Falcons work (double) overtime to set up all-Ontario bronze-medal brouhaha

The Fanshawe College Falcons worked overtime for this win. In fact, make that double overtime. But they’ll still have no problem getting motivated for their next challenge at the 2010 Canadian Colleges Athletic Association men’s basketball national championship, hosted by Calgary’s SAIT Polytechnic.

Thanks to a gruelling 91-88, double-OT win over the Champlain College Cavaliers of St-Lambert, Que., in a bronze-medal semifinal on Saturday afternoon, the London, Ont.-based Falcons will meet their old Ontario Colleges Athletic Association nemesis – the Humber College Hawks of Etobicoke, Ont. – for CCAA bronze tonight at 6 p.m. MT.

The Hawks knocked off the host Falcons 59-48 back on March 6 for the OCAA title.

“It feels good to get another crack at them,” said Fanshawe’s Pat Wright (4th-year post, Port Edward, Ont.), who scored 22 points in the win. “Humber’s a good team. I know they’re missing some guys (the Hawks did not bring veterans Jadwey Hemmings, Daviau Rodney, and Jeremy Alleyne for violating team policy), but any time you can play one of your rivals at the national level, it’s exciting.

“That day (in the OCAA championship game), they just outplayed us,” added Wright, whose Falcons handed the Hawks their only defeat of the OCAA season back on Nov. 25. “We know each other so well. That was a great defensive game, and this game is probably going to be very similar.”

The Hawks had qualified for the national bronze-medal game earlier Saturday with a 70-58 win over the Mount Saint Vincent University Mystics of Halifax.

Saturday afternoon, the Falcons and Cavaliers battled to a 74-74 tie after 40 minutes. Fanshawe took a 78-74 lead in the first five-minute OT session, fell behind 80-78, and needed a layup by Will Bradbury (1st-year guard, Kitchener, Ont.) with 14.7 seconds remaining to push the game to a second overtime period. Bradbury scored four more points in the first 3:38 of double overtime to stake the Falcons to an 87-84 lead.

The Cavaliers’ Yann Charles (3rd-year forward, Longueuil, Que.) was good for two buckets in the final 10.6 seconds, making it 89-88 Fanshawe, but Wright was credited with a layup at the buzzer to complete the scoring.

Bradbury led all players with 26 points, while Wright contributed 22. For the Cavaliers, Adam Chmielewski (3rd-year guard, Montreal) posted 25 points, while Charles was right behind him with 24.

St-Lambert, hoping to earn its second CCAA bronze medal in three years, heads home empty-handed.

“We had a chance to win it a couple of times at the end of the overtime, and we didn’t make the shots. But that’s OK,” said 13th-year Cavaliers head coach John Dangelas. “It’s been one of those tournaments.

“I think turnovers buried us this weekend,” added Dangelas. “We had bad turnovers at bad times. We didn’t take care of the ball.”

For live game webcasts, real-time stats, photo galleries, and recaps, visit the official CCAA national tournament website at http://www.sait2010.ca/