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Written by Gina Iaquinta
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Monday, 08 March 2010 18:50 |
MRU team vows to do better next year
North conquered South in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference men’s basketball championships held at Mount Royal University last weekend.
The NAIT Ooks came out on top with the gold medal, followed by the Grant MacEwan Griffins with the silver.
For the two Calgary teams, it came down to a battle for bronze with the SAIT Polytechnic Trojans walking away with third place after a 90-71 win over the Cougars, leaving MRU in fourth place.
“It came down to the team who wanted it the most,” said SAIT’s head coach Mike Stevens. “Having missed the playoffs for the past two seasons, we were happy to take bronze.”
Cougars' Cam Dodd (14) goes up for a basket as Trojan's guard Josh White (7) attempts the block in MRU's battle against SAIT last Saturday evening in the bronze medal game of the ACAC championships. The Trojans took the game, 90-71.
Photo: Gina Iaquinta/Calgary Journal
MRU’s head coach Marc Dobell said: “It was a tough weekend for us. We had a good year but this weekend we didn’t play well and I don’t think we had the energy.”
He said his team lacked the urgency they had played with for most of the season.
The Cougars played Friday night against Grant MacEwan for a chance to advance to the gold medal game, but were unable to come out with a win.
“We came here for gold and when we didn’t win that it was tough to get up for a third-place game,” Dobell said.
On Friday they played to win, said MRU’s Ian Tomaszewski. “It was a tough game, we got out-played and it was a hard loss.”
He said that, as a team, their hearts were not in the game against SAIT.
“After a heartbreaking loss on Friday it was hard to come out and give our full potential (the next day),” Tomaszewski said. "Saturday’s game was about having fun."
The Cougars’ Cam Dodd agreed that as a team they just really weren’t into it on Saturday.
“We’re done, so as a team we were pretty low energy, we battled hard but it wasn’t hard enough,” he said.
Dodd said if the team could re-do last weekend, they’d come out with more passion and try to be more focused.
It would have been nice to send the players who are in their fifth and final season off with a win, he added, “but it was fun to play with everyone for one last time.”
As for next year, this has put a very bitter taste in their mouths, said Dodd. “So next season we want to come out fighting and get back to that final four and back in finals.”
“We’re going to be a lot hungrier for the championship next year and we’ll come out fighting a lot harder for it,” Dodd said.
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