Brock Badgers fourth at U Sports women’s basketball nationals

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Published April 3, 2022 at 5:53 pm

The Brock Badgers went from one play away from going for gold to leaving the Final 8 in Kingston empty-handed.

The Badgers’ group that includes graduating forward Mackenzie Robinson fashioned the program’s highest winning percentage in over 35 years, prevailing at a .773 clip. Three of their five losses, including overtime defeats in the Ontario final and  Saturday’s national semifinal, came against the Rams from downtown Toronto, who went a perfect 24-0 this season to win the Bronze Baby, the U Sports title. Given how close they were to taking down the eventual champs — twice — it was understandable if the Badgers had little left in the tank for the bronze medal game.

Brock fell 75-57 against the host Queen’s Gaels on Sunday.

Ivana Twumasi had a team-most 14 points for the Badgers, earning player of the game honours for the second time in the tournament. Victoria Lawrence added 13. Robinson, who was the Badgers’ lone fifth-year senior during the playoff run after second-team all-Canadian Samantha Keltos headed to Australia on a pro deal, played a game-most 36 minutes. She had 10 rebounds before leaving in the final minutes to an ovation and hugs from her teammates.

The Gaels, who lost by two points in the other semifinal, took to their home floor like they were playing with house money. Reserve guard Isabella Belvedere scored 22 points in just 17 minutes, making six-of-12 three-pointers, helping Queen’s earn its first U Sports basketball medal.

Queen’s coach Claire Meadows was also an assistant coach with the 2020 Saskatchewan Huskies team that defeated Brock in the national championship game.

Later Sunday, the Rams routed the Winnipeg Wesmen 70-48 to to take the title. It is the first national title in basketball for the school, after championship game losses by the women’s team in 2016 and by the men’s team in ’18. The Rams were also the first U Sports women’s team to go undefeated since 2005.

Overtime heartbreaker — again

On semifinal Saturday, the Badgers and Rams needed bonus basketball for the second Saturday in a row — this time to decide a taut defensive battle. Rookie Maddie Weinert had a 14-point, 11-rebound double-double to sustain Brock at each end of the floor.

Lawrence put the Badgers ahead for the final time with a triple with 1:28 left. Mississauga native Stefanija Mrvaljevic buried a game-tying basket on the next Rams possession. No one could score in the final minute of regulation or for nearly the first two minutes of overtime, until the Rams’ Jama Bin-Edwar swished a tiebreaking triple, for one of the signature moments of her tournament-MVP performance.

“We all played really hard the first two quarters,” Lawrence, who also hooped 14 points, told USports.ca. “It was just our defence lacked a little bit and we weren’t really rebounding as much as we could. But eventually the fourth quarter we really wanted it, so we were going really hard rebounding. But it was just those last-minute shots just got us.”

The Rams surmounted a 22-point deficit to defeat Brock 72-70 in overtime in the OUA Critelli Cup final on March 26.

The Badgers’ winning percentage was their highest since the .813 recorded by the 1984-85 iteration. That squad was coached by Chris Critelli, the namesake of the conference championship trophy.

Pandi tourney all-star as Carleton three-peats

Lloyd Pandi had a better outcome in Edmonton with the Carleton Ravens in the U Sports men’s basketball Final 8 than he did last summer as a member of the Niagara River Lions.

Carleton, paced in considerable part by a performance from Pandi that netted a spot on the tournament all-star team, beat the Saskatchewan Huskies 85-72 on Sunday to clinch their third national title in a row (sandwiched around a pandemic pause last winter). The forward, who also won the Moser Trophy as national player of the year, had his second double-double in a row with 16 points and 13 rebounds.

Last August, the River Lions fell to the Edmonton Stingers in the Canadian Elite Basketball League final. Pandi and the Ravens also had to contend with a tough Edmonton team playing in front of hometown fans, but held off the Alberta Golden Bears 64-63 in the semifinal on Saturday night.

Pandi, who had 14 points and 14 rebounds in that contest, was called for an unsportsmanlike foul with 13 seconds left that gave Alberta two free throws and possession. But Alberta’s Tyus Jefferson missed both shots, and Carleton prevented the Golden Bears from getting a good look at a buzzer-beating shot.

While Carleton has won 16 of the last 19 national titles, Pandi and pals deviated from the usual route. A shock defeat against the Queen’s Gaels in the OUA East final on March 23 resulted in Carleton being a No. 7-seeded wild card team at the nationals.

Top-seeded Brock went 0-2 in the tourney to finish the season 21-3, with their first OUA Wilson Cup title since 1992.

IceDogs alum helps St. FX wins U Cup bronze

Matthew Philip, a former Niagara IceDog, assisted on the overtime winning goal in the bronze-medal game at the University Cup on Sunday.

Philip’s St. Francis Xavier X-Men and the Rams needed a sudden-death session in in Wolfville, N.S., to decide the final spot on the podium at the university men’s hockey championship. Just forty-three seconds in, Philip knocked down the Rams’ Mark Shoemaker, a Mississauga native, in the corner, retrieved the puck and whipped a backhand cross-ice pass that teammate Zack Trott one-timed in for a 3-2 victory.

Philip played three seasons for the IceDogs from 2016 to ’19, tallying 40 goals and 89 points across 179 games.

Brampton native Jeremiah Addison scored a goal for the second game in a row for the Rams. The Toronto squad, first-timers at the national tournament, upset reigning champion New Brunswick in the quarterfinal last Thursday.

Addison was also the Rams’ player of the game during their 7-2 semifinal defeat against Trois-Rivières on Saturday.

The Trois-Rivières Patriotes defeated the Alberta Golden Bears 5-4 in double overtime on Sunday night to win the title. During the Ontario University Athletics playoffs, the Patriotes defeated Brock for the Queen’s Cup, and also ousted the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks in the second round.

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