By Howard Tsumura
VarsityLetters.ca
VICTORIA — In ancient mythology, the gods made news by stealing fire from each other.
On Friday, the UBC Thunderbirds made some fourth-quarter headlines of their own by instead stealing basketballs and ultimately the game’s momentum, keeping hopes alive of an 11th-hour fastbreak to the Canada West’s Pacific Division title.
Trailing by as many as 12 points in the second half, and by nine with 1:16 remaining in the third quarter, No. 6-nationally-ranked UBC (15-4) seemed to undergo a complete about-face in he fourth quarter, eventually topping the No. 1-ranked Victoria Vikes (16-3) by an 85-76 count, setting the stage for a winner-take-all battle royal Saturday night (7 p.m.) in the provincial capital.
The victory was the second straight this season over a Victoria team holding the No. 1 ranking. Back on November. 7 at War Memorial Gym, UBC beat Victoria 93-87.
The victory capped a win-win night for UBC as the Thunderbirds’ No. 8-ranked women’s team (15-4) topped the host Vikes (9-10) by a 67-53 score, clinching not only the Pacific Division title, but the No. 1 seed through the entirety of the upcoming Canada West playoffs.
Senior Olivia Weekes went 12-of-13 from the French throw line and finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds in the victory.
THUNDER IN A BOTTLE
The men’s game turned on what was a most curious and clutch four seconds of play less than a minute into the fourth quarter, it’s sudden impact as clear a midstream momentum changer as you’re apt to see.
It all started when ‘Birds freshman forward Edouard Gauthier stepped on the gas in transition and deposited home a driving layin with 9:28 left in the game to pull UBC to within 63-60.
Victoria, however, attempting to inbound the ball after the made basket, had that pass stolen away by UBC’s second-year guard Nylan Roberts, who made a highly-anticipatory sprint from the opposition baseline corner.
Roberts intercepted the ball, got his bearings as he wheeled and turned along the opposite baseline, then squared himself to hit a three-pointer that tied the game at 63-63.
Of course there were myriad opportunities for both teams to exert their say in the game’s final outcomes, yet from UBC’s perspective, that four-second span held a significance that could not be underplayed. UBC scored 27 points in the fourth quarter while allowing Victoria to score 27 over the second half.
‘Birds head coach Phil Jalalpoor even said after the win, when asked what the biggest reason for his team’s late about-face was “… we didn’t disrupt enough and because we go very deep into our rotation, and we believe in all our guys, I think for everybody there, especially if you’re not playing like 30-plus minutes, there’s more you can give in every individual possession. So I (gave them a) reminder of just disrupting more.”
And with the way Roberts and the team played in that fourth quarter, it was clear the message was received.
“Well, 100%,” Jalalpoor said of how big the play of Roberts was. “I guess, along the lines of disrupting and just playing loose and getting it done he kind of embodies what we’re trying to do, playing a great stretch of basketball and really, really buying into what we’re trying to do. So very proud of him.”
UBC can first thank its veteran point guard Holt Tomie for keeping his team relevant over the early going, scoring 16 of his game-high and UBC career-high 26 points in the first half because the Vikes were getting productive play from guards Renaldo Robinson (21 points) and Brentwood College product Dylan Gage (17 points), the latter hitting three of his first five three-point shots and helping lead the Vikes to a 49-39 halftime lead.
Jalalpoor’s comments about the malaise factor often times settling in unannounced with his team’s deep rotation (on Friday 10 UBC players played between a high of 28 and a low of 12 minutes with the bench combining for 38 points) seems particularly apt.
And when he saw it, he jarred it as quickly as he knew how.
“I think, to be honest, it’s what we’ve said this season, that we were just going to stick through the process while trying to find the solutions,” he said. “Always trying to motivate the guys because there’s another gear we can shift into. Going into the second half, we had to stick together and we had to be solution-oriented.”
NUMBERS DON’T LIE
Break down the fourth-quarter box score and UBC’s numbers leap off the page.
In 10 minutes, the ‘Birds had six steals, shot 4-of-8 from three, and went to the stripe a dozen times (9-of-12).
That may be old-school stuff in the face of modern-day analytics, yet you could also say that the best way to start a fire is to rub two sticks together.
“We wanted to disrupt on defence, yes, but then offensively, I think the opposite of just kind of creating more flow, letting the ball move around… creating advantages because when one guy’s trying to solve (problems) himself, obviously it doesn’t work against a great team like that,” added Jalalpoor. “So again, just kind of that disrupt, and on offence let that thing flow and create open shots for everybody else.”
Yet Friday, however important, was still just one game, and you can go back to the 1995 NBA Finals for a quick refresher from one Hakeem Olajuwon who after helping the Houston Rockets to a repeat crown famously later stated “Never underestimate the heart of a champion.”
“We’re trying to improve one game to the other,” said Jalalpoor. “So with tomorrow, I think there’s a lot of things we could have done better (tonight). They’re gonna come out swinging. So we know we’re going to get their best side and it will be very, very, very difficult to get that done again. But, I mean, we put ourselves in a position. Hopefully it’ll work out, but at the end of the day, it’s just kind of business as usual…getting better, playing together. (Tonight) was one more thing we can learn going into tomorrow and now we’ll see how it all works out.”
UBC’s Roberts finished with 18 points and seven rebounds, forward/centre Nikola Guzina had 10 points and a team-high nine boards, while Gauthier came off the bench to add another 10 points of his own.
Saturday’s UBC-Victoria women’s game tips off at 5 p.m. at CARSA Gym, with the men’s game following at 7 p.m.
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