VICTORIA - The University of Victoria dropped their second straight game to the No. 2 nationally ranked UBC Thunderbirds, falling 86-74 on Saturday night in front of a full house at McKinnon Gymnasium.
BOX SCORE
With the loss, the Vikes fall to 15-9 and finish fifth in the Canada West standings. They will face the Alberta Golden Bears (16-8) in the best-of-three Canada West quarter-final series beginning Thursday in Edmonton (6 p.m. PST). The Bears were forced to bump the start-date of the series back to Thursday as they are also hosting women's basketball and men's and women's volleyball playoffs the same weekend.
Game 2 goes Friday afternoon and Game 3, if necessary, Saturday afternoon (both games 2 p.m. PST).
The Vikes were 9-3 on the road in the regular season and split the season series with the Bears.
On Saturday, the Vikes trailed 41-35 at the half but allowed 25 third-quarter UBC points. The size and depth of the Thunderbirds outmatched the Vikes, with UBC's bench outscoring UVic's 31-20.
Nathan Yu led the Thunderbirds with 17 points while Doug Plumb added 16. Mike Berg was terrific in the post for UVic, scoring a game-high 20 points and adding six rebounds.
Ryan MacKinnon continued his strong play with 18 points and five rebounds.
UVic honoured four graduating seniors - #
Jeff Cullen#, #
Jeff Spoor#, #
Wendell Thomas# and #
Marco Dolcetti# – in a pre-game ceremony to thank the foursome for their contributions to the program.
Scoring By Quarter
UBC 20 21 25 20 - 85
UVic 14 21 14 25 - 74
Up Next
Canada West Quater-Finals (Best-of-Three Series)
Feb 24 - 6 PST (7 p.m. Local)
Feb. 25 - 2 PST (3 p.m. Local)
Feb. 26 - 2 PST (3 p.m. Local) (if necessary)
