VICTORIA, B.C. – For the fourth time this season, the U SPORTS No.5-ranked UBC Thunderbirds (15-5, 2-0) will take on the defending national champion and No.2-ranked Victoria Vikes (17-3, 2-0), with the stakes higher than ever. The two heated rivals will be battling for the Canada West Championship on Friday night at CARSA Performance Gym, with tip-off set for 7:00 p.m. (PT).
The T-Birds are back in the Canada West Gold Medal Game for a second straight year, looking to take home their first conference title since 2020, and the 21
st in program history. The Vikes have won Canada West three of the last four seasons, sporting 18 titles overall.
"This is obviously a huge game, but we're very methodical in our approach week by week," said UBC interim head coach
Phil Jalalpoor, in the wake of his first two playoff wins as bench boss. "We have the same process of preparing, getting better, and then playing, then doing it all over again.
"So, I think we should be in position to have full focus on Friday. Then try to manage the rest of the emotions, however it goes."
The playoffs have certainly been an emotional whirlwind for T-Birds fans, as it's been a challenging but incredibly exciting road to the championship game. With multiple starters hurt, UBC managed to pull out a chaotic win over a veteran-laden Manitoba team on home floor in their quarter-final before travelling to Winnipeg to upset the top-seed Wesmen with a remarkable comeback, overtime victory.
"It shows that even if we're down, if we stick together we have a chance," remarked Jalalpoor. "But at the same time, we've got to put ourselves in a better position and stick with what we do.
"I'm very proud of the guys, all of the credit to them, they're the ones pulling out the wins. It's kind of cool to see because we're far from perfect, but we're a team that fights for the name on the front, does whatever it takes, and bands together when things get tough. In the end, that's what playoffs often come down to, whether you can fight and stick together."
The Vikes have been the team to beat in Canada West since the COVID-cancelled season. Not only have they won three of four conference championships in that time, as well as last year's national title, but they also put together a 33-game regular season win streak over three campaigns, which the T-Birds snapped earlier season.
That signature victory also broke a 10-game winning streak for Victoria in the head-to-head rivalry, which UBC followed up with a key series split on Vancouver Island to end the season, spoiling the Vikes' bid for the top seed and securing home court advantage in the first round for themselves in the process. That win at CARSA marked the first time anyone had beaten the Vikes twice in the regular season since the 'Birds last did it in 2018-19 and gives the blue and gold the chance to defeat their archrivals three times in the same school year for the first time since 2008-09.
"There's a reason why they've been ranked as the number one team in the country for so much of the season," commented Jalalpoor.
"They have areas that we can attack though, and we've done a pretty good job doing that already in both wins against them. But at the same time, they never go away, those wins took everything out of us. It's going to be difficult to play there again, I expect it will be sold out again, doing it for a third time on their floor will not be easy. We have a plan and we'll hope for the best."
Both teams have already qualified for the U SPORTS Final 8 in Calgary March 5-8, however the conference championship game will greatly impact seeding and the difficulty of the path to the national title game.
UBC will be vying for its first men's basketball national championship since 1972.
