CALGARY — The U SPORTS Final 8 men’s basketball national championships kicked off Friday afternoon, with the TMU Bold defeating the UBC Thunderbirds in the tournament opener.
The Bold will face the Carleton Ravens, who defeated the Laval Rouge et Or in the second of four quarterfinal games. The squads met just last week in the OUA finals, where TMU came out on top.
In the evening quarterfinals, the Victoria Vikes defeated the Calgary Dinos, and the Bishop’s Gaiters beat the Acadia Axemen.
Quarterfinal 1: TMU Bold 97, UBC Thunderbirds 91
TMU scored 34 points in the final quarter to advance to the semifinals, where they will face Carleton in an OUA final rematch.
“I think we just remembered who we were as a team,” TMU’s Aaron Rhooms said. “We got back to playing our branded basketball.”
UBC blasted out with 28 points in the first quarter with their starting five fueling the offense throughout.
“It’s a hard loss,” UBC’s Raj Dhadda said. “We’re playing for our seniors, we we’re here last year. Seeing the guys lose last year made me want it even more, and now being in that same situation where we lose in that first round, it’s heartbreaking but we just have to build from here.”
TMU was held to 15 points in the opening quarter, largely carried by Aaron Rhooms, who scored eight points.
The “first half was pretty rough,” Rhooms said. “But I think we just collectively locked in in the second half and realized, ‘We’re a team too,’ so it showed.”
On Wednesday, Rhooms was named U SPORTS men’s basketball player of the year, the first player in program history to do so. He ended Friday’s quarterfinal with a team-leading 24 points.
“I was just trying to find my spots,” Rhooms said. “I’m grateful that my teammates were able to find me where I can excel, and I was just able to capitalize when they did find me. So shout out to them.”
The Thunderbirds continued strong physical play throughout the second quarter, up 55-37 at the half.
But TMU, the second seed in the tournament, weren’t going away without a fight. After some back-and-forth action to start the third quarter, a 12-point run gave the OUA champs their first lead of the afternoon, 59-58 with three minutes left in the quarter.
“It’s about maintaining composure in the end,” Rhooms said. “We played a lot of games where we had to fight tooth and nail to pull out a dub and we’re familiar with the situation.”
TMU outscored UBC 26-11 in the third, yet UBC managed to maintain a 66-63 lead heading into the final quarter.
With just under five minutes remaining, the teams found themselves tied at 80-80.
TMU’s Kevin Toth, who had scored 0 points through the first three quarters, exploded for 21 points in the fourth, leading the Bold’s comeback charge.
“Kevin’s great,” Rhooms said. “Any of our guys can pop off at any moment, it was him today, it might be someone else tomorrow, maybe someone else on Sunday. It just speaks to the depth of our team.”
A three-pointer by Toth with 44 seconds in the game left put TMU up 93-88, giving them the momentum down the stretch as they advanced to the semifinals where they will play the Carleton Ravens
The Bold defeated the Ravens 66-56 in the OUA Championship final last Saturday — the first time they won the Wilson Cup since earning back-to-back provincial titles in 2016-2017.
They will look to repeat their OUA final performance tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. EST.
Quarterfinal 2: Carleton Ravens 85, Laval Rouge et Or 69
Quarterfinal 3: Victoria Vikes 100, Calgary Dinos 86
The Vikes are coming off of a Canada West conference championship on Friday over the UBC Thunderbirds – who also advanced to the semifinals – in a 89-74 victory. It’s the third time in the past four years that UVic has been named the national tournament’s top seed as they seek their ninth title in program history.
The Vikes and Dinos share a recent history on the national stage, having met in last year’s U SPORTS Championship gold medal game. In that matchup, the Vikes dominated, defeating the Dinos 82–53 to claim the national title.
Calgary, the eighth seed in the tournament, couldn’t handle the Vikes’ suffocating offense once again this year. They hung in during the first quarter but dropped off in the second and were unable to recover.
“For us to put up 86 points on the team that’s number one in the country, if we had just defended, we might have had a shot at it,” Calgary coach Dan Vanhooren said. “So our young group, I’m really proud of. It’s a tough environment for them, the stands are full, it’s a different environment.”
The 2026 tournament marks the fourth time in program history the Dinos have hosted the men’s basketball nationals since 1984.
“It’s great,” Vanhooren said of hosting. “It’s a great experience for the guys, we’ve been sold out before probably four or five times in my time, for sure. So it’s nice to see people here to see the quality of what’s actually in U SPORTS.”
Six players for the Vikes broke double digits in points with offense showing throughout the lineup. Geoffrey James led with 17 with Shadynn Smid not far off with 16.
“Obviously we’ve been here before,” Smid said of last year’s finals. “Most of us were on that team as well and we knew how to prepare. We got in the gym, got shots up and I think that’s very important.”
The Dinos opened the scoring in the first quarter with a layup by Hayden Franson, but it would be their only lead of the game as the Vikes settled in to play.
UVic held a 26-20 lead at the end of the opening quarter.
The second quarter was when the Vikes really took control. A 12-point run to start the quarter gave the reigning champs stifling momentum, and they held Calgary to just 13 points while scoring 31 themselves.
The teams entered the second half with Victoria up 57–33.
Both squads came out firing in the third quarter, trading baskets in a high-scoring, back-and-forth period that saw each team score 29 points.
“I think we were more resilient than in the second quarter,” Vanhooren said. “We just didn’t guard anybody. And honestly for the first three quarters, I thought we were pretty bad, defensively. And that really hurt us.”
Although it was Calgary’s best quarter, it wasn’t enough to overcome UVic’s dominance, as the Vikes held a 22-point lead, 86-64, heading into the final quarter.
The teams remained even in the fourth, but Victoria’s dominant second quarter proved decisive.
“At the end, we know we got to prepare, prepare for tomorrow and the next game,” Smith said of Calgary’s comeback attempt. “Stuff like that can’t happen but we’ll take out the grain of salt and we’ll get better.”
The Vikes became the first team to crack the 100-point mark in the tournament and will look to continue their high-scoring ways against the Bishop’s Gaiters at 9:00 p.m. EST tomorrow.
Calgary will play Acadia at 4:00 p.m. EST in the consolation semifinal.
Quarterfinal 4: Bishops Gaiters 98, Acadia Axemen 85
The Axemen, the lone team from the AUS league, qualified after making their first AUS championship game since 2018, winning the title for the first time since 2012, defeating the UPEI Panthers 84-74.
But their luck ran out as the Gaiters got off to a strong start with a five-point run to open the game, showcasing solid defensive intensity, and going on to secure the victory off a 21-point run in the fourth quarter.
“Last year, when we were in the spot, we lost, so (it) was nice to turn things around and to get away,” Gaiters lead scorer Charles Robert said. “All year we’ve been preparing for this moment exactly so when things got hard, we knew what to do.”
By the middle of the quarter, they had held the Axemen to just four points, though Acadia began to claw back toward the end of the period.
Still, Bishop’s offense remained hot, and the Gaiters finished the opening quarter up 27-20.
The momentum carried into the second quarter for the Gaiters, who were able to put up 31 points to the Axemen’s 23 – heading into halftime up 58-43.
Acadia started off the third quarter hot, with an eight point run to start the frame to bring them within 7.
Acadia was the dominant team in the third quarter with 29 points total but faltered on the offensive glass, missing several opportunities to close the gap on Bishop’s lead.
On the other hand, offensive rebounding proved to be a major strength for the Gaiters — the one glaringly different stat that helped them maintain their lead heading into the fourth quarter up 81-72.
From there it was all Gaiters, opening the final quarter with a 21 point run in which the Axemen were not able to recover from.
The Gaiters will now have an even tougher opponent to face in the tournament best Victoria Vikes in the semi finals. Tip off is 9:00 p.m. EST.
“I think we let them hit too many threes,” Robert said. “I think Victoria is another really good shooting team so we’re gonna have to lock into that.”
The Axemen will face the hosts, the Calgary Dinos, at 4:00 p.m. EST in the consolation semifinals.
Featured image by Zoe Pierce/the Charlatan
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