A run of underdog upsets has upended the U Sports men’s basketball national championship just as soon as it began, with the Queen’s Gaels defeating the Dalhousie Tigers 90-80 in a back-and-forth quarterfinal battle at the Saville Community Sports Centre in Edmonton, Alta.
The win follows a 77-73 victory for the eighth-seeded Saskatchewan Huskies over the first-seeded Brock Badgers in the first game of the tournament.
Queen’s, ranked at the bottom of the national top 10 rankings for most of the season—including the week of March 15, when they were knocked off the list entirely—is at nationals for the first time in program history.
The upset follows a shocking 86-80 Queen’s win over the Carleton Ravens in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) semifinals, which left Carleton out of the OUA championship for the first time since 2006.
Guard Quinton Gray, who played 38 minutes and scored a team-leading 19 points against Dalhousie, said the team shouldn’t be considered underdogs. The Gaels expect to win.
“Our team feels a little slighted coming in,” Gray said. “We feel we deserve to be here when a lot of the other guys don’t think that, so we’re out here to prove a point.”
Against Dalhousie, Queen’s did just that. The Tigers have made the trip to nationals for three consecutive seasons and made it to the gold medal game in 2020, when they lost to the Carleton Ravens.
On Friday, the Tigers met their match. The lead changed hands 34 times over the course of the game, with all quarters except the fourth ending with the teams within two points of each other.
In the fourth quarter, the Gaels were finally able to pull away.
“We know that if we keep fighting, we’re gonna be the last ones standing,” Gray said. “We have real confidence in that.”
Queen’s head coach Steph Barrie said part of the reason for Queen’s success is keeping the players calm, cool and confident.
“We’re not trying to make them think that they’re at nationals. [We’re] just trying to make them think they’re playing basketball,” Barrie said.
While the Tigers are now relegated to the consolation bracket, the Gaels are moving on to the final four for the first time in program history. They will face the Huskies, who are underdogs in their own right.
Barrie said his assistant coaches have done preliminary scouting on the Huskies, but he’ll have to catch up on how Queen’s plans to attack.
For now, though, the Cinderella run continues.
“We understand that most people don’t think that we’re a real threat to the national title,” Barrie said. “We believe we are.”
Featured image by Spencer Colby.
