CALGARY – For the third straight year, the Calgary Dinos head to the Canada West men’s basketball Final Four, in search of their second consecutive appearance at the CIS Final 8 at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa.
The Dinos join Simon Fraser, Saskatchewan, and host UBC at War Memorial Gym in Vancouver, where the Dinos captured the Canada West title last season. The top two finishers this time around will advance to the Final 8, putting all the focus on Friday night’s semi-final match-ups. UBC will take on Saskatchewan, while Calgary will do battle with Simon Fraser.
The Clan and the Dinos met just once on the season, an 86-82 Simon Fraser victory Nov. 28 on Burnaby Mountain. Calgary held a lead of as many as eight points in the fourth quarter of that contest, which they played without the services of Ross Bekkering, before the Clan’s outside shooting brought them back to edge the Dinos out at the end.
Simon Fraser advanced to the semi-final by virtue of their three-game series win over Regina in the quarterfinals last weekend, coming back after dropping the first game at home. Calgary, meanwhile, got an ugly win Friday before pulling things together on Saturday to sweep Lethbridge in two straight in the Jack Simpson Gym.
Calgary has shown fits of brilliance on the season but has also looked rather ordinary at times, giving up big leads thanks to defensive lapses and poor shot selection at inopportune times. The Dinos had a 15-point halftime lead over Lethbridge in their series opener last Friday but allowed the Horns back into it and took just a two-point advantage into the fourth quarter. Saturday Calgary gave up another third quarter run, although the outcome was really never in doubt.
Consistency, then, will be the key for the Dinos as they take on the Clan, with the winner advancing to the CIS championship March 19-21 in Ottawa. Third-year wing man
Tyler Fidler is the x-factor for Calgary – when he is on his game he causes all kinds of defensive issues for the opposition, and his 13.4 points per game have been huge for the sixth-ranked Dinos.
The tandem of
Robbie Sihota and
Ross Bekkering continues to surge as their CIS careers wrap up, and they would like nothing more than a return trip to Ottawa after leaving with a sour taste in 2009. The two were virtually dead-even in scoring on the season, with Sihota averaging 18.7 points per game against Bekkering’s 18.6.
It will be the last meaningful meeting between Calgary and Simon Fraser, with the Clan set to join the NCAA’s Division II next season. Tip-off goes at 6 p.m. MT on Friday night, with UBC taking on Saskatchewan immediately following. The two winners will play for the conference title on Saturday.
Here’s a look at the other three teams at the Final Four:
No. 1 UBC Thunderbirds
First place in Pacific Division and Canada West (17-1)
Beat Alberta 2-0 in CW Quarterfinals (92-62, 103-68)
On paper, it looks like the T-Birds could be in for a shootout in their semi-final game with Saskatchewan, as the match-up features the top two offences in Canada West. However, stifling defence has been the calling card of the nation's top-ranked squad this year. The T-Birds allow just 68.1 points-per-game, more than three points better than any other team in the conference. They only gave up an average of 65 points in their playoff series against Alberta, even with bench players seeing significant court-time, so don't expect any easy looks for the Huskies come Friday.
Josh Whyte has had an All-Star calibre season in his second campaign with the blue and gold. He leads the team in points (18.1), assists (4.3), steals (2.4), minutes played (28.8), and is third in rebounding (4.8). He runs one of the league's most balanced attacks from the point guard position. Blain LaBranche is the only other UBC player who averages double-digits in scoring (14.9), but eight T-Birds average more than 6.5 points-per-game.
Kamar Burke is the leading rebounder, averaging 7.1 per game, but the big man has also shown a soft touch on the offensive end. He is third on the team in assists, behind only Whyte and fellow point guard Alex Murphy, and Burke is coming off a five-assist performance last week in game two of the Alberta series.
No. 9 Simon Fraser Clan
Second place in Pacific and Canada West (14-4)
Beat Regina 2-1 in CW Quarterfinals (71-77, 82-75, 96-77)
After losing game one of their playoff series with Regina, the Clan came back with decisive victories in games two and three. The Clan are the only Final Four team with a playoff loss, but they are also the only team to beat UBC this year, as they broke up the T-Birds' bid for a perfect season with an 82-79 win in late January.
They don't stand out in any particular statistical category other than three-point shooting, where they lead the conference with .388 efficiency on the year. The Clan ranks sixth both in average points scored and average points against, but consistency allowed them to cement their place as one of the top squads in the conference. They have allowed 80 points or more only four times all season, during four consecutive games early in the year. Since then, they have held opponents under 80 every night, and have surrendered between 73 and 77 points in each of the last seven games.
Kevin Shaw and Chas Kok are their long-distance threats. Shaw and Kok are second and third in team scoring with 13.2 and 12.8 points-per-game respectively, and both are shooting well above .400 from three-point range. Matt Kuzminski leads the team with 14.2 points-per-game, and is second in rebounding with 5.3 boards.
No. 10 Saskatchewan Huskies
Second place in Prairie and fourth in Canada West (14-6)
Beat UFV 2-0 in CW Quarterfinals (96-85, 99-90)
The tenth-ranked Huskies will be clear underdogs this weekend against the top-ranked T-Birds, but this year they have shown that they can compete with any team in the conference. Saskatchewan pushed UBC to the limit in their fourth game of the year, but Showron Glover's 34-point performance wasn't enough, as the 'Birds prevailed 90-83 back in November.
Glover won the Canada West scoring race by a mile, finishing at 28.1 points-per-game, with the second-highest mark at only 21.1. He had a huge series against Fraser Valley last week, scoring 25 points in game one and 41 in game two, while racking up 12 assists, 11 steals and nine rebounds over the two games.
Michael Linklater shares the backcourt with Glover and brings solid secondary scoring, averaging more than 16 points-per-game. Inside, Troy Gottselig cleans up the glass for Saskatchewan. He averages 8.6 rebounds-per-game, and is also third in team scoring with 13.5 points-per-game.
CANADA WEST FINAL FOUR SCHEDULE
All games at War Memorial Gym, UBC campus; all times MT
Friday, March 5
#7 Calgary vs #9 Simon Fraser, 6:00 p.m.
#10 Saskatchewan vs #1 UBC, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 6
Loser semi-final 1 vs loser semi-final 2, 6:00 p.m.
Winner semi-final 1 vs winner semi-final 2, 8:00 p.m.
-UC-