HALIFAX — While the Carleton Ravens snuck into the U Sports men’s basketball national championship semifinals with a two-point win over the UQAM Citadins, there was lots of action elsewhere in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Gee-Gees win sets up clash with Carleton
Thought Capital Hoops was high stakes? Just wait until Saturday.
The uOttawa Gee-Gees will face the Ravens in the semifinals Saturday after blowing past the University of Winnipeg Wesmen 91-70 in the quarterfinal, setting up a clash of the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) giants for the fourth time this year.
Carleton won the first two games against uOttawa, including Capital Hoops, before the Gee-Gees won the OUA final 79-57 last weekend. Now, the stakes are higher than ever as the teams are on a collision course for the final time this year.
“Believe me, I know that [the Ravens are] gonna to be very good tomorrow,” uOttawa head coach James Derouin said after the win. “We know their reputation. We know that they’ll be extra locked in and motivated for the game tomorrow and as crazy as it sounds, we’re gonna need to be better [than today].”
The Gee-Gees beat the Wesmen comfortably, going up 23-11 in the first quarter and leading by 17 points at the half. Forward Guillaume Pépin led the team with 22 points while guards Cole Newton and Kevin Otoo chipped in 15 each.
The game was delayed an hour due to an evacuation of the Scotiabank Centre during a fire alarm.
This marks Winnipeg’s first trip to the national championship since 1994, and it’s been a dream run to get here. The Wesmen finished third in Canada West but beat the Brandon University Bobcats in a triple-overtime quarterfinal matchup, then snuck into the conference final for the first time in program history with a three-point win over the University of Manitoba Bison.
Head coach Mike Raimbault said this year is a learning opportunity for his young roster.
“It’s hopefully gonna be a stepping stone to continued success for our program,” Raimbault said. “There’s a chance to go back and look at every single possession and every decision that’s made.”
Winnipeg will face the UQAM Citadins in the consolation semifinals Saturday at 11 a.m. ET. The Gee-Gees will face Carleton at 5 p.m. ET.
“Staying disciplined and locked in, that’s the key to beating [Carleton],” Derouin said. “Because they’re not gonna waiver, so we have to match that.”
St. FX staves off wild Queen’s comeback
Three minutes into the third quarter of Friday’s quarterfinal between the St. Francis Xavier X-Men and the Queen’s Gaels, the game seemed over.
But one quarter later, Queen’s had nearly completed a comeback for the ages. Once down by 34 points, the Gaels trailed by only five points with 1:31 left in the game before the X-Men pulled out with a 107-98 win.
Now, St. Francis Xavier is one of four teams left standing and will fight ___ on Saturday for their spot in the national championship game. It comes after the X-Men’s resounding 50-point win in the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) championship on Feb. 26.
“When they get going, they’re a freight train and that was the case in the first quarter,” Queen’s head coach Stephan Barrie said of St. Francis Xavier. “They may be the most talented team in the tournament.”
The loss ends Queen’s quest for a national championship after making the final eight tournament for the second consecutive season. Barrie said his players didn’t adjust fast enough to the way the X-Men were playing.
“The thing that helps the most is having two back-to-back nationals losses that are stinging to our guys and are very disappointing to our players,” Barrie said. “They lost twice in a way we weren’t very happy with, and so everything now becomes about learning from those experiences.”
Queen’s will face the UPEI Panthers in the consolation semifinals at 1 p.m. ET, while the X-Men will play the University of Victoria Vikes in the semifinals at 7 p.m. ET.
Victoria defends top seed
The Vikes have been a top team all year. They debuted at fifth on the U Sports top 10 rankings and lived in the top two for most of the season, winning the Canada West championship and entering nationals as the number one seed.
UPEI nearly made all of that irrelevant.
The eighth-seeded Panthers pushed the Vikes hard, leading by six points halfway through the fourth quarter. Ultimately, the insurgence fell flat and Victoria emerged with a harrowing 93-92 victory to advance to the semifinals.
“In a stage like this, it was good to see how resilient we were,” said Vikes guard Diego Maffia, who scored 40 points. “We battled to the end and we’re never gonna give up. That’s one of our mottos.”
UPEI head coach Darrell Glenn said he wants his team to feel the disappointment of the loss.
“When you fall short of your goals, you should be disappointed,” Glenn said. “I want us to kind of feel this so as we’re moving forward in our program and we get back here, we know what it feels like to be in this game and what it feels like to come up short.”
Facing the X-Men in front of their home crowd tomorrow, Victoria head coach Craig Beaucamp said it’ll be about the basics for the Vikes.
“This time of year, it’s not any masterful game plan,” he explained. “A lot of it comes down to just doing the same things we work on all year.”
Featured image by L. Manuel Baechlin.
