EDMONTON – The Golden Bears made program history on Sunday afternoon, capping off their first-ever undefeated regular season with an 84-63 win over the Calgary Dinos at Saville Community Sports Centre.
Alberta finishes the conference schedule with a perfect 16-0 record, besting their previous best finishes of 19-1 in 2002, 2018, and 2020.
The win also secures the No. 1 seed in Canada West for the Golden Bears, who enter the Canada West tournament as the favourite. With the loss, the Dinos fall to 9-7 in conference play, and will enter the post-season as the No. 6 seed.
The Dinos and Lethbridge Pronghorns are scheduled to host the first weekend men's side of the Canada West basketball tournament, which starts on Friday.
As it was the previous night, the depth and scoring off the bench was too much for Calgary to handle on Sunday. Alberta outscored the visitors 27-13 in bench points, with four different Bears scoring 10+ points.
Adam Paige led the Alberta attack with a team-high 17 points, hitting on seven of his 14 shots on Sunday. Tyus Jefferson (13), Geoffrey James (11) and Abdullah Shittu (11) also finished with double-digit point totals.
Javier Ramos-Yzquierdo led the Dinos with 17 points of his own, with
Noah Wharton adding 13 for a Calgary side that struggled shooting all afternoon.
Alberta raced out to an early 20-10 lead after 10 minutes, with the Bears hitting 7-16 in the first.
Jefferson scored seven of his 13 in the second quarter, as Alberta extended their lead to 12 at the half, scoring another 20 points to lead 40-28 at the break.
The depth of the Bears was on display in the second half, as Brandon Meiklejohn scored all nine of his points in the third, with Alberta all but sealing the win by outscoring Calgary 27-15 in the third.
Not only was deep shooting plaguing the Dinos, but so was their interior defence. Alberta out-rebounded Calgary 54-32, with 50 of the Bears 84 points coming from inside the paint.
Both rivals rotated in a number of bench players in the fourth, with Alberta holding on to a 21-point lead.
Calgary will host the winner of the #11 Trinity Western Spartans vs #16 MacEwan Griffins match next Friday at home, while the Bears will play Fraser Valley or Winnipeg in the conference quarter-final on Saturday in Calgary.
