For the first time in over a decade, the UBC Thunderbirds play host to the Canada West Final, in a perfect prelude to the INDOCHINO U SPORTS Final 8 taking place right here in Vancouver next week. The battle for conference gold happens inside War Memorial Gym at 7:30 p.m. (PT) on Friday, March 7th.

This is not the first time in recent memory that the T-Birds have faced the Calgary Dinos with a banner on the line. Back in 2019, the reigning conference-champion Dinos hosted the 'Birds in the Canada West Final, winning 90-75 to earn their first-ever repeat. The next season, the Thunderbirds walked into Edmonton and defeated the Alberta Golden Bears to win their 11th all-time Canada West title.

Now, the two storied programs face off again, after making it through some tough competition the first two weeks of the Canada West playoffs.



UBC started their postseason run at home against the Winnipeg Wesmen, in a game that went down to the wire before the T-Birds pulled out a 74-72 win. The blue and gold then travelled to the city of Winnipeg itself to play the Manitoba Bisons. There, the 'Birds found themselves down by two with less than seven minutes to play before reeling off a 14-0 run that carried them to an eventual 87-79 victory.

"We have been involved in a lot of close games this year and we feel that these have provided very good lessons for us," said Thunderbirds head coach Kevin Hanson. "Both playoff games were intense with lots of ties and lead changes...we have been able to weather storms and not let things bother us on the court. This is a very positive attribute to have at this time of the year."

The Dinos, meanwhile, have exclusively played BC schools, beginning with a 98-84 win over the Trinity Western Spartans at home where they fell behind early but pulled away with a dominant fourth quarter. Then, Calgary took down the previously undefeated Victoria Vikes 77-68, shutting them down offensively for much of the night and ruining UVic's bid for a four-peat.

Calgary's backcourt duo of Nate Petrone and Noah Wharton have been electric offensively through their first two playoff games, combining for over half of their team's points. Petrone led Canada West in scoring in the regular season at 24.2 points per game, while shooting 56.8% from the field (fourth-best in the conference), 43.1% from deep and 89.1% from the free throw line. In the postseason he's recorded a combined 47 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists through the Dinos' two victories, while playing 79:23 out of a possible 80 minutes.
 

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On the other side of the court, Fareed Shittu is having just as impressive of a beginning to his final playoff run. The dynamic forward followed up his career-best 28 points and 14 rebounds against the Wesmen with 20 points, 14 boards, two steals and two blocks on the road at Manitoba. Nikola Guzina has also made a big impact in the first two postseason games, averaging 15.5 points and 6.5 rebounds in just 23.5 minutes.

The T-Birds won the rebounding battle against both the Wesmen and Bisons, and held those two opponents – both nationally-ranked teams – to just 36% shooting from the field and 54 points in the paint combined. That's compared to 46% shooting and a total of 88 points in the paint for UBC.

That defensive intensity will be needed against the Dinos, who were the highest-scoring team in the Canada West regular season (91.7 points per game), while shooting 50.1% from the field (first), 36.6% from three-point range (second) and 76% from the free throw line (first). The Thunderbirds were the third-highest scoring team in the regular season (87.0 points per game), demonstrating the level of talent that will be out on the court on Friday.



The 'Birds and Dinos faced off twice in the regular season back in November. They split that weekend series at War Memorial Gym, with the Dinos taking the first game 96-89 and the T-Birds winning the second 93-89. UBC has a 3-2 record against Calgary since 2020, with all but one of those games decided by seven points or fewer.

"Calgary is a fast paced, high energy team," added Hanson. "They are coming off a big win and will be coming in to our gym with a lot of confidence. Both games that we played earlier in the year were high scoring, entertaining games. We have had a long history in playoff games and this game will be another great battle."

Friday's gold medal matchup is the first time that War Memorial Gym has hosted the Canada West Final since 2013, when the Thunderbirds defeated UVic on home court. Click here for tickets for this massive game.