Kings fall short of medal, Broncos bring home bronze from nationals
MONTREAL — The RDC Kings opprtunity to go to the bronze medal game for the second year in a row came down to a couple of breaks.
The Kings missed two glorious scoring opportunities late, which ultimately cost them in an 80-79 loss to the Langara College Falcons of Vancouver in the bronze medal semifinal at the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association men’s basketball championships Saturday.
Trailing 78-76 the Kings missed a pair of free throws with six seconds remaining, then after stealing the ball a wide open pass to Jacob Cusumano, who had a layup, went astray.
The Kings fouled, the Falcons hit both and then Cusumano drilled a three point shot at the buzzer.
“It was really unfortunate as we had that chance to tie it twice, or even win it,” said Kings head coach Clayton Pottinger. “But it was one of those things. If things go our way we win.”
The Falcons went on to beat Sheridan College of Oakville, Ont., 99-93 in overtime in the bronze medal game. Meanwhile, the Vancouver Island University Mariners of Nanaimo, who beat the Kings in the opening round, captured gold with a 77-70 win over the Holland Hurricanes of Charlottetown, PEI.
“There were no easy teams in the field,” said Pottinger. “We played well two of the three games and it didn’t work out for us.”
The only game Pottinger felt they didn’t play well was their opener against the Mariners.
The Kings can only blame themselves in the loss to the Falcons as they managed to connect on only nine of 20 free throws. The Falcons were good on 23 of 32. Other than that the Kings held an edge in the majority of the statistics.
“One of the problems was we ran into foul trouble again and it’s hard to get anything going when you don’t have your best players available all the time,” said Pottinger, who wasn’t about to criticize the officiating.
“I can’t comment on that, it was unfortunate we didn’t have our best players available at times, but it was also some bad luck.”
Pottinger will take a few days off to relax before seeing who will be back next year and who he has coming in for recruits.
“The guys need to catch up on their school work and then we’ll talk,” he said, adding “we know what it takes to compete at the nationals and what we need to do next season.”
Last year the Kings placed fourth.
Rob Pierce, who was selected to the second all-star team, led the Kings with 23 points and 17 rebounds. Cusumano had 12 points, six boards and four assists, Mari Peoples-Wong 12 points, Lloyd Strickland nine points, seven rebounds, four assists and four steals while Demaine Nelson had 10 points, nine rebounds and three assists.
Broncos 72 Thommies 65
TRURO, N.S. — Their first season at the CCAA level proved to be a successful one for the Olds College Broncos.
The Broncos, riding player of the year Jylisa Williams, downed the St. Thomas University Thommies of Fredericton, N.B., 72-65 in the bronze medal game Saturday.
Williams pumped in 39 points and grabbed seven rebounds in the hotly contested affair that saw 13 lead chances. However, it was the Broncos who pulled away late.
Williams poured in 42 points and had 11 rebounds in the 72-55 semifinal win over VIU. Melanie Hogue grabbed 20 rebounds.
Williams was named to the first all-star team and Hogue to the second.
Montmorency Normades of Laval, Que., captured their second straight national title with a 58-42 win over Dawson College of Montreal.
The Normades handed the Broncos their only loss of the tournament.
COMMENTS
Let's keep comments:
We ask that all participants own their words by logging in with their Facebook account. It's a simple process that will take seconds and helps keep our comments free of trolls, cranks, and “drive-by” commenters.
We reserve the right to remove comments from anyone using screen names, pseudonyms or false identities. Please see our FAQ if you have questions or concerns about using Facebook to comment.