Game Information
 
Date: Friday, Feb. 21 & Saturday, Feb. 22
Time: 9:30 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.
Location: Calgary, AB
Venue: Jack Simpson Gym
Watch: Canadawest.tv
 
SASKATOON – The University of Saskatchewan Huskies men's basketball team will look to keep their playoff run alive this weekend in Calgary, as Saskatchewan will take the court on Friday night against the UBC Thunderbirds in Canada West quarter-final action.
 
The Huskies, who are the sixth-seed in the conference playoffs, enter the weekend fresh off a pivotal victory over the Thompson Rivers WolfPack at the PAC in the conference's play-in game.
 
Alexander Dewar and Emmanuel Akintunde led the way for Saskatchewan in the contest, with Dewar shooting 8-18 from the field for 18 points, while Akintunde recorded a double-double with a 14-point, 11-rebound performance to help the Huskies move on to the next round of playoff hoops.
 
Saskatchewan and UBC will take the floor at Jack Simpson Gym on Friday following the first quarter-final of the night, which sees the Calgary Dinos take on the Fraser Valley Cascades, with the pair of winners advancing to the conference semifinal game on Saturday night.
 
If Saskatchewan were to advance, a meeting with Calgary is potentially waiting in the wings, who the Huskies would surely love some revenge against. The Dinos have been the Huskies kryptonite, with Calgary serving as Saskatchewan's final opponent of the season in the past three years, including losses in the conference's bronze medal game, semifinal and quarter-final series.
 
However, first up for Saskatchewan is UBC, who they did not meet in regular-season play in 2019-20. The clubs last met in Oct. 2018, where they split a pair of contests at War Memorial Gym in Vancouver. The Thunderbirds, who enter the weekend ranked tenth in the nation, are fresh off an opening-round bye. They will be hoping their momentum from the conclusion of the regular season, where they won their last five contests, continues over to the postseason.
 
Despite their lack of familiarity in 2019-20, Saskatchewan has a storied playoff history against UBC, with the pair of programs meeting five times in the last ten postseasons.
 
In the 2009-10 season, the Huskies defeated the Thunderbirds en route to a conference championship, before taking down UBC once again, by a score of 91-81 to win the first national championship in school history.
 
The Huskies also defeated the Thunderbirds in their most recent postseason matchup, winning 81-75 to advance to the Canada West Championship.
 
5 Things
 
1: Saskatchewan is two wins away from reaching their first U SPORTS Final 8 since 2014-15.
 
2: New this season in the Canada West is an altered playoff format, going away from best-of-three quarter-final and semifinal series, which the conference used for the previous two seasons. Instead, the conference is using single-game knockout quarter-final and semifinal games, with the number-one and number-two seed playing host to the respective contests.
 
3: The Huskies got to the charity stripe with ease this season, as they led the conference with 25 free-throw attempts per game and will count upon their ability to get to the line against the
 
4: UBC will present a difficult task for Saskatchewan, as the Thunderbirds have been tremendous offensively this season, leading the conference in points-per-game, assists-per-game, and free-throws made per-game, while also committing the fewest turnovers-per-game.
 
5: Four members of the Thunderbirds are averaging double-digit points-per-game, with Jadon Cohee leading the way with 19.1 points-per-game this season, which is good for sixth in the conference.