CALGARY – A fourth-quarter push has the UBC Thunderbirds off to the semifinal after defeating the Saskatchewan Huskies 88-77 in the Canada West quarter-final on Friday night at the Jack Simpson Gym.
 
The Thunderbirds will now face the two-time defending Canada West champion Calgary Dinos for a berth in the conference championship game and the U SPORTS Final 8. It marks the third consecutive year the T-Birds will matchup against the Dinos in the postseason. 
 
"We played a little bit sloppy, Saskatchewan jumped on some of our mistakes. We did not do well from the free throw line tonight, that's usually a sign of mental fatigue," said UBC head coach Kevin Hanson. "Normally we are a little bit better on Saturday nights. We have a big challenge for tomorrow night, but we will for sure give it our best."
 

The Thunderbirds orchestrated a well-balanced offence as Manroop Clair, Grant Audu, Jadon Cohee, Grant Shephard and Zack Moore all earned double-digit points (19, 17, 16, 13 and 13).
 
UBC drew first blood in the quarter-final with strong three-point shooting, going an impressive 71.4 per cent from beyond the arc in the quarter. The Thunderbirds out-rebounded the Huskies 15-8, with eight coming from Shephard.
 
Saskatchewan dug deep with gritty defence, forcing six turnovers while grabbing five steals. After late quarter 6-1 push from the Huskies, fourth-year guard Addison Dewar nailed a buzzer-beater three to wrap up the quarter at 21-18 UBC.
 
The Huskies trailed for most of the second quarter, but sharp shooting from JT Robinson was a momentum shifter for the Huskies offence. After a deep three from the hot-handed Robinson, the Huskies earned their first lead of the game at 40-39 and Robinson wrapped up the half with 17 points.  
 
With the momentum swinging back-and-forth in the third, neither team was able to get a firm grasp on the game, but the Thunderbirds manage to outscore the Huskies 25-20, with 12 of those points coming out of the paint. 
 

In the final frame, UBC kicked things up a notch and starts the quarter off with a 6-0 run, proving critical down the stretch. Clair and Audu connected from the perimeter in quick succession and UBC widened its margin to 82-72. The Huskies continued to claw at the lead, but UBC's dialled up defence held up in the 11-point win.
 
"I thought we played well in the first but there was just too many inconsistencies defensively in order for us to be successful. We gave up too many points on easy buckets that they were able to score on us because of some our defensive breakdowns," explained Huskies head coach Barry Rawlyk.
 
Robinson had 29 points and four rebounds to lead Saskatchewan. Emmanuel Akintunde and Fisayo Moibi chipped in with 11 apiece.
 
The Dinos and Thunderbirds hit the floor for their Saturday semifinal  at 7 p.m. MT / 6 p.m. PT at the Jack Simpson Gym.