|
|
Our AA men's
team won their Regional championship this past weekend at Lionel-Groulx
College in Ste-Therese. In their first game, they beat a tough Montmorency
team 88-75. The first half went back and forth, with our
guys taking a 1 point lead into halftime. The game remained close
until the 4th quarter, when our stifling defence led to a run and
forced Momo to take a time out. Montmorency countered with a full
court press, but we executed our press break to perfection, and
got some easy baskets. This win assured them of a berth in the Provincial
championships. |
In our second game, the AA
men led Abitibi from start to finish, and blew them out by a score of
103-74. In the final, our AA men posted another easy victory,
beating Dawson 80-63.
| It was a
very impressive win for our AA team, particularly since they were
missing head coach Bengi Vidicek and assistant Julia Marta, who
were both occupied with the birth of their first child - Markus
Ivan Vidicek. Markus weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces at birth, and both
he and mother Julia are doing fine. Assistant coaches Mark Miller
and Sam Worrell led the AA team to the regional championship in
the absence of the proud new parents. |
|
Our AA team now has 2 weeks
to prepare to defend their Provincial championship, in Sorel.
|
|
Our
AAA men's team was in Kamloops, British Columbia this past week
for the CCAA national championships. Our first game was against
defending champion NAIT from Edmonton, and it was a classic. We
fell behind by 14 in the first half, but rallied and cut the deficit
to 3 at the half. The second half was back and forth, and we did
take the lead by 3 after a few minutes. But NAIT came back and took
the lead again. |
Finally, we were down 1 with
20 seconds left, when we missed on a drive. NAIT recoveed the ball and
we had to foul them. They made their 2 foul shots, leaving us down by
3. We had 4 3-point shooters on the court to try to tie the game along
with our big man (Jerreh Saidybah), and of all people Jerreh
hit a 3 with about 3 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime.
Unfortunately, we were a bit shorthanded, with 5 of our guys fouling
out, and we eventually lost 110-105 in overtime. We had trouble adjusting
to a very different style of officiating (our refs were all from B.C.),
and the fouls in the 2nd half and overtime were 27-13 against us. Dwayne
Buckley was named our Player of the Game, scroing 26 points and
grabbing 11 rebounds. Jerreh had 25 points and 13 rebounds. Paget
Berridge had 15 points, and Adrian Sapp had 14 points (he
was named the Sub of the Game). Damian Buckley had 10 points
and 6 assists.
The NAIT game really took a lot out of us, and we lost our next game
to Sheridan, 72-66. Our kids played hard, and we played all 12 guys,
to make sure everyone had the experience of playing at the Nationals,
but we had trouble shooting the ball, but we did not have the same jump
as in the first game. Adrain Sapp was our leading scrorer with
16 points, and he added 4 steals. He was both our Player of the Game
and Sub of the Game. Damian Buckley had 14 points and 5 assists.
Dwayne Buckley had 13 points and 7 rebounds.
We rebounded in our final game to beat Ontario champion Fanshawe 80-68.
Once again we played all 12 guys, and we got good contributions from
everyone. We took a 12-point lead in the first half, but leb by only
6 at halftime. We fell behind ny 4 in the 2nd half, but rallied and
took control of the game. Dwayne Buckley was our Player of the
Game, with 20 points and 8 rebounds. Damian Buckley had 19 points
and 8 assists. Jerreh Saidybah had 12 points and 5 rebounds.
Adrian Sapp was once again our Sub of the Game, with 8 points.
Although our 7th place finish was not what we had hoped for, our kids
represented Vanier extremely well. They played hard and showed class
throughout. I am very proud of their efforts, not only at the Nationals
but all season long. We had a great season and accomplished some great
things. Although we will be losing many of our key players, I am looking
forward to building on our success next season.
We were not the only ones disappointed. Champlain St. Lambert, the number
1 seed, lost to St. Thomas of New Brunswick in the semifinal by 1 in
a heartbreaker, and then they lost their final game to Sheridan by 29
to finish in 6th position.
Finally, a reminder that
AA alum Greg Davis will be having 2 readings from his novel Digging
for Philip this week in Montreal. He will be at the Vanier College Amphitheatre
on Wednesday at noon, and at the Double Hook Book Store on Greene Avenue
Thursday evening at 7:30.
Best regards,
Andy Hertzog
BASKETBALL
UPDATE 
