Upstart Trojans bend, but don’t break, in holding off Humber’s Hawks

The SAIT Trojans took the court on Thursday night in classic 1980s-era yellow-and-green togs, in honour of the last Trojans squad to win a national men’s basketball title back in 1986. From there, the Men of Troy proceeded to deliver a classic performance.

Graduating veteran Emmanuel Chiek (5th-year post, Guelph, Ont.) was a monster under the net, with 31 points and 18 rebounds, and rookie Brett Pekar (1st-year wing, Calgary) delivered a ridiculous three-point bucket with 44.3 seconds left, as the No. 7-ranked Trojans upset the No. 2-seeded Humber College Hawks of Etobicoke, Ont., 75-68 in first-round action at the 2010 Canadian Colleges Athletic Association national championship tournament at the SAIT Campus Centre gym.

The Men of Troy led by as much as 17 points, and saw their advantage shrink to a slender four points three times in the final 3:30, but held their ground and now advance to a national semifinal against the Champlain College St-Lambert, Que., Cavaliers on Friday, March 19 at 8 p.m. MT.

“We were moving the ball. We were moving our bodies,” said third-year Trojans head coach Mike Stevens, a finalist for 2009-10 CCAA coach-of-the-year honours. “At times, maybe I left the guys out there a little too long . . . and we got into a little bit of one-on-one ball. I told these guys that if they started playing one-on-one ball with Humber, it was going to be a long, long night.

“But Emmanuel stepped up huge. Keenan (Milburn) hit some big shots. Brett Pekar hit some big shots. And down the stretch, we iced our free throws . . . and that’s the difference in a close game.”

The Hawks arrived in Calgary as Ontario Collegiate Athletic Association champions for the fourth time in six years, but a significant chunk of their starting lineup did not arrive with them. Co-captains Jadwey Hemmings (5th-year forward, Scarborough, Ont.), Jeremy Alleyne (3rd-year forward, Woodbridge, Ont.) and Daviau Rodney (3rd-year guard, Brampton, Ont.), the two-time OCAA championship tournament MVP, along with Mac Samuels (1st-year guard, Guelph, Ont.), were left off Humber’s national championship tournament roster for violating team protocol in the past two weeks.

“We decided a week ago that we were going to be coming with these 12 players. We weren’t going to focus on what we didn’t have or didn’t bring,” said sixth-year head coach Darrell Glenn. “Our focus has really been on the 12 men who’ve committed themselves all season long.

“We had a really poor first half, especially defensively,” added Glenn, whose club now moves on to a bronze-medal qualifier on Friday, March 19 at 3 p.m. MT. “We fought back in the second half. I thought we changed the tempo of the game. But to their credit, every time we seemed to be in a really nice flow, and on a run, they made shots and they made plays. That’s the mark of a very good team.”

Milburn (3rd-year guard, Royston, B.C.), contributed 16 points in a winning cause, while Pekar drained 10. J.R. Bailey (5th-year post, Toronto) replied with 22 points and 10 rebounds for the Hawks, while Michael Acheampong (2nd-year guard, Toronto) added 14.

Chiek, though, was the dominant force in the game, with 23 points in the first half alone: “Tonight, the shots opened up for him, so he hit them. Tomorrow, it may be on defence. He has the ability to affect the game in so many areas,” said Stevens.

Offered Chiek: “They were coming into our gym thinking they were just going to roll us over, but we showed ‘em we can play ball out here. We kept our passion, kept our poise, and played with a purpose.”

Pekar delivered the most memorable of shots in that final minute, throwing up an ill-advised three-point attempt – which bounced off the rim and straight up in the air, and fell through the hoop, resulting in pure bedlam among a partisan crowd of Trojan supporters. The long-distance bucket made it 70-63 and effectively ended any hopes of a Humber comeback.

“A typical rookie thing,” grinned Stevens. “They’re not smart enough to know that they shouldn’t, so they just let it go. And you can say it’s all natural, so . . . we’ll take it.”

On a more somber note, Trojans co-captain Fabian Warner (4th-year forward, Calgary), injured his right hand on a layup attempt and left the game early in the third quarter. The hard-luck Warner had already been playing with a sports hernia for about six weeks.

“I suspect it’s probably broken bones, so I think we might have lost him for the tournament, which is unfortunate,” said Stevens. “But that’s the beauty of our depth. Now, somebody else is going to get a shot to step in and go to work.”

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