Ottawa – Fifth-year seniors
Manroop Clair and
Jadon Cohee combined for 59 points en route to leading the No. 3 UBC Thunderbirds to a roller coaster 99-82 Bronze Medal victory over the No. 5 Western Mustangs at the 2020 U SPORTS Final 8 Basketball Championships Sunday afternoon at TD Place.
The Bronze medal caps off another great season for the T-Birds who showed grit in winning five of their six playoff games while also claiming the Canada West championship title late last month.
In an intensely contested affair that featured two technical foul calls against Western it was Clair who spoke loudest shooting a deadly 6 for 12 from three-point land in scoring a game high 39 points including 28 in the second half to help UBC pull away. Clair added 10 rebounds to complete the double-double while Cohee added 20 points and six assists.
Grant Audu and
Jack Cruz-Dumont chipped in with 12 and 11 points respectively.
For the Mustangs Omar Shiddo led the way with 29 points while Ukasha Khan added 17 points in the setback.
"It means a lot but I've been doing this my whole life," said Clair when asked about his dominant final outing in the blue and gold. "I've had 40 points, I've had 30, I've had 50 and 60, It's something I do, I'm a basketball player, I hoop and make tough shots and I'm going to continue to do that my whole life. For this being my last game, I was extremely proud to be a T-Bird and have the opportunity to play two years, I got a lot of help along the way and my thanks to coach Hanson and our donors it's been unbelievable."
Meanwhile, UBC head coach
Kevin Hanson also gave his thoughts on his squad's emotional effort.
"That was a wild game, we took an early lead and they fought back," said Hanson. "I think that's the most technical and unsporting fouls I've seen in a lot of years. I think both teams were a bit banged up and you're working on your personnel with not much time to prepare for each other at this stage with the quick turnaround and time change last night so it wasn't the prettiest of basketball. Obviously, we had a very special performance from
Manroop Clair and
Jadon Cohee who both played very well in their final games as UBC Thunderbirds, I'm very proud of what they did for our program in their two years here and I know they'll be great alumni for us."
The T-Birds came out firing from long range with back-to-back three-pointers from Cohee and
Grant Audu to go ahead 6-2 but Western battled back to take a one-point lead 10-9 following an emphatic dunk from Khan. Clair and Cohee's team high six-point outputs in the frame allowed UBC to build a slight cushion while five points from
Grant Shephard helped in the process. Farkic led the way for the Mustangs with six points while Khan added five points. Cohee would cap his output with an athletic slash to the rim to beat the buzzer and give UBC a 24-17 lead after the opening quarter. The T-Birds shot 44 percent from the field while Western shot 33 percent.
The Mustangs came out and made a statement in the second quarter outscoring UBC 28-17 thanks to an improved 50 percent shooting from the field which included an efficient 43 percent shooting from beyond the arc in hitting six of 14 three-point attempts. Western started the frame draining three straight treys, two from Shiddo and one from Khan to erase the six-point deficit and go ahead 26-24 and causing an early T-Birds timeout. UBC would respond with a three-pointer from Cohee and a jumper from Clair to retake the lead at 29-28. The Mustangs would once again dial it up from long range to pull away as Shiddo hit his third three-pointer of the period as part of his team high 13 points before Farkic nailed his fourth trey of the afternoon en route to a 45-41 lead at the halftime horn.
The slugfest shifted again in the third quarter with UBC answering back and closing the gap thanks to a much-improved 62 percent shooting while Clair poured in 15 more points and Cohee another nine points to widen the gap. Much of the damage coming from three-straight treys, two from Clair and one from Cohee to take a 63-57 lead.
Zack Moore also got in on the long-range act, swishing the T-Birds fourth trey of the frame from the corner just ahead of the buzzer to enjoy a 75-63 lead after three periods.
The 'Birds were determined to close out the fourth quarter with some hardware to show at the end of it continuing to pour in the points and outscoring Western 24-19 overall. UBC would add another four, three-pointers, three courtesy of Clair who added another 13 points to his total while Cruz Dumont also hit from beyond the arc to secure a 99-82 Bronze medal victory after an exhausting outing on the national stage.
