Ottawa – The Dalhousie Tigers shot the ball well and pulled away in the second half en route to a decisive 84-55 victory over the UBC Thunderbirds in their semifinal game at the 2020 U SPORTS Final 8 Basketball Championships Saturday at TD Place.
 
With the win the No. 2 Tigers will meet the defending champion No. 1 ranked Carleton Ravens in Sunday evenings gold medal game while the No. 3 T-Birds will take on No. 5 Western Mustangs in Sunday afternoons Bronze medal matchup
 
Having come into action on such a roll that included four straight playoff victories the T-Birds displayed some uncustomary disjointed play early. The result of which showed itself in a stalled offence to the tune of just 27.4 percent shooting from the field on the night and a total of 19 turnovers in the setback.
 
The Tigers meanwhile were fairly efficient and opportunistic in shooting 42.4 percent from the field and 39.1 percent from three-point land to ensure advancement to the national final. Alex Carson and Sascha Kappos shared a team high 19 points in the win while Jordan Brathwaite added 13 points for Dalhousie.


 
For UBC it was fifth-year guard Jadon Cohee leading the team with 19 points which earned him the T-Birds player of the game while Manroop Clair delivered 16 points with help from draining four, three-pointers.
 
"It stings right now obviously," said UBC head coach Kevin Hanson post defeat. "It was one of our worst performances of the year which is disappointing as we thought heading into the game, we were very prepared, in a great spot after being on a great run the last month playing some of the top ranked teams in the country. That said honestly Dal is a very good team who went 36-1, you get that record for a reason, they're a tough team and took away a lot of stuff we wanted to do. I don't think we came out as mentally tough as we needed to and specifically our turnovers hurt us and with just five assists that didn't help, they played as a team so give them full credit."


 
After a nervous start that included a couple of change of possessions for each squad it was Clair who'd begin putting his early stamp on the contest from long range. Clair opened the scoring with back-to-back three-pointers to give UBC an early 6-4 advantage before Shephard earned the hoop and the harm driving the lane for another three-point play and a 9-6 lead. The Tigers would respond with a trio of buckets including a coast to coast effort from Keevan Veinot to go up 12-9 ahead of Clair striking from beyond the arc again with his third, three-pointer of the period to even things 12-12. Dalhousie kept coming with a three-pointer of their own from Carson and a couple more scores from Burrows who had a team high six points in the frame for the Tigers who led 17-15 after the first. Save for Clair who poured in a team high nine points, UBC struggled from the floor shooting 25 percent as compared to Dalhousie who shot 43.8 percent from the field.


 
Dalhousie remained sharp in the second quarter in outscoring the 'Birds 24-14 on the strength of 39 percent shooting from the floor and an efficient 60 percent shooting from beyond the arc while hitting three of five three-point attempts. UBC's shooting improved marginally from the opening frame, climbing to 28.6 percent from the field. An early Kappos spin move in the lane put Dal up 25-17 causing the T-Birds to call a timeout and they responded with a Jack Cruz-Dumont back door slash to the basket and Clair capitalizing on the hoop and harm to trail 28-25. The Tigers would then begin to widen the margin courtesy of a trio of three-pointers, one from Brathwaite and two in a row from Carson who had a team high 11 points in the quarter helping Dalhousie to a 41-29 lead at the half.



The three-pointers continued to rain down to start the third quarter with seven total, four from Dalhousie and three more from UBC. First it was Clair and then a follow up from Carson, the fourth trey for each player on the evening resulting in a 46-32 Tigers advantage. The show from beyond the arc would continue with Zack Moore and Jonah Morrison getting in on the act for the 'Birds while Brathwaite, McVeigh and Kappos answered from long range for the Tigers who were in front 61-48 after three periods. UBC's shooting improved to 54.5 percent in the frame as Moore tallied the team high seven points, meanwhile Kappos and Brathwaite had a matching team high five points each for Dal.
 
The fourth quarter saw the Tigers really pull away in outscoring the T-Birds 23-7 thanks to 10 points from Kappos and another five from Brathwaite as Dalhousie booked their ticket to Sunday's national final against Carleton with a tip off of 5:00 p.m. PT / 8:00 p.m. ET.
 
The Bronze medal matchup will see UBC take on Western with tip off at 11:00 a.m. PT / 2:00 p.m. ET