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     Basketball Club

Friday - Saskatchewan 64 at Victoria 56

VICTORIA - Saskatchewan senior Andrew Spagrud inched closed to the Canada West's career scoring mark as his Saskatchewan Huskies handed the UVic Vikes men's basketball team a 64-56 loss on Shields Court. It was Saskatchewan's first win in six tries in Victoria, their first win on the Island since 2000.

Spagrud scored 16 points, giving him three games to score 48 points and break the career scoring record of 2,171 points. The 6-foot-7 forward received plenty of support in defeating the Vikes, as fellow senior Nathan Grant knocked down four three-pointers for a 20-point night.

A poor shooting performance handcuffed the Vikes, who made just 31 percent of their shots. The second quarter was particularly bad, as the Vikes were held scoreless over a six-minute stretch and the Huskies took full advantage with 13 unanswered points. Saskatchewan's big run put them ahead 35-24 at halftime.

Despite the Vikes shooting woes, they still managed to put themselves in a position to legitimately threaten the Huskies lead in the final quarter. The Vikes, who trailed by as many as 16 points, made it a two-possession game in the fourth but were unable to capitalize on 11 Huskies turnovers in the quarter. Saskatchewan committed 33 turnovers in the game.

Fourth-year forward Tyler Hass led the Vikes with 15 points in a losing effort. Third-year forward Mike Hull contributed 12 points, and rookie Ryan MacKinnon netted six. MacKinnon gave the Vikes life late in the third, stealing the ball at mid-court and using a behind-the-back dribble to fake out his defender and score the easy lay-up. The basket was part of an 8-0 run that cut the deficit to six points at the beginning of the fourth.

The loss drops the Vikes to 13-7, and marks the first time since November 16, 2002 that they have lost consecutive home games. The Vikes also severely hurt their chances of catching the UBC Thunderbirds for the top spot in the Pacific Division, despite UBC's 75-70 loss to Alberta earlier in the day.

- from Victoria Sports Info

Saturday - Saskatchewan 78 at No. 5 UBC 90

VANCOUVER -- After a slow start, the Thunderbirds got things into gear in the second half, and picked up a 90-78 win over the Saskatchewan Huskies in their final regular season home game of the year at on Saturday at War Memorial Gym.

Troy Gottselig got the Huskes off to a quick start on Saturday, scoring 15 first half points and leading Saskatchewan to an early lead, which they held on to until the final minute of the half. With the score 36-32 Huskies, Chris Dyck hit a streaking Matt Rachar who drew UBC within two of Saskatchewan with six seconds remaining before the break, and after the Birds intercepted the ensuing inbound pass, Brett Leversage's buzzer-beating layup tied things up after 20 minutes of play.

The Huskies and Birds raced neck-and-neck through the third quarter, but UBC began to pull away early in the fourth. After Chris Dyck made the scorfe 64-56 in favor of the Birds, a big block by Balraj Bains allowed UBC to regain possession, and Dyck picked up two more of his game-high 25 on the ensuing fast break.

Late in the fourth quarter, with the score 82-69 UBC, Bains clinched the game for the Birds as he rattled off six straight points, with four of them coming on big dunks which got the entire gym on it's feet.

"I thought Balraj was just awsome tonight," said UBC coach Kevin Hanson. "You could tell that the guys were really rooting for him. He got a couple dunks and the guys just went crazy for him and we need that kind of team atmosphere and team bonding. It was nice to see guys cheering for each other, because we haven't had that for a while."

Bains finished with 11 points, seven rebounds, and four blocks for UBC. Dyck led the Birds with 10 rebounds. Andrew Spagrud led the Huskies in both points and rebounds, with 24 and 10 respectively.

Hanson was quick to credit the defence as a reason for his team's turn around early in the contest.

"I thought Graham Bath did a great job defensively," said Hanson. "He took a lot out of Spagrud in the first half. Brett Leversage and Alex Murphy also played really solid during the stints that they got, and I thought they did a good job executing offensively as well. Blaine LaBranche's defence was probably the best it's been all year too."

With the win, UBC moves 16-5, three games up on Victoria, meaning the Birds will have top spot in the Pacific Division locked up as they head into the final week of the regular season.

"We're not sure how we are going to handle it," said Hanson. "I think we've got a long way to go to keep getting better. You don't want to rest on it. We have to keep improving as a team and keep developing, and that is what our focus is going to be. Hopefully we can be intense. Tonight was like playoff basketball and we didn't have that last night. Right out of the changing room last night I could sense that the guys weren't excited, but tonight we came out and challenged them and they played inspired."

- from UBC Sports Info

Saskatchewan hosts No. 3 Calgary this weekend. Saturday night is "Senior Night" and Kyle Grant, Jordan Harbidge, Rob Lovelace, Mark Lynch and Andrew Spagrud will be honoured prior to the game.