For two teams who could have easily found themselves in the Final 8 championship game, neither wanted to leave empty-handed in Sunday afternoon’s bronze medal match.
The Victoria Vikes, perhaps with more to prove as the tournament’s top seed, came away victorious, defeating the TMU Bold 85-81 to secure third place at the U SPORTS men’s basketball national championship.
“With three seniors going out, definitely wanted them to get a medal,” Vikes guard Renoldo Robinson said.
“Had to fight through it for the guys, for the seniors,” forward Shadynn Smid added. “I’m glad we could send them off with a win.”
Victoria entered the bronze medal game after being upset by the Bishop’s Gaiters in Saturday’s semifinal. Instead of playing Carleton for gold, the Vikes found themselves facing the Bold — a program that had never lost to Victoria in its history.
Smid said the team had something to prove.
“Especially with myself, I didn’t have a great game offensively, and I wanted to get a good one in. I think we proved that we’re a good team, and we wanted to end the year with a great record, and I think we did.”
The last time the two programs met was in September 2018, when TMU earned a 96-61 win at the Guy Vetrie Memorial Tournament.
Six years later, the matchup was far closer on the national stage.
With three minutes remaining in the game, the teams were deadlocked at 79-79. Every possession carried weight in the closing minutes, and Victoria’s Ethan Boag delivered a crucial basket to give the Vikes an 81-79 lead with less than two minutes left.
After capitalizing on a turnover, Geoffrey James gave the Vikes a four-point advantage, but Aaron Rhooms brought the Bold back within two just seconds later.
The Vikes made a free throw to go up by three with 50 seconds left, and as Rhooms missed two back to back three-point attempts, TMU’s fate was sealed.
“Don’t let them hit a three,” Robinson said of what he was thinking in the final minute. “That was it, to be honest. I did not want to go to OT, my legs were giving out.”
TMU, who lost to Carleton in the semifinals yesterday, pushed early with runs of eight and five points to pull away early in the first quarter. With four minutes left, the Bold doubled up on Victoria, leading 18-9.
The top-seeded Vikes responded quickly as Robinson caught fire, scoring nine straight points to tie the game.
“We came out pretty flat so someone had to do something, and I kind of decided it was going to be me, and then we got back into it,” Robinson said.
TMU added a couple of baskets after Robinson’s scoring surge to take a 21-18 lead heading into the second quarter.
Victoria’s Dylan Gage tied the game just 21 seconds into the second frame, and the teams continued to go back and forth. The Vikes tied the score three more times before James finally pushed them ahead, as Victoria built a 40-32 advantage.
TMU battled back late in the first half, powered by a strong shooting performance of just under 55 percent from the field. Despite the push, the Vikes still carried a narrow 44-43 lead into halftime.
After TMU star player Rhooms opened the scoring in the third, the Vikes put up nine straight for the second time that afternoon.
TMU slowly chipped away at the deficit, pulling within four points twice and cutting the lead to just one on three separate occasions before finally reclaiming the advantage with 35 seconds left in the third quarter. The Bold went ahead 70-67 heading into the final 10-minutes of the bronze medal match.
A dunk by Ethan Boag, assisted by a falling Cameron Slaymaker, put the Vikes back up by one again, 71-70, a minute into the quarter.
“We worked harder and got rebounds, made shots, and that’s all I could ask for,” Smid said.
The lead changed hands four more times in the dying minutes as the game remained extremely tight – with the Vikes ultimately going home with a medal.
“Looking on my left and right, looking at my family, looking at the community that came out today, just doing it for them, especially,” Robinson said of his motivation. “And the people back home in Victoria. We got a lot of young guys and guys going, so definitely take this in and just keep pushing forward and keep growing as a community.”
Featured image by Zoe Pierce/the Charlatan
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