On Thursday night, the UBC Thunderbirds hosted the University of PEI Panthers at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre, losing 90–72 in the first round of the U Sports Final 8 tournament.
The T-Birds entered the competition fresh off a loss in the Canada West conference finals. Their luck wasn’t much better against the Panthers, who advanced to the national semifinals for the first time in over 35 years thanks to Thursday's win.
UPEI got on the board first, setting the precedent for the rest of the game. The Panthers fielded a fast-paced and coordinated offence with Sam Chisolm, Kamari Scott and Hugo Bermejo leading the attack. Meanwhile, the Thunderbirds struggled offensively, conceding three turnovers in the first seven minutes.
UBC’s defence was an underlying flaw the entire game — they couldn’t match the Panthers’ pace and gave up 31 points off turnovers and 28 fast break points.
Fareed Shittu made key defensive contributions with back-to-back blocks, yet the team failed to regain control of the game. UPEI built up an 11–2 lead before UBC began gaining momentum, with Gus Goerzen showing offensive and defensive initiative to close the gap. He scored a jumper and made a defensive block to amp up the pressure, tying the score at 20 to end the first quarter.
Similar to the first quarter, Daniel Gonzalez scored the first basket, setting the foundation for six straight points for the Panthers. The UBC offence showed aggression but lacked organization as UPEI later scored eight consecutive points off Thunderbird turnovers.
The T-Birds’ defence continued to allow the fast break and the point gap only increased. UPEI capitalized on their field goal percentage shooting at 64.7 per cent compared to UBC’s 33.4. The Panthers remained consistent both offensively and defensively, cruising to a 10-point lead halfway through the quarter. The Thunderbirds struggled in the paint and from the free throw line, leading to a Panthers lead, 47–33, at half.
UPEI continued to increase their lead in the third, running away with the game as UBC struggled to combine. The Panthers blazed through the UBC defence eventually increasing their lead to 21 points — 5 of which were from Scott. The T-Birds suffered tremendously in this quarter, scoring only 4 points in the third quarter while the Panthers bagged 16.
“We’re kind of known as a defensive team,” said Panthers’ head coach Darrell Glenn after the game. “I thought defensively we were really good and we disrupted them a lot. We created a lot of turnovers.”
Entering the fourth, UPEI led comfortably at 63–37. Despite being on T-Bird home turf (and with a small group of Panthers’ supporters), they continued to use a one-two offensive play, cutting through the UBC defence to increase their lead while slowing down the UBC offence to prevent any sort of comeback.
With two minutes left on the clock, the Panthers had a large lead, a narrative that persisted all night. Goerzen and Adam Olsen continued to score in an attempt to keep UBC afloat, but it was not enough.
The whistle blew at 90–72 and UPEI advanced to Saturday’s semifinals where they will face the University of Calgary Dinos. The Thunderbirds move onto the consolation final tomorrow at 1 p.m. at War Memorial Gym against Queen’s University.
This article is part of our 2025 Final 8 coverage. Follow us at @UbysseySports on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, as well as @theubyssey on TikTok, to follow our U Sports basketball coverage starting March 12.
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