VANCOUVER – It's been 52 weeks since the Calgary Dinos men's basketball team suffered a heartbreaking loss in the Canada West semi-final.
Undefeated at home, Central Division champions, ranked as high as No. 2 in the nation, and hosts of the Final Four in front of a sold-out Jack Simpson Gym, the Dinos fell to the UBC Thunderbirds by eight points in a one-game showdown to attend the CIS Final 8 in Ottawa. One night later, the Dinos lost any hope of receiving the national wild card berth with a loss to Brandon in the bronze medal game.
A year later, a year more experienced, the Dinos head back to the Final Four in search of redemption and their first trip to the national tournament since 2004. Hosted this year by UBC at the venerable War Memorial Gym, once again just two guaranteed berths to Ottawa are available.
The Dinos qualified for the Final Four with their second straight Central Division championship, defeating the Alberta Golden Bears in two straight games last weekend in the Jack. Contrary to the 2008 series, where the Dinos blew out their northern rivals, the Bears gave Calgary a run for its money this time around with the hosts taking 91-85 and 82-78 victories.
Ninth-year Dinos head coach Dan Vanhooren is of the mind that the tight scores will benefit his team this season after they maybe peaked a week too soon in the last campaign.
“It's good that we got them twice and our guys were able to battle through some adversity,” he said of the series with Alberta. “It's also good that the games were close, because it's not going to get any different the rest of the way.”
First up for the Dinos in the most important game of their season is possibly the most anticipated match-up in the nation this post-season outside Carleton-Ottawa: the Trinity Western Spartans. The upstart Spartans have been on a tear since Christmas, winning 11 of their final 12 conference games before an uber-tight division semi-final series against the Victoria Vikes. The host Spartans prevailed in that one in three games and earned the wild card spot to the Final Four following last weekend's loss to UBC in the Pacific Division Final.
One of those wins came in the Jack Simpson Gym with an 83-79 upset of the Dinos, a win that finally put the Spartans in the CIS Top 10 after several weeks on the outside looking in. No. 9 is as high as TWU got in the rankings, however, and the semi-final match-up will pit the Dinos, tied at No. 5 in the latest (and final) rankings against the No. 10 Spartans.
Inconsistent play has plagued both teams so far in the post-season, primarily on the defensive end of the floor for Calgary. The Dinos were guilty of defensive breakdowns in both games against Alberta, allowing 31 points in the fourth quarter of the series-clinching win and turning a double-digit lead into a nail-biter late.
The Dinos and Spartans will go strength against strength for a chance at nationals. They are the two biggest teams in the conference and feature the top players in their respective divisions in TWU's Jacob Doerksen and Calgary's Ross Bekkering. The two were one-two in rebounding all year long in Canada West and they will be matched up against each other on both ends of the floor.
Doerksen was named the conference MVP earlier Thursday for leading the surge of the Spartans in 2008-09. A former CIS rookie of the year, he left the University of Victoria and transferred to Trinity Western prior to the season after considering several destinations, one of which was Calgary. He was the only player in the nation to average both 20 points and 10 rebounds per game.
Bekkering, meanwhile, earned a first all-star team nod after leading the conference in field goal percentage at .570, and his performance against Alberta was second to none. He scored 47 in the two-game series, including a game-high 29 in Game 1, while shooting an otherworldly .783. He already leads the post-season field goal percentage race after playing just two games, and he averaged just over 30 minutes in the two contests.
Henry Bekkering earned his second straight second team all-star nod after leading the Dinos in scoring on the season with 20.2 points per game.
The Dinos and Spartans tip off at 6 p.m. MT at War Memorial Gym with the winner advancing to the conference final Saturday night and guaranteeing a berth at the CIS Final 8 in Ottawa March 13-15 at Scotiabank Place.
The other semi-final has the host UBC Thunderbirds taking on the Great Plains champion Brandon Bobcats.
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CANADA WEST FINAL FOUR: TEAM-BY-TEAM
#1 UBC Thunderbirds (21-2 • CIS No. 2 • Pacific Division Champions)
The Thunderbirds come into this weekend having won 13 games in a row with their last loss coming to the Spartans on January 8th. Fifth-year guard Chris Dyck has been the T-Birds go-to guy in the playoffs and sits second in the CW with 24.3 points per game and has led UBC in scoring in each of their post-season games. The Winnipeg native is shooting 64.7% from the field, fifth best in the CW, and 65.2% from three-point land, fourth best in the CW, in the T-Birds four playoff games.
Point guard Josh Whyte saw his first action since late January last weekend and averaged 11 points, 3.5 assists, three rebounds and two steals while playing an average of just 19 minutes per game. Blain LaBranche also hits double figures in scoring (13.8 ppg) and ranks first on the team with 3.8 assists per game.
The T-Birds have the top scoring offence (90.5 points per game), field goal percentage (49.0%), and scoring margin (+ 15.0) in the CW while ranking second in three-point shooting (44.3%), assists (17.3), and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.4). The UBC defence has also been solid, as they hold their opponents to a league low field goal percentage of 34.4%.
#2 Calgary Dinos (17-5 • CIS No. 5 (tie) • Central Division Champions)
The Dinos won a pair of close games over the Alberta Golden Bears (91-85, 82-78) to take the Central Division crown after having a first round bye in the post-season. The Bekkering brothers were the key for Calgary last weekend with fourth-year Ross averaging 23.5 points and 11 rebounds per game, ranking fourth and second respectively in the CW, while fifth-year Henry is averaging 20.5 points and six rebounds in the playoffs.
As it was during the regular season for the Dinos, the 'big four' for Calgary of the two Bekkerings, Robbe Sihota and Tyler Fiddler carried the load against Alberta. The quartet averaged more than 27 minutes per game across the board and combined for 64.5 points and 30 rebounds per game. Calgary's offence ranks second behind UBC in playoff scoring (86.5 points per game) and field goal percentage (48.1%) while ranking third in assists (17.0). As a team, they lead the league with 44 rebounds per game and averaged five blocked shots per game versus Alberta. They held the Golden Bears to 41.5% field goal shooting, middle of the pack in the CW, and struggled with three-point shooting, ranking eighth out of 10 teams at 30.6%.
#3 Trinity Western Spartans • CIS No. 10 • Wildcard – Pacific Division)
Despite losing to the Thunderbirds in the Pac-D Finals, the Spartans season is still alive as they were awarded the wild card spot in the Final Four. Lack of consistency on the offensive side of the ball has hindered the Spartans so far in the playoffs, having had four different players lead the team in scoring over their five post-season games.
CW MVP candidate Jacob Doerksen has struggled with his scoring touch, averaging just 13.5 points per game in the playoffs compared to 20.4 during the regular season. He is still dominating the 'boards, hauling down 13.2 per game in the post-season, but Louis Hurd has taken over as primary scorer for the Spartans. Hurd is averaging 15.6 points per game, thanks in large part to the 18 three-pointers he has made over the last five games, with Brian Banman also cracking double figures (13.0).
TWU ranks second-last in scoring offence (71.4) in the CW post-season and sports a -5.8 scoring margin. They have shot just 39.1% from the field, however, they have help their opponents to a mark of only 40.4% shooting, second-lowest in the conference. Some bright spots offensively is their third-ranked three-point shooting 35.8% and their league leading rebounding margin of +10.8.
#4 Brandon Bobcats (13-9 • CIS unranked • Great Plains Division Champions)
The Bobcats bested the Regina Cougars 2-1 in the Great Plains Divisional Final and won a nail bitter third game 78-76 after trailing by as many as 14 points in the second half. Dany Charley was the Bobcats number one offensive weapon versus the Cougars and is averaging 22.6 points, eight rebounds, and a CW-best four steals per game in post-season play while playing just over 30 minutes.
The duo of Rejean Chabot and Tarik Tokar log even more minutes for the 'Cats playing 36 and 39 respectively. Chabot ranks second on the team in scoring (16.3) with Tokar third (11.3) with both players averaging 5.7 assists per game, tying them atop the conference in post-season play. Steven Marcelin, who plays 26 minutes per game, ranks fifth in the conference with 8.7 boards per contest. The Bobcats rank middle of the pack in both scoring offence (81) and scoring defence (75) but they have the third best scoring margin (+4.3) in the CW playoffs.
They top the conference in free-throw shooting at 83.7% (41-of-49) and allow the fewest rebounds per game to their opponents (33.3).
