The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees rebounded from a heartbreaking semi-final loss against the Lakehead University Thunderwolves to claim the bronze medal at the CIS men’s basketball Final 8 championships Sunday afternoon.
The Gee-Gees beat the Acadia University Axemen by a score of 92-85 to claim third place.
The bronze medal game started out fast-paced with both teams having very few problems executing offensively. Again, in this game the referees played a huge factor, with 25 fouls to Ottawa and 28 for Acadia.
Gee-Gees head coach James Derouin was infuriated with the refs in the first quarter due to the calls and was letting them have it constantly. The Axemen led the Gee-Gees 28-20 at the end of the quarter.
In the beginning of the second quarter, Gee-Gees guard Mehdi Tihani went on an 8-0 run of his own to tie the game 28-28. The Axemen only shot two for 10 from the field in the second quarter and after an offensive first quarter they were only able to grab 10 points.
“When you go into a game saying I’m going to do this, and this, it usually goes the other way. I just came in with a loose mentality,” Tihani said.
In what was an offensive clinic in the first quarter turned into a tough defensive battle in the second. The Acadia Axemen led 38-35 at halftime.
With the bronze medal on the line, the Gee-Gees opened up the second half with three 3-pointers in a row to take a six-point lead. The offence began clicking again for both teams and less than half-way into the third, the Gee-Gees had more than 15 points. The Gee-Gees led by seven, 65-58 at the end of the frame. They had a total of eight 3-pointers in the quarter.
“We really focused on loosening up today and if we had a chance to get a 3, then just let it fly,” Gee-Gees head coach James Derouin said.
Heading into the final quarter of the season for the two teams, the Axemen were not going to go down without a fight and came out fighting. They took the lead with less than five minutes to go, thanks to the help of two clutch 3-pointers by second-year guard Tyler Scott.
Fourth-year star forward Owen Klassen fouled out of the game in the dying minutes of the game for the Axemen and he was not able to play at the end when he was needed most.
The Gee-Gees took a two-point lead in the final minute of the game, but the Axemen tied it up again on free throws. With the final possession and the shot clock off, the Axemen had a chance to win it, but Scott missed on the long-range 3-pointer jumper. With that, the teams were tied at 77 apiece and the game was headed for overtime.
In overtime, the Gee-Gees took an early lead off of free throws, but Acadia wouldn’t go away and they took the lead with 1:30 remaining. The Gee-Gees responded to take a three-point lead with less than 30 seconds left in the overtime period. The Axemen could not recover and the Gee-Gees were victorious.
Fourth-year forward Owen Klassen was the leader for the Axemen with 20 points while former Raven, Mehdi Tihani led the Gee-Gees with 23 points.
“We definitely wanted to get a medal, because that’s our best finish in school history, and for our seniors that was our motivation for today. The last game was a real heartbreaker for us, but we wanted to finish strong for our seniors,” Tihani said.
Even though the Gee-Gees won the game, they were still upset over yesterday’s result.
“It’s going to be tough to watch this game, that’s for sure. It’s the first the time in the history of our program that we medalled at nationals, and there is certainly some comfort there,” Derouin said.
“I think the reaction of our guys by winning it answers that question. They’re happy and to go out on a win, there’s a little bit of comfort for sure, but it’s going to be tough to watch this game.”
