Alberta champs end on a winning note, dropping Dynamiques with late surge

His team started the season with a win, and ended it with a win. And even if that last victory was the consolation final at the 2010 Canadian Colleges Athletic Association men’s basketball national championship, it was more than enough for Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) Ooks head coach Don Phillips.

“Definitely something to build on,” said Phillips, the second-year head coach of the Edmonton-based Ooks, who dispatched the CEGEP de Ste-Foy, Que., Dynamiques 93-79 in Saturday afternoon’s seventh-place game at Calgary’s SAIT Polytechnic. “My team’s a young team. They look like men, but a lot of them are fresh out of high school.

“And for us as a group to come together with so many new faces . . . I think it was about nine new faces . . . and to be able to be achieve what we did, it was a tremendous accomplishment. We have nothing to hang our heads about.”

The Ooks and Dynamiques, who both entered Saturday’s game on the heels of two straight losses at this CCAA national tournament, were deadlocked 60-60 after three quarters. But the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference champions pulled away over the final 10 minutes with 33 points to wrap up their schedule on a winning note.

NAIT shot 70.3 per cent in the second half, as Gerard Mozwa (1st-year guard, Toronto) finished the afternoon with 32 points, including four three-point buckets. Daniel Perepeluk (2nd-year forward, Thompson, Man.) drained 18 points for NAIT.

“We finally found our stroke,” said Phillips with a laugh. “You know how it goes. We play like that earlier (in the weekend), probably a different story. But we’re one of the (CCAA’s) top eight, and we’re the No. 7 team in the country. Last year we weren’t even on the radar.”

The Dynamiques, who entered nationals with a No. 4 ranking after winning their first Federation Quebecoise du Sport Etudiant (FQSE) title in school history, struggled during their inaugural appearance at the CCAA championship tournament.

“It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong. I think we came out a little flat in the first game, and that might have set a tone for the rest of the tournament,” said Ste-Foy captain Olivier Lefebvre (3rd-year guard, Quebec City). “Maybe we just weren’t ready enough to face the competition we had here. But it was a good experience, the first nationals for our program. And we’re going to build on that.”

The Dynamiques’ Robinson Odoch Opong (4th-year guard, Quebec City) was the game’s top scorer with 33 points, including five treys, and completed his double-double with 13 rebounds. Boris Hadzimuratovic (2nd-year post, Quebec City) helped the Ste-Foy cause, with 17 points.

“It was a big tournament, with teams from all over the nation, and a big gym like this, and being on (an internet webcast). That’s something we’re not used to,” said Lefebvre. “But if we want to play on this stage, we’re going to have to get used to it as a program.”

Saturday night’s CCAA national final, set to tip off at 8 p.m. MT, will see the No. 1-ranked University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) Northern Timberwolves take on the host SAIT Trojans, seeded No. 7.

That game will be preceded by an all-Ontario bronze-medal game, with the No. 2-ranked Humber College Hawks of Etobicoke battling the No. 8 Fanshawe College Falcons of London.