USports Yearbook: UBC Thunderbirds vs UFV Cascades, 1/4/20
The USports Yearbook is an on-going series looking back at some of the best basketball games played by Canadian college teams in the 2019-20. This edition looks back at one of the most unpredictable games of the season, which took place on January 4th 2020.
The University of Fraser Valley hosted one of their closest neighbours, as the UFV Cascades would face the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in two games over the course of a single weekend.
UBC had run away with the first of these two match-ups, winning 80-63, but the following day's fixture would turn out to be nothing like the first.
Zack Moore gave UBC a quick four-point lead. He had the first six points of the game for the Thunderbirds, before Kenan Hadzovic hit a three-pointer to bring the gap to one point, only for UBC's Grant Shepherd put their lead back to four.
For the remainder of the first quarter UFV's Vick Toor and UBC's Taylor Browne put up the most points for their respective teams, the latter's three-point shooting gifting the Thunderbirds an eleven-point lead. That went down to eight after a three from Toor seconds from time.
Shepherd and Zack Moore's start to the second quarter restored UBC's double-digit lead, which reached thirteen. Parm Bains and Jaskarn Bajwa both responded with six points in a row for the Cascades, getting them to within two points of their opponents. After a jump shot from Moore, Toor closed the gap to one point and Bains gave UFV their first lead of the game.
In the last minute of the half, Manroop Clair and Jadon Cohee made sure the Thunderbirds would leave the court ahead, by 42 points to 39.
Out of the blocks in the third quarter, Daniel Adediran had seven successive points for UFV, he was followed by Bajwa who hit a three to put them in the lead. With Clair putting up continuous points, UBC twice got to within one point of the Cascades until he and Cohee put them back in front in the last seconds of the third.
A last-second jump shot from Adedrian tied the scores, setting up a tense final ten minutes to decide the winner of this increasingly unpredictable match-up.
Toor, Bains and Adedrian put UBC on the back foot at the start of the fourth quarter, lengthening the gap by as many as four points while Clair on the inside and Moore from outside the arc kept the pressure on their opponents. Moore's three-point shooting making it a one-point game on a number of occasions.
Ahead of the last minute Matt Cooley put UFV up by three and after a number of struggles, Jadon Cohee of UBC finally got a shot to drop, the gap now stood at one. Clair prevented a fast-break from Toor, but sent him to the line and he added another crucial point to the Cascades' total at the a critical stage of the game.
With nine seconds left Sukhjot Bains was sent to the line by Manroop Clair, he made it 84-82. In the remaining time UBC took control of possession and both Clair and Zack Moore both had shots at basket, but both came up short. At the final buzzer everyone could finally breathe, the UFV Cascades more easily, as they had come away from this heated encounter with the win.
Manroop Clair was UBC's leading scorer with 17 points in the loss, while Jadon Cohee had 15 of his own. For UFV, Daneil Adediran finished with a double-double of 18 points and 13 rebounds, while Toor walked way the top scorer with 19 in the contest.
The Thunderbirds were able to bounce back from this loss in a big way - winning six of their last seven games of the regular season, which saw them finish third in Canada West, three places above UFV. They also reached the Canada West championship, beating the Alberta Golden Bears 72 points to 70.
