Sunday 27 February 2011

Canada West Final Four decided

Trinity Western 89, Fraser Valley 75  In a hot-contested, sometimes chippy Game Three in Langley, 6'6" Jacob Doerksen had 32 points, 18 rebounds and 5 assists while 6'3" Calvin Westbrook hit a pair of clutch consecutive 3's to change the momentum midway through the third quarter as the Spartans came back from a Game One loss to advance to meet Saskatchewan Huskies in one CW semi-final next weekend in Vancouver.  After Cascades 6'6" forward James Elliott knocked down a 3 off a pick-and-pop with pg Zeon Gray, Fraser Valley seemingly had the momentum down 2 at 54-52.  But Westbrook would make sure that that was as close as they could get, just beating the 24 second clock with a 3 from the right wing and following up with another that restored an 8 point lead and took some of the wind out of UFV.  Cascades did get it back to 4 at 75-71 on a 3 by Gray but then Spartans stiffened defensively and Doerksen helped close out the game on the foul line.  6'3" Joel Freisen led Spartans with 20 points.  Box Score plus Abbotsford News

UBC 103, Manitoba 85  Thunderbirds scored the last 10 points of the first quarter and then led by 20 with 5 minutes left in the second to route the Bisons for the second consecutive night, officially clinching the host spot for the Canada West Final Four next weekend.  Back to back 3's from Nathan Yu and Melvyn Mayott closed the first quarter and UBC then used an 18-7 run led by Mayott and Josh Whyte to take a 46-26.  Manitoba closed the first half on a 21-10 run but then the Birds scored the first bucket of the second and the lead was double digits, growing to as large as 24, in the second half.  UBC shot 55% in the first half and 49% for the game, turning it over only 7 times all night in the easy win during which 51 fouls were called.  Box Score

Saskatchewan 92, Regina 75  5'11" Jamelle Barrett had 30 points and 9 assists with 6 turnovers as the Huskies swept the Best-of-3 and will meet Trinity Western in a CW semi-final next weekend.  Huskies used a 19-5 run led by Nolan Brudehl to jumped out to a 40-26 first half lead but the Cougars closed the second quarter on a 9-2 run to get it to 7 by halftime.  Sask jumped out to an 11-3 run led by Barrett and Rejean Chabot (24 points but 5 turnovers - Huskies turned it over 20 times on the night) to take a comfortable lead.  Closest Regina got was to 9 at 53-44 with 7 minutes left in the third.  Paul Gareau had 20 points/9 rebounds for the Cougars.  Box Score  plus Video 1 and Video2

Canada West Final Four
Alberta at UBC
Saskatchewan vs. Trinity Western

Also Wayne Thomas CW wrap up  Ron Rauch Vikes Season comes to an end (Victoria Times-Colonist)

Wayne Kondro's Ottawa Citizen article on Ravens, Gee-Gees victories

Bob Duff in the Windsor Star  Lancers season ends

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Makes no sense that canwest has best of 3 in first round.
Whole format benefits the home team by a large margin.

Anonymous said...

Of course the format favours the home team.
That's why you play all year to get home court advantage.
Personally, I like the best of three format.
A single game greatly favours the underdog.
Anyone can get lucky in a one game elimination.
The UFV-TWU tilt proved that the best team usually wins a series, while the lesser team can occasionally steal a game.

Adam Connolly said...

I dont mind the best of 3, but it doesnt make sense to have a best of 3 for the quarter finals, then a single game elimination in the semi-finals/final