VANCOUVER – It wasn't always pretty, but the T-Birds did enough to survive and advance against a veteran Manitoba side. Less than 24 hours after they defeated Brandon in the play-in round, the Bisons brought plenty of fight but were unable to hit enough shots to pull off another win in the quarterfinal round.
 
"First off, congrats to Manitoba on a great season," said UBC head coach Phil Jalalpoor. "They have a great group that went through their five years and I think did an amazing job for the brand of U SPORTS basketball – guys who are local and who are fun to watch…it was really difficult, but that's playoff basketball and we stuck together and we figured it out in the end."
 
The game itself was highly physical, with a total of 51 fouls called between the two teams and four players fouling out. Both teams struggled to hit from the outside, making just five three-pointers each, and in the end a big difference was the free throw efficiency – 22-28 for UBC and just 12-24 from Manitoba.


 
Holt Tomie led the way with 18 points and four assists for the 'Birds, including a perfect 11-11 from the charity stripe. Otherwise, the rest of UBC's offensive production was fairly spread out, with a number of players contributing well.
 
"We need big performances from certain guys, but we believe in everyone," remarked Jalalpoor. "If they focus more on one guy then the next guy has to step up and deliver."
 
Nylan Roberts tallied 13 points and four rebounds while Gus Goerzen had 10 points and six boards. Daren Watts scored a game-high 22 points to go with seven rebounds, while Mason Kraus had 13 points, five rebounds and four assists.


 
The Bisons started strong with the first four points of the game, but the T-Birds hit back with a run of their own, a Goerzen putback off a missed free throw making it 8-4 for the home team.
 
Cieran O'Hara batted a missed Watts three into the basket as the buzzer sounded, but the refs ruled that it was a second too late and the quarter ended with a score of 18-15 in favour of UBC.
 
An Edouard Gauthier dunk off a sweet dish from Raj Dhadda early in the second stretched the lead out to nine, before Roberts hit the first three-pointer of the game on the next trip down the floor to continue the UBC momentum.


 
The lead grew to as much as 32-17 before the Bisons received a much-needed bucket on the inside from Kraus. That helped spark a 9-0 run that cut the deficit to just six points.
 
The Bisons' defence caused plenty of issues as the half wore down, with the Thunderbirds only regaining a double-digit advantage at the break due to Zeru Abera hitting a deep, buzzer-beating three-pointer to the delight of the home crowd.
 
Consecutive triples from Dhadda pushed the UBC lead out to 15 midway through the third, but the Bisons kept battling. Watts scored the final seven points of the frame for his team, including a pair of acrobatic finishes inside, but they entered the fourth still trailing 59-49.


 
After a couple of UBC buckets to start the fourth, the Bisons made a determined push with an 13-3 run that made it a two-possession lead following a finish inside from Ramogi Nyagudi.
 
Up by just four points with less than two minutes to play, Goerzen scored a crucial layup off a nice inbounds play. From there, the T-Birds got enough stops and hit enough of their free throws to close out the victory.
 
The 'Birds now must wait and see where they will play their Canada West Semifinal, as they're set to face either Winnipeg or Calgary who do battle in their own quarterfinal matchup on Saturday afternoon.