A little boasting here..

http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=380132

Brock wins national basketball title
Wayne Kondro, Canwest News Service
Published: Sunday, March 16, 2008


REUTERS/Chris Wattie
Members of the Brock Badgers celebrate with the W.P. McGee trophy after their win against the Acadia Axemen at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport men's basketball championship finals in Ottawa on Sunday.

OTTAWA - Their basketball histories and lives were so inextricably linked that it's a wonder they still had individual identities.

In various combinations, the Brock Badgers had played together on club teams, high school teams, provincial teams and in neighbourhood pickup games since the age of 12, and in some cases even younger.

That familiarity and their resulting faith in each proved the difference as the Badgers rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit to nip the Acadia Axemen 64-61 in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport men's basketball final Sunday at Scotiabank Place.

"We'll probably have a few drinks to celebrate, but, whatever we do, we'll do it together because that's how we won it, together," said guard Scott Murray, son of coach Ken Murray, who also coached Brock to its first CIS title in 1992.

"We didn't panic," said forward Dusty Bianchin, who made a pair of jump 15-foot jump shots in the final two minutes as the Badgers completed an improbable rally from being down 31-21 at halftime. "We were down 10, but we weren't shooting the ball well and we knew that we could get back on them. The team cohesion we have is unbelievable, and we all trust that each other can get the job done, particularly on defence."

Tournament MVP Owen White said a younger team might have lost its poise, but the veteran Badgers didn't.

"We didn't give up," White said. "Even when things weren't working well, we stayed positive and we kept working on them."

Another Badger, Rohan Steen, said the team had been up and down in its shooting all season, but Murray told them to keep firing.

"We know we're good shooters, so we just kept shooting," Steen said. "Whether it falls or not, we're going to shoot, and, when it falls, we win. There was never a doubt in my mind that we would win this. Check what I told the local papers (in St. Catharines). I guaranteed this win."

Steen added that the national title would cement lifelong friendships. "We get on each other's nerves every now and then, but we're friends forever now."

Murray, the coach, was left beaming - like any father would.

"I've been watching these kids play together since they were 12 years old, and I told them, with 10 minutes to play, ‘You can be the best in the country.' I'm really, really proud of them. I've watched them grow as individuals. What a fitting way for them to end their careers."

It certainly looked grim in the first half as the Badgers fell behind after shooting 8-for-23 (23 per cent) from the floor, including 3-for-18 from behind the three-point arc, producing their lowest scoring half on the season.

They clawed back into the game in the second half as point guard Brad Rootes began to attack the Acadia defence, and they knotted the score at 43 on a basket by White.

With the score tied at 50 heading into the final quarter, Paolo Santana used his quickness to restore Acadia's lead on driving layups and a banked three-pointer.

The Badgers, though, maintained their poise. Steen hit one three-pointer while Mike Kemp hit another, and Bianchin made a 15-footer off a pass from a Rootes with 1:45 to play to give Brock a 62-60 lead.

Acadia's Shawn Berry hit a free throw with 56.1 seconds remaining, and the Axemen got the ball back after the rebound of the second attempt was tied up. Steen stepped into a passing lane and stole the ball, though, which led to another 15-footer by Bianchin with 11.4 seconds remaining for insurance.

Acadia's Leonel Saintil, a former Ottawa high school star and this year's Atlantic conference player of the year, speculated the Axemen had a bit of a letdown after their 82-80 double-overtime upset of the top-seeded, five-time defending CIS champion Carleton Ravens in the semifinals on Saturday night.

"But no excuses," Saintil said. "They outplayed us. They were the better team. They came out with more energy in the second half, and we couldn't match that. They came out and wanted it more, I guess."

Acadia coach Les Berry said his team was badly outrebounded.

"They were really aggressive," Berry said of the Badgers. "They rebounded well and we got lost in transition a couple of times, and they hit some big three-point shots. That's what they do well."

Kemp paced Brock with 23 points, and White added 12. Santana led Acadia with 18 points. Shawn Berry contributed 14 and Saintil had 12.

In the fifth-place consolation final, the Laval Rouge et Or clipped the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 86-84.

Jean-Philippe Morin and Jean-Francois Beaulieu-Maheux paced Laval with 20 points each. Jerome Turcotte-Routhier 19.

Chris Dyck notched a tournament high 37 points for the Thunderbirds, while Blain LaBranche added 10.

Joining White on the all-tournament team were Saintil, Kemp, Beaulieu-Maheux and Acadia's Achuil Lual.

Ottawa Citizen