ready for it," said UBC head coach Kevin Hanson regarding the T-Birds mindset to open the post season. "We've talked about how we've played better basketball on the road where it gives us a better chance to focus on the basketball side of things. Being reading break you never know what crowds are going to be like at this time of year so is there a home court… maybe not necessarily. It's a new playoff format so we're ready to focus on one game at a time, so the boys are excited to play and we're coming together at the right time."
 
Hanson also previewed what he knows and expects from a Huskies team that they last played against 16 months ago.
 
"They have a couple new faces as do we but a big nucleus of both teams are returners, they've got some solid players and scorers that we'll have to deal with and they run some good systems. It's going to be an entertaining basketball game and they do a good job preparing and even though we haven't played them we all have unlimited tape on each other so we'll both know each other very well with preparation and now it will be up to the players."