Feb. 28, 2025 - After the opening two rounds of the Canada West men’s basketball playoffs, just four teams remain in the quest for the Stan Broder Trophy.
Semifinal action will see the Victoria Vikes battle the Calgary Dinos on Friday, while the Manitoba Bisons tangle with the UBC Thunderbirds on Saturday.
This is a quartet of the highest calibre, certainly one of the best in recent Canada West history. Consider that all four teams appear within the first seven spots in the latest U Sports Top 10 national rankings. Or that the four teams have combined for just 13 losses this season – and seven of them came against each other.
The winners of each semifinal will meet next week in the championship game.
Catch all the action in person or on Canada West TV - Presented by BioSteel.
Saturday, March 1, 7 p.m. CST at Investors Group Athletic Centre in Winnipeg, Man.
Two teams that stared elimination in the face and lived to tell about it will meet in what promises to be a tremendous semi-final at the University of Manitoba’s Fort Garry campus.
In the quarterfinals last Saturday, the host Bisons trailed Thompson Rivers late in the fourth quarter, before ending the game on a 14-6 run to eek out a 70-67 win. Meanwhile, in Vancouver, UBC fell behind Winnipeg by seven early, and even after taking the lead, could never quite pull away from the Wesmen, eventually holding on for a 74-72 victory.
It’s fitting that both went through similar experiences in the quarterfinals, because Manitoba and UBC were neck-and-neck in the standings all season. They even had identical records over the last seven games, each losing twice before reeling off five straight wins to close out their respective schedules.
When the dust settled, Manitoba finished just ahead of the T-Birds, giving the Bisons home court advantage for this game, but will that be a factor? Ironically, during the regular season, Manitoba and UBC both had higher winning percentages on the road than at home.
Making this game even harder to predict is the fact that the Bisons and T-Birds haven’t played each other since the 2023-24 season, when UBC won a pair of close games in Vancouver. It’s also a match-up of strength vs. strength: UBC was the third highest-scoring team in Canada West in 2024-25, averaging 87 points per game, while Manitoba ranked second in fewest points against, allowing just 70 per game.
Players to watch include UBC’s Fareed Shittu, who had a monster performance against Winnipeg, scoring 28 points and grabbing 14 rebounds, and Manitoba guard Mason Kraus, the sixth-leading scorer in Canada West this season at 18.4 points per game.
Manitoba is seeking its first ever Canada West title, while UBC is the most recent team besides Victoria to capture the conference championship, in 2019-20.
Source: https://canada-west.prezly.com/mbb-semifinal-preview-rq3dki