EDMONTON – Canada West player of the year Tyus Jefferson scored a career-high 31 points as his third-seeded Alberta Golden Bears handed No. 6 McGill their first official loss of the 2021-22 season with a resounding 85-68 quarter-final victory at the U SPORTS men's basketball championship before a crowd of 950 at the Saville Community Sports Centre, Friday.

McGill, which entered the nationals with a school record 14-game win streak in league and playoff action, lost only one of the four quarters. The Redbirds led 18-15 after the opening 10 minutes but were overwhelmed 33-8 in the second stanza. McGill won the third quarter 25-20 and battled to a 17-17 draw in the final frame.

McGill won the turnover battle 19-13 but was unable to control the play under the boards as Alberta had a lopsided 54-35 edge in rebounding. The Bears also had a significant advantage at the charity stripe, making 19 trips and coming away with 15 points, while McGill was 8-for-10 from the line.

Jefferson was 12-for-17 shooting for Alberta, which advances to their first national semifinal since 2014. The U SPORTS defensive player of the year also added a steal and three assists en route to winning player-of-the-game honours for the Bears.

"I just did my best to bring some energy to this team. We came out a little flat and nervous, so I just wanted to do whatever I could to help our guys," said the fifth-year Bears guard. "It feels great to do this in front of our home crowd, our alumni. How loud it gets here, I love it."

Second-team All-Canadian Jamal Mayali of Toronto, was a standout for the Redbirds, also finishing with 31 points to match a career-high. He shot 10-for-21, including a 5-for-12 performance from three-point range and was perfect on six trips to the free-throw line.

"I left it all on the floor. It's my last year, so I didn't want to have any stones unturned. I gave it my best," said Mayali, McGill's player of the game, who also contributed seven rebounds, one steal and an assist in a game-high 39 minutes of court-time. "We feel like our conference isn't as respected as it should be, and we wanted to come out and prove something and leave it out on the floor and show that we can compete with these guys."

Teammate Sam Jenkins of Hamilton, Ont., added 14 points with five rebounds, five assists and a steal, while Quarry Whyne of Montreal came off the bench to score eight points and grab four rebounds before fouling out.

McGill had entered the game with a 12-0 record in RSEQ play and swept two playoff games to bring a 14-0 record into the Nationals. Including preseason play, McGill's record is now 15-4 overall. The Bears, who improved to 24-1 overall, also had a lengthy undefeated streak (16-0) but it was snapped in the Canada West final by No. 2 seeded Victoria.

The Redbirds got off to a great start thanks to the terrific play of Mayali, who finished the opening quarter with 11 of McGill's 18 points. However, the raucous home crowd came to life in the second, and powered Jefferson and the Bears to an incredible 33-8 second quarter which included a 21-0 run, and they headed into the half up 48-26.

"What an awesome atmosphere here with the crowd getting behind us. And it really gave us some momentum when we decided to calm down in the second quarter," said Bears head coach Barnaby Craddock, who drew a technical foul in the fourth quarter for arguing a possession ruling on a ball knocked out of bounds. "Credit to McGill, they came out hard and made some threes early. Then the crowd got behind us and we got some momentum."

McGill found some life in the out of the break however, implementing a full-court press that was able to force 17 Alberta turnovers in second half. They outscored the Bears throughout the half, at one point cutting the Alberta lead to just 10, but were unable to overcome the dominant Alberta second quarter.

"They put a lot of heat on us at the end," said Craddock of the late McGill push. "We made some mistakes down the stretch too, but we had a cushion built up, so we managed to hold on."

The Redbirds shot a tepid 34.7 per cent from the field (25/72) and drained just 10 of 37 treys. Alberta shot 46.4 per cent (32/69) and went 6-for-25 from downtown.

This was McGill's first-ever meeting with Alberta at the Final Eight tournament and the team now owns a 5-16 lifetime record in 12 trips to the national championship.

Three of the top four seeds were defeated in the opening round of the tourney. The Bears advance to play No. 7 Carleton -- which knocked off No. 2 seeded Victoria 94-77 -- in the championship semifinals on Saturday at 10 p.m. EDT.

The Redbirds will confront Victoria in a consolation semifinal at 5 p.m. EDT. McGill is 1-1 lifetime against the Vikes at the Nationals, winning 80-68 in 2013 but losing 63-54 the following year.

In the other first-round matchups on Friday, fifth-seeded Queen's upset No. 4 Dalhousie 90-80 and No. 8 Saskatchewan surprised top-seeded Brock 77-73.

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Alberta Golden Bears: Tyus Jefferson
McGill Redbirds: Jamal Mayali