Canada West Final: Fourth-seeded Huskies surprise all to take title

by Lee Dorner, UBC Sports Info Assistant

Photo courtesy Rich Lam / UBC Athletics: With a win over Calgary, the Saskatchewan Huskies won their first Canada West men's basketball title since conference play began in 1972-73

VANCOUVER - Fifth-year Saskatchewan guard Michael Linklater could have had a triple or even quadruple-double in the final conference game of his career, but he will have to settle for leading his Huskies squad to their first ever Canada West title in a 96-83 win over the Calgary Dinos on Saturday night.

The game was tied 71-71 early in the fourth quarter until Linklater led the Huskies on a 15-4 run, pouring in eight points of his own and adding a few assists to help Saskatchewan pull away from the sixth-ranked Dinos. He finished with game-highs in points (29), assists (13) and steals (9). He ended up one steal and four rebounds shy of a quadruple double.

"In that fourth quarter I just kind of sat down and shut up," said Saskatchewan head coach Greg Jockims. "These guys know what they are doing, and since Calgary was playing zone defence, I said rather than me directing traffic, you guys sort it out and it worked out very well for us. These are veteran guys and they know where the ball needs to go, and Mike did a great job not only orchestrating shots for himself, but for other guys as well."

It was a close back-and-forth game for the first three quarters, with neither side holding a double-digit lead until the fourth. The turnover battle was almost dead-even in the first half, but the Huskies had a 9-5 advantage in that category in the second half.

Canada West scoring champion Showron Glover was held in-check until the fourth quarter, when he scored 11 of his 21 points. He also had eight assists on the night. Duncan Jones chipped in 20 points for the Huskies, and Troy Gottselig had 12 points and nine rebounds.

Ross Bekkering led the Dinos with 23 points, and Robbie Sihota had his second straight double-double with 19 points and 10 boards.

The Huskies were the bottom seed in the Canada West final four, so Jockims knows that capturing their first conference title was huge for both the team's pride and their seeding at the CIS tournament.

"We've got three more games to win, and that's what we are focused on," Jockims said. "If we wouldn't have won this game we would probably be a seven or eight seed at nationals, but having won this we will probably three, four or five, and that's a better route. Not that there are any easy opponents at nationals, but you don't want to be playing the number one team in the first game."

The Dinos will join the Huskies at Carleton University for the CIS tournament. The Canada West bronze medalist UBC Thunderbirds may be there as well if they are awarded the wildcard berth, though they won't know until next weekend after all the conference playoffs are finished and the CIS seeds are announced.

The CIS tournament begins on March 19, with the finals going on March 21.