CIS men's basketball Saturday roundup

Daniel Ferguson, a fourth-year Golden Bear, led all players in scoring for the second-straight day, notching 34 points on Saturday and earning 74 points in three games. Last year's Canada West Rookie of the Year, Jordan Baker, added 19 points and five boards while fellow sophomore Kenneth Otieno had 14 points and seven rebounds, several of them coming during the final momentum shift that led to the Alberta win.

The Vikes were led on the scoresheet by fourth-year Jeff Cullen, recording 16 points, as well as senior Wendell Thomas and fourth-year Mike Berg, respectively registering 15 and 14 points.

The series win advances the Golden Bears to the Final Four, awaiting a finalized location while the remaining quarterfinals continue during this weekend's action.

Barring upsets in all those remaining series, Alberta and Victoria played the final varsity basketball game at the U of A's historic Main Gym this afternoon, with the Golden Bears heading to the GO Center next season at the U of A's south campus.

The two squads got off to a slow start in the opening quarter, however, combining for five missed shots as the game began and only seven points in the first four minutes of play.

Cullen and Ferguson then got their respective offences rolling by trading pairs of treys, with the Golden Bear following with an amazing mid-air stutter-step layup to grab a three-point lead but Cullen countered with a jumper of his own, after a couple of Berg free-throws, to put the score 19-18 after 10 minutes.

With every player getting at least a point, Victoria pushed their lead to four entering halftime, despite the fact that no player had cracked the double-digit barrier.

The Bears quickly erased the deficit in the third quarter, though, going on an 11-3 run to make the score 47-43 in their favour, but the Vikes bounced back and equalized things at 51-51.

Soon after, Otieno put his mark on the game, grabbing the rebound on a missed Ferguson trey and missing, only to grab it a second time and connecting to make the score 56-53.

The Edmonton native then became an unstoppable force in the second half, commandingly snaring boards on offence as well as defence, propelling the Bears to 8-2 and 15-6 runs en route to an 11-point lead with 3:24 left on the clock in the fourth quarter.

Victoria started to shift the momentum with a small 5-0 run moments later, but Alberta's Graeme Mitchell stole the ball and made a cross-court pass, yet Vikes' Ryan Mackinnon offset the steal with his own interception and went in alone for what would have been an easy layup.

Hoping to cut the deficit to four with 46 seconds left, Mackinnon ended up stuffed by a hard-charging Baker, making a thunderous block to the ovation of the Main Gym crowd and bringing any Victoria momentum to a complete halt.

Alberta moves on to the Canada West Final Four next weekend, likely on the road but with the locating still to be determined from the outcomes of all playoff matches this weekend.

Source: Alberta Sports Info

The win sends the Golden Hawks to the OUA Final Four at McMaster where they will take on the Carleton Ravens on Friday, March 4th at 6 p.m.

First year Jamar Forde (Mississauga, Ont.) also had a strong game posting 13 points. He was the only other Golden Hawk in double digits.

Wilfrid Laurier got out to an early lead midway through the first courtesy Maxwell Allin and Patrick Donnelly (Oakville, Ont.). Allin hit two three points, followed by a three from Donnelly . At the half the Hawks still held the advantage 41-35.

Windsor battled back in the third, outscoring the Hawks 25-19, but it was Maxwell Allin who got the Golden Hawks back out in front with a huge three late in the fourth. It put the visitors back out in front for good. Allin went to the line six times, the majority of which were down the stretch and was 11-12 on the game.

For the Lancers Isaac Kuon led the way with 28 points, going 11-for-13 from the free-throw line. Enrico Di Loreto and Lien Phillip both posted 14 points for the home team.

Source: Laurier Athletics

The Ravens took the first lead of the game and never surrendered it. In his last game at the Ravens' Nest, Mike Kenny (Ottawa) hit a couple of successful free throws and gave Carleton a 25-16 lead after the first 10 minutes.

The Rams weren't backing down from the No. 1 nationally ranked Ravens though, and a three by Ryan McNeilly (Toronto) made it a six-point game before the midway point of the second quarter. But the Ravens tightened up their game and began to pull away again.

By the end of the first half, Willy Manigat (Montreal) and Kyle Smendziuk (Kanata, Ont.) had both reached double digits, sinking 10 points apiece as the Ravens had a 50-34 advantage at the buzzer.

Manigat continued his outstanding performance in the third, scoring 11 of the Ravens' 23 points in the quarter as Carleton took a 73-50 lead into the fourth.

The Ravens continued to wear down the Rams with their pressure. They dominated on the boards, grabbing 43 rebounds to Ryerson's 25 en route to the 24-point victory.

Manigat finished with a game-high 24 points. McNeilly led the Rams with 20 points.

Source: Carleton Sports Info

Head coach James Derouin was very pleased with the win and for the chance to play in the Final Four: "It's a huge opportunity for our team especially with the Score covering it live, and being a neutral site. It's great for our program, and to get that exposure we're looking for; we're excited."

"Warren and Johnny again both shot the lights out from three. From the start of the game it was definitely our defence, we just did an incredible job defending and dominating the rebounds. It made our offense easy, but the defense is definitely what I am most happy with," added Derouin.

The Gee-Gees will travel to Hamilton next weekend for the OUA Final Four and take on Lakehead on Friday, March 4, 2011. Tip off set for 8:00 p.m., and will be broadcast on theScore at 10 p.m.

Source: Gee-Gees Sports Info

The Huskies will now face the Trinity Western University Spartans in the semifinal at the Canada West Final Four hosted by the UBC Thunderbirds in Vancouver March 4-5.

After the sweep, Regina's season comes to a close. A night earlier, the Huskies won 98-75.

Once again Jamelle Barrett and Rejean Chabot combined to lead the Huskies to the victory. Barrett, the Canada West regular season leading scorer, finished the night with a game-high 30 points. Chabot followed closely behind with 24 and Nolan Brudehl chipped in with 10 points. Michael Lieffers was strong on the boards for the Huskies nabbing 10 rebounds.

Paul Gareau led the Cougars with 20 points, followed by Marek Downarowicz with 15 and Kris Heshka with 14. Downarowicz had a game-high 12 rebounds.

Saskatchewan opened the scoring in the game and had a 6-2 lead on the strength of baskets by Brudehl, Barrett and Duncan Jones. Downarowicz sunk a three-pointer from the top of the arc and a Gareau jumper put the Cougars ahead. Trading points for the next few minutes, Regina took a small four point lead. It didn't last long, Barrett led the Huskies back to the lead with five straight points. Although the Cougars tied the game twice after that, they couldn't retake the lead. Saskatchewan finished the quarter ahead 24-21 after three-points by Chabot.

The Huskies opened up the margin quickly and had a double digit lead in the game four times throughout the second quarter. The Huskies led 42-35 heading into halftime. Saskatchewan's high-powered offence doubled the Cougars 31-15 in the third quarter. Regina was able to outscore the Huskies 25-19 in the final frame but it was too late to make a bid for the comeback.

Saskatchewan shot 47.1% in the game, while the Cougars shot 43.8%. Turnovers hurt the Cougars. The Huskies scored 28 points off of the 20 Regina giveaways in the game.

Joining the Huskies and Spartans at the conference championship tournament will be the Thunderbirds and University of Alberta Golden Bears. The winner of the Canada West Championship, as well as the runner-up will receive automatic berths to the national final in Halifax, March 11-13.

Source: Saskatchewan Sports Info

The UFV Cascades men's basketball team were defeated by the TWU Spartans, 89-75, in game three of the Canada West quarterfinal playoff series. The Cascades played well all series and gave the favorite TWU Spartans all they could handle.

The game started out just like the previous two with the lead changing hands numerous times in the first quarter, both teams knowing tonight someone continues on and someone goes home. The Spartans would take a two point lead into the second quarter, but the Cascades continued to challenge their arch rivals every minute of the first half. UFV never quit and went into the intermission down by one point to the nationally ranked Spartans. Sam Freeman, Coquitlam, BC led the Cascades at the half with 9 points.

The second half was no different then the first two and a half games the emotions on the court were high as UFV continued to stay with TWU until the final minute of the third quarter when TWU opened up a nine point advantage going into the fourth quarter. In the final quarter, UFV continued to stay close but TWU always seemed to keep the Cascades five points back as they would hold on to advance to the second round of Canada West post season action.

Joel Friesen, Abbotsford, BC led the Cascades with 20 points. Freeman added 19 points and Zeon Gray, Los Angles, CA chipped in with 17 points. Gray led UFV with 7 total rebounds, as the Cascades pulled down 26 boards for the game.

Source: UFV Sports Info

The T-Birds led the foul-filled contest comfortably from start to finish, but did allow Manitoba several opportunities to string points together and claw back within striking distance. Had the Bisons converted more than 59 per cent of their 37 free throw attempts, the game could have had a very different complexion down the stretch.

"Obviously I'm happy that we won, but I wasn't happy with the way we executed today," said UBC head coach Kevin Hanson. "Nathan Yu and Melvyn Mayott came off the bench and sparked us from a defensive standpoint and that led to some scores for us in transition, but I thought Manitoba just got way too many easy baskets. We made too many slip-ups for this time of year."

Yu and Mayott also made big contributions on the offensive end. Yu led the T-Birds with 19 points and Mayott was second with 17. Josh Whyte, Doug Plumb and Brent Malish also cracked double digits in scoring, with Malish's 10 rebounds earning him a double-double, but Hanson said offence is not his team's priority right now.

"We're not too concerned with where our scoring comes from because we have weapons in a lot of different places," said Hanson. "We did want to get more scoring in the paint and we did a good job of that, but really it's defence and knowing our roles and schemes. We need to focus on the little things that we work on in practice and translate them over to the game."

Like the Bisons, the T-Birds had plenty of opportunities from the charity stripe but also left a lot of points on the line. UBC hit 63 per cent of its 33 free throws, and the teams combined for 51 fouls on the night.

The 'Birds did a good job taking care of the ball though, turning it over just seven times while forcing 14 Manitoba turnovers. They took advantage of those opportunities too, outscoring the visitors 23-2 off turnovers.

Fifth-year guard Eric Garcia went out with a bang for Manitoba, scoring a game-high 25 points and adding five assists in his final CIS game. Kevin Oliver had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

The T-Birds will now host Alberta, Trinity Western and Saskatchewan next weekend for the Canada West Final Four. The T-Birds start with Alberta, while Saskatchewan and Trinity Western make up the other semifinal pairing. Those games go on Friday, with the championship and bronze medal games following on Saturday. All Final Four games are at War Memorial Gym.

Source: UBC Sports Info