VICTORIA – The University of Victoria men's basketball team defeated the University of British Columbia, 94-92 in an overtime thriller, Feb. 11 inside CARSA Performance Gym to close the Canada West regular season.
James Woods paced the UBC attack with 34 points on 10/23 shooting while
Triston Matthews chimed in with 19 points and a team-high 13 rebounds. It marked the second loss in as many meetings for UBC against their island foes.
Kevin Hanson's crew finishes their Canada West regular season with a 13-7 record and a fifth place finish in the regular season standings.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- A layup from Diego Maffia, free throw from Dominick Oliveri, and three-pointer by Jaden Touchie gave the Vikes a 14-7 lead with 4:37 to play in the opening frame.
- After 10 minutes of play, the Vikes led UBC, 21-16.
- A Maffia layup gave the Vikes their first 10-point lead of the night, 38-28, with 3:26 until halftime.
- Remaining in front at the half, the Vikes led by a score of 44-36.
- The Vikes were outscored by the Thunderbirds, 21-14 in the third, making it a 58-57 game in favour of the Vikes after three quarters of play.
- A three-pointer from Maffia broke a four-minute-long scoring drought for the Vikes, bringing the score to 78-67 in favour of UBC with 3:10 to go.
- A 10-0 run for the Vikes forced a UBC timeout with 1:35 remaining and the score 78-74 for UBC.
- Being fouled with 4.3 seconds to go, Maffia stepped up to line and tied the game, knocking down both free throws to make it an 81-81 game and send it to overtime.
- Coming down to the final second, Dominick Oliveri lobbed an offensive rebound for a put-back and sealed the win for the Vikes, 94-92.
WORTH NOTING
- Maffia's 42 points are the most in a Canada West game this season.
- Oliveri led the Vikes on the boards with 11 rebounds, adding a team-high four assists in addition to five points.
- Robinson and Ralph added double-digit scoring performances with 16 and 11 points, respectively.
- The Vikes end the Canada West regular season with a record of 17-3, while UBC finishes at 13-7 overall.
UP NEXT
Finishing fifth in the conference standings, the 'Birds head to Edmonton next weekend for a Canada West play-in matchup with the 12th place Mount Royal Cougars on Friday, Feburary 17 at 1:00 p.m. PT. The winner of that game will advance to Saturday's quarter-final game against the host Alberta Golden Bears. Both games will be streamed live on
Canada West TV.