MBB Final Preview: West coast foes clash for conference title

Article by Brian Swane, special to CW

Feb. 26, 2026 - The 2026 Canada West men’s basketball championship final is an all-British Columbia matchup, pitting the host Victoria Vikes against the UBC Thunderbirds at CARSA Performance Gym on Friday (Feb. 27) at 7 p.m.

Tickets are available for purchase online, and the game will stream on Canada West TV - Powered by BioSteel.

This Battle of B.C. for the Stan Border trophy comes just three weeks after the finalists closed out the regular season against each other, splitting a pair of games at CARSA Performance Gym. UBC defeated the Vikes by a score of 85-76 on Feb. 6, before Victoria responded with a 93-85 victory the next night.

Since then, the Thunderbirds and Vikes have rolled through the playoffs, booking their respective tickets to the championship final with semifinal victories last week: in an instant-classic, UBC rallied from a 16-point deficit before defeating the top-seeded Winnipeg Wesmen 91-88 in overtime, while Victoria never trailed en route to an impressive 97-74 win at home over the Alberta Golden Bears.

Friday’s showdown features two teams that know how to put the ball in the bucket. During the 2025-26 Canada West regular season, the Vikes ranked first in both scoring (88.2 points per game) and offensive efficiency (1.09 points per possession), while UBC was right behind them, ranking second in both scoring (86.6 points per game) and offensive efficiency (1.05 points per possession).

Both squads can score inside and outside and get to the line often. They also boast offensive depth, featuring eight players that averaged at least half a dozen points per game in 2025-26. UBC is led by fourth-year forward Nikola Guzina (16.1 points per game), while Victoria’s top scorer was also a fourth-year forward, Shadyn Smid (14.4 points per game). Other players to watch include Canada West First Team All-Star forward and Player of the Year Ethan Boag (14.1 points per game) of Victoria, and All-Rookie Team guard Edouard Guathier (9.8 points per game) of the Thunderbirds.

Including the regular season and playoffs, Victoria is 11-2 at home, but one of those losses came to the Thunderbirds. Meanwhile, UBC was 8-3 on the road during the regular season, then went into Duckworth Centre and knocked off the Wesmen in last week’s semi-final.

Victoria is the all-time winningest school in Canada West men’s hoops, with 18 championship victories, including three in a row from 2022 to 2024. The Thunderbirds have captured the conference crown on 11 occasions, one less than Alberta for second most, with their most recent title coming in 2020.

But while both programs have rich basketball histories, the conference championship is new for both head coaches. Murphy Burnatowski is in just his second year heading up Vikes men’s basketball, while this is the first season as bench boss for UBC’s Phil Jalalpoor.

Suffice to say, if there is an edge between these two teams, it’s not immediately apparent. And it may take a full 40 minutes before it finally emerges on Friday night.