Two battle-tested programs with plenty of playoff experience will meet on Saturday, as the No. 7 nationally ranked Manitoba Bisons welcome the No. 4 ranked UBC Thunderbirds to IGAC for the Canada West semi finals.

This is the seventh time in the last 10 seasons that the T-Birds have reached the Canada West Semifinals, as they aim to reach the gold medal game for the first time since they won the conference championship in the 2019-20 season.

Meanwhile, Manitoba has been to the post-season 11 years in a row under head coach Kirby Schepp. Two seasons ago they were in this exact same position, after setting a school record for regular season wins, with 18, and they've been to the final four five times in the last nine seasons.

But the T-Birds have had Manitoba's number as of late. They haven't lost to the Herd since the 2017 playoffs, a memorable time for UM's program. That season, Manitoba beat UBC in back-to-back games on the road in the Canada West quarterfinals, en route to their first trip to nationals in over three decades.

A number of alum from the 2017 squad will be in attendance, and some have been helping Manitoba prep for their pacific rivals.

The T-Birds will need to defend the perimeter well, as the Bisons take the second-most three-point attempts of any team in the conference. While they shoot the exact same percentage from beyond the arc (31.8%) as UBC, 47% of the Bisons' shot attempts come from the outside, compared to just 34% for the T-Birds.

Defensively, the Bisons finished second in Canada West, giving up just 70 points per game. Mason Kraus, the school leader in career steals (since the stat began being tracked by the conference in the last 90s) finished second in the conference, with 55 and was named a Canada West First Team All-Star.

Manitoba finished the regular season 16-4 and first in the Prairie Division. They're coming off a nail-biter home win over Thompson Rivers in the quarterfinal round,coming from behind in the fourth quarter to win 70-67. Mason Kraus had 17 points and six assists, Daren Watts put up 17 points, nine rebounds and five assists.

The 15-5 T-Birds are also coming into this matchup following a tight victory, defeating the Wesmen by just two points in a dramatic and exciting contest.

The T-Birds -- one of the longest teams in the country in terms of overall height -- relied heavily on their starters in their quarterfinal win over the Wesmen, with Fareed Shittu, Adam Olsen and Nikola Guzina combining to score 58 of the team's 74 points, while Brendan Sullivan dished a career-high 11 assists.