The UBC Thunderbirds bested the Western Mustangs 99-82 to win the men’s bronze in the 2020 U Sports Basketball championships on March 8.
UBC’s senior players Manroop Clair and Jadon Cohee played their final game for UBC.
“I’m honoured to have the privilege to have coached them. I’m very excited they chose UBC to be the program of choice when they came back home to Vancouver,” said head coach Kevin Hanson.
“I know they’re going to be wonderful alumni for us and I’m very proud they played for us and I was proud to be their coach,” said UBC head coach Kevin Hanson.
The first half was a close matchup as each team traded leads multiple times.
UBC dominated the paint, out-rebounding Western 53-29, but continued their trend of turning over the ball. After having 19 turnovers in the semifinals against Dalhousie, they gave up 17 against Western.
The story of the game for Western’s offence was lack of shooting efficiency. They went 29-for-77 from the field. Western also missed nearly half of their free throw attempts, going 15-for-29.
Omar Shiddo was awarded player of the game for Western. He finished with 29 points and drew numerous fouls all game long, going 10-for-13 in free throw attempts.
Shiddo’s friends and family made the trip to watch him and were not disappointed.
“Our whole family came out. We’re proud of Omar. He had an amazing season, he showed great leadership,” said Shiddo’s older brother Ahmed. “I think he’s the best player in the country. He helped his team get somewhere the country didn’t believe they could.”
For the second straight game, Western’s Eriq Jenkins went down with a leg injury. Jenkins came back for the second half, battling hard until he fouled out with 5:40 left in the fourth.
The Thunderbirds ran away with the game in the third quarter outscoring the Mustangs 34-18 and brought the score to 75-63 in their favour. Shiddo and Western’s bench were both issued technical fouls during this stretch.
Clair and Cohee’s play from the three point line was key during this run. Clair finished with 39 points, including going six-for-12 from the three point line and Cohee finished with 20 points and a team high six assists.
“Honestly to me it’s another game. I just go out there and play basketball, that what I’ve been doing since I was a little kid,” said Clair. “I probably will remember it, but still like I said I’d rather be in the finals.”
“As his coach I will tell you that he will talk about this game for the rest of his life,” said Hanson.
“If we can keep kids like this in Canada, and they keep coming back, I think the trend of the level of basketball is going to skyrocket,” said Hanson.
Feature image by Spencer Colby
