ACAC Men's Basketball Championship
by ACAC Sports Writer Curtis J. Phillips
Throw the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) men's basketball rankings out the door.
Prior to this weekend's 2016-2017 Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Men's Basketball Championships, the CCAA had three ACAC teams in the Top 15 with the Medicine Hat Rattlers, No. 2; Red Deer Kings No. 12 and Concordia University of Edmonton Thunder at No. 14.
In the ACAC gold medal game Saturday it was the Lethbridge Kodiaks hitting the hardwood against the SAIT Trojans.
Lethbridge's first two games found them beating NAIT Ooks and the host Medicine Hat College Rattlers 80-77 and 78-66 respectively.
SAIT Trojans had made it to the finale by defeating Lakeland College Rustlers 86-74 and Red Deer College Kings 94-83.
In the regular season SAIT vs. Lethbridge series, SAIT had won two of the three matches, Lethbridge's lone victory was a high-scoring 109-104 double-overtime affair.
GOLD MEDAL GAME
Kodiaks held at 17-16 first quarter advantage only to see the Trojans take a 41-36 halftime lead.
Trojans took their first double-digit lead with 6:42 remaining in the third quarter on a Murphy Beya free throw 48-38.
Starting at 8:38 in the fourth period the Trojans went on a seven-point run to go up 70-54.
A John Smith three-pointer with 7:27 remaining was a huge shot giving the Trojans a 19-point cushion 73-54.
Dathon Spencer's layup with five minutes remaining gave the Trojans a 20-point spread 80-60.
The final score would be SAIT 85 Lethbridge 65.
Trojans' John Smith, a 6-foot-2 guard from Lacey, Washington, who averaged 20.8 points per game during the ACAC regular season, exploded for a game high 40 points
Chris Maughan, a fourth-year 6-foot-9 centre/forward from Queen Creek, Arizona , shot an impressive 10-for-15 from the field to lead the Kodiaks with 21 points. He also added 10 rebounds.
"We couldn't contain him," said Kodiaks coach Ryan Heggie of Smith. "Then he hit that big shot at the buzzer to put them up at the half. He is a good player."
Of the February 28, 2017 CCAA men's basketball rankings where neither the Kodiaks or Trojans were ranked: "We are playing in a competitive southern conference where the second, third and fourth teams all had 15-6 records. All it would take is one game to be knocked out of the championships.
"In our first match we were up against Mike Connolly's (ACAC and CCAA) defending champion NAIT Ooks and it was a heck of a game with them and we managed to pull it out.
"Then we had to go up against Medicine Hat, the No. 2 team in Canada who had yet to lose a regular season game (21-0). We are similar to them in that neither team relies on a star player. Our guys were ready to go and we played the best game of the season that night.
"We now have to take a day or two to absorb the weekend with the highs we had and the lows we had of losing the championship game. We are satisfied with the silver but for any true winner it will sting for a few days."
In an interview with SAIT Trojans Brody Mark, Sports Information & Media Consultant, Trojans coach head coach Marty Birky said of the championship: "Fantastic. Just fantastic. It's unbelievable This is such a difficult league. We started August 1, and we worked and worked and worked – both as a coaching staff and as a team. . . This is what we dreamed about all year. I'm so excited."
Smith also spoke to Mark, "I really wanted to come out and be aggressive the whole game. We kind of had a bit of a different game plan, but I figured if I just stayed aggressive, we were going to be alright down the stretch."
This is the 13th ACAC Men's Basketball banner for the Calgary school while the Kodiaks have won 10.
Bronze medal match Rattlers rattled the Kings 96-82 behind Guilherme Fuck's 21 point, 8 rebound, 3 blocks, and 6 assists performance.
Both teams qualify for the 2016-2017 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association Men's Basketball National Championship at Holland College in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island from March 15 - 18, 2017.