Mariners Claim Silver

Dynamiques de Brebeuf 62
VIU Mariners 61

The men’s CCAA national championship game was a wild one in front of a sold out, wild crowd on the campus of VIU in Nanaimo on Saturday night. 

With the very pro-Mariner crowd a factor, the RSEQ champion Dynamiques did their best to quiet them early, jumping out to a 19-14 lead after the first quarter.  However, the crowd was not quiet for long. 

In the second, the Mariners offence came alive much to the delight of their faithful fans.  They outscored the Dynamiques 29-13 in the frame and took a 39-32 lead into halftime.

After the break the scoring was hard to come by as the Dynamiques went on a 12-9 run to cut the lead to four heading into the final quarter, for all the marbles.   With the teams trading punches in the fourth, the Dynamiques went on a run late on corner three ball with mere seconds remaining.  In a last second effort, the Mariners just didn’t have enough time to execute and the Dynamiques captured the program’s first ever gold medal.

It was one of the most exciting games in CCAA history as the Mariners scored a silver medal for the second time in program history and eighth national medal overall.  They shot 33% during the game led by the Player of the Game Keyonte Beals and his 18 points, eight rebounds and three assists. Winston Cole added 15 points in the setback and Kai Leighton collected seven and 13 rebounds.

This game also marks the end of the Matt Kuzminski coaching era at VIU as he and the rest of the coaching staff will move on next season.  Thank you for your dedication to the PACWEST and men’s basketball at VIU.