WINNIPEG – Despite trailing for the majority of the game, the Thunderbirds never quit, and they were rewarded with a win to remember in Winnipeg.
Defeating the Wesmen in the postseason for the second year in a row, the blue and gold will be back in the Canada West Final and looking to improve on their silver medal finish from last March. They've also punched their ticket to the 2026 U SPORTS Final 8 in Calgary, making it back-to-back seasons of making it to the national championship tournament.
Raj Dhadda had the biggest performance of his young career in this weekend's semifinal, leading the 'Birds in scoring with 17 points along with seven rebounds off the bench, both of those numbers career-highs.
Nikola Guzina stuffed the stat sheet with 13 points, 13 rebounds (tying his career-high), four assists, two steals and two blocks, while three other Thunderbirds scored in double figures.
Gus Goerzen and
Holt Tomie each tallied 14, while
Edouard Gauthier scored 10.
Alberto Gordo had a big-time double-double of his own with 21 points and 12 rebounds for the Wesmen, while Kato Jaro poured in 19 points, eight rebounds and six assists, although he did shoot just 7-24 from the field.
"It took everything we had, so credit to Winnipeg they're a really good veteran squad," UBC head coach Phil Jalalalpoor said. "I'm really proud of our guys, we kind of chipped away and kept believing."
After a bright start from UBC in the first couple minutes, Winnipeg scored 10 points in a row to take the early lead. A couple of nice driving finishes from Guzina and a transition triple from Goerzen helped cut into the deficit, and the T-Birds trailed just 23-21 at the end of the first.
The second quarter was a bit tougher sledding, with the 'Birds going through a scoring drought after
Zeru Abera tied the game with a layup to begin the frame. The Wesmen proceeded to rip off eight unanswered points to regain control, with the T-Birds again having to play from behind.
The home team went up by as many as 16 at one point, before the Thunderbirds slowly started to claw their way back into proceedings. They entered halftime down by nine, after Tomie was fouled on a last-second shot attempt and hit both of his free throw attempts.
A Gauthier triple and a Guzina finish inside made it a one-point game about four minutes into the third, but the Wesmen again counter-punched and remained just a little bit ahead of the visitors.
At the same time, however, Winnipeg could never truly pull away and the 'Birds remained within striking distance throughout the second half.
A burst late in the fourth from the Wesmen seemed like they might be able to finally land that killing blow, with a Jaro three-pointer putting his team up by seven with just a couple minutes left on the clock.
But again, the Thunderbirds refused to give in. Tomie hit a contested triple from the top of the arc with just over a minute left to cut the deficit to three, and the Wesmen proceeded to turn the ball over on the other end. Going for the tie, Dhadda drilled a clutch triple of his own with just 46 seconds remaining to suck some of the life out of the building.
With neither team able to score on their final possession, the game headed to overtime. Dhadda hit his fifth three-pointer of the night to begin the extra frame, giving UBC their first lead since the opening three minutes of the first quarter.
The T-Birds' young talent was on full display in the overtime period, with the first-year Dhadda and second-year
Nylan Roberts combining to score all 12 of UBC's points in OT. Roberts scored the last seven himself, after he had just two points in the entirety of the first four quarters.
That included a contested floater as the shot clock expired with less than five seconds to play, which put his team up 92-89. While Jaro was able to get up a three-point attempt of his own as time expired, it was off the mark and the Thunderbirds were able to celebrate as victors.
"They made some big plays at big times, and we had opportunities to close some possessions that we didn't and they capitalized, so give them all the credit," Wesmen head coach Mike Raimbault said. "I think if you score 89 points it's gotta be enough to win a playoff game. Obviously, we'd like to have a couple more shots or make a couple more plays … but, really, if you look and you're on your home floor and you score 89 you've gotta find a way to win that game."
Following a pair of playoff wins over Prairie squads, the T-Birds' opponents for the Canada West Final are very familiar ones – the Victoria Vikes. The archrivals will do battle for the fourth time this season next Friday, February 27, on the UVic campus, with UBC aiming to win their first conference banner since the 2019-20 season.
