News Feed
Mount Royal Cougars Win ACAC Men's Basketball Championship
(Submitted by Todd Warnick)
The Mount Royal College Cougars Men’s Basketball team emerged from the 2008-09 ACAC Final Four as the ACAC Men’s Basketball Champions. The event was hosted by the North Division Champion Concordia University College of Alberta Thunder, who finished the regular season 21-3 to lead the North Division; the other three teams to advance to the Final Four were all South Division representatives. The eventual champions and South Division leaders the Mount Royal Cougars (18-2) the second place South Division team Red Deer College Kings (15-5) and the third place South Division Lethbridge College Kodiaks (14-6).
The opening game of the Final Four Friday, March 6th saw a familiar divisional match up as the Mount Royal Cougars took on the Lethbridge College Kodiaks. Mount Royal would jump out to an early lead in the opening quarter to hold a slim 19-15 advantage after ten minutes of play. However the Kodiaks would surge forward in the second out scoring Mount Royal 25-13 to enter the half with a 40-32 lead. The second half of play saw much of the same as both teams battled to gain the advantage playing even throughout the third quarter. It would be the fourth quarter were the Cougars were able to gain the advantage outscoring the Kodiaks 25-14 to take a slim three point lead to the final buzzer with Mount Royal winning by a final score of 72-69 to advance to the final. Logan Mendenhall would lead the charge for the Kodiaks in the loss with 29 points on a 10 for 18 shooting night. Mount Royal would be led by Steve Trinidad with 18 points and 4 rebounds while the Cougars Cam Dodd would add 14 points and 6 rebounds.
In the second semi-final match-up Friday March 6th the host Concordia Thunder would tip-off against the RDC Kings for the right to advance to the ACAC Final. The game was closely contested throughout with neither team able to gain more than a single digit lead at the end of each quarter. In typical playoff basketball fashion it would be the closing minutes that determined the outcome as late in the fourth quarter Concordia secured a slim lead out scoring Kings 24-21 in the final frame for the Thunder win an exciting 81-80 decision and advance to the final. RDC was led by Adam Jones who posted a game high 22 points and 5 rebounds in the loss, while the Thunder would be led by Jason Burke who anchored Concordia with 19 points and 11 rebounds.
Saturday March 7th the Bronze medal game featured the RDC Kings and the Lethbridge College Kodiaks. Lethbridge started the game with a strong first half taking a 54-29 lead at the break. The Kodiaks would ride the momentum of their strong start to defeat Red Deer by a final score of 91-62 as the Kodiaks would win the 2008-09 ACAC Bronze Medal. Adam Shaw would lead the Kings in the game with 21 points while the Kodiaks Brendan Blood would score a game high 22 points and haul in 10 rebounds in the game.
The ACAC Championship game would feature the both divisional champions as the Concordia Thunder and the Mount Royal Cougars would battle for the ACAC Championship. The Cougars gained the advantage early taking a slim four point lead into half with the score 36-32 in favour of Mount Royal at the end of the first two quarters. The second half would remain close until the fourth quarter when Mount Royal was able to outscore Concordia 19-12 in the final frame to win the ACAC Championship by a score of 81-68. The Thunder were led by Adnan Hajdarevic with 24 points and 5 rebounds while the Cougars were led by Cam Dodd with a game high 26 points and 5 rebounds. The 2008-09 ACAC Championship marks the 11th time the Mount Royal Cougars have claimed the title.
