Nathan Yu had a brilliant season. Given the chance, he'd swap his individual accomplishments for a championship ring.
At the recent Canadian Interuniversity Sport men's basketball nationals in Halifax, Yu and his UBC Thunderbirds settled for a bronze medal when they beat the University of Saskatchewan Huskies 111-95 in the consolation game. Earlier, in the tournament semifinals, the top-seeded T-birds were clipped 74-72 by the Trinity Western University Spartans, a team they hadn't lost to all year.
The Spartans overcame a 16-point second-quarter deficit and won on a three-pointer by Kyle Coston with 11.6 seconds left on the clock.
"Obviously we were really disappointed," said the 21-year-old Yu, a fourth-year shooting guard who grew up in Prince George. "All season, all we talk about is preparing for that championship game. We've been there for the last two years so it was really difficult to take when we lost that semifinal game. But our three seniors -- Alex Murphy, Brent Malish and Josh Whyte -- they really picked us up for that bronze-medal game. No one wants to play in that game but I thought we all did a pretty good job playing one last game for our seniors. We all played really well."
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