Redmen upset No. 2 CBU, will play for fifth

(OTTAWA, Ont.) – It's a game no team wants to play in, but you couldn't tell from the way the Cape Breton Capers and McGill University Redmen were battling on the court Saturday afternoon at Scotiabank Place.

In the opening consolation game of the day at the CIS men's basketball Final Eight, it was McGill who emerged victorious, coming away with an 86-84 win in a thrilling overtime contest.

The game featured a classic matchup of a high-powered offence going up against a shutdown defence.

The 86.5 points per game scored by the Capers in the regular season was good enough for third in the country, while the Redmen pride themselves on stopping the opponents. The latter held teams to a measly 62.9 points on average this year, the second best mark in the nation.

Something had to give.

Led by guard Winn Clark and his eight points, the Redmen took an 18-14 lead into the second quarter.

That's when the pace began to pick up.

The two teams, each well-represented in the crowd, exchanged baskets in the stanza, going up and down the floor at will. It's exactly the type of game that favours the Capers high-octane offence, and they took advantage, heading into the break with 35-33 lead.

The contest continued to go back and forth all afternoon long, but it was the RSEQ champions who were able to outlast the second-ranked AUS titlists for what head coach Dave DeAveiro called an "important" win for Quebec and the RSEQ conference.

"Over the years the conversation has been whether or not we deserve to be here," he said after the game. "Our league is getting stronger and I think people need to be aware of how good the basketball is in Quebec."

The Redmen were led by a balanced approach on offence, as four players scored 14 points or more. Of that group, Adrian Hynes-Guery was the high-scorer with 20, while Vincent Dufort recorded a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds.

"We're a team, we don't have one superstar so for us to be successful we have to play like a team," DeAveiro said.

Meanwhile, the Capers were led by all-Canadian and two-time AUS MVP James Dorsey, who scored a tournament-high 39 points, singlehandedly bringing his team back from a fourth-quarter deficit and forcing the game into overtime with 15 points in the frame.

Three-pointers, drives to the basket and mid-range jumpers, the six-foot-two guard from Baltimore was doing it all.

With the Capers down by two, Dorsey drew a foul with only 0.2 second remaining in regulation and went to the line with the game on his shoulders. One miss and the season – as well as his Cape Breton career – officially came to an end.

He calmly nailed both shots.

"[Dorsey] is one of the best players to ever play at [Cape Breton], and he was going to go out the way he wanted to," Capers head coach Matt Skinn said. "Just a great performance by him and he carried us in the fourth quarter."

But despite his best efforts, the Redmen duo of Hynes-Guery and Dufort combined for eight points to lead the sixth-ranked team to victory as Dorsey missed a desperation three at the buzzer.

After missing out on the win in such disparaging fashion at the end of regulation, it would have been easy for the Redmen to quit in overtime.

"I was disappointed in the way regulation finished, but we've been resilient all year," DeAveiro said. "We never quit. That's the thing I'm most proud of about our team, we never quit."

DeAveiro and his men will have one more chance to pick up a win for Québec when they compete in the fifth-place game, which tips-off at 11 a.m. on Sunday morning and will be broadcasted live at www.CIS-SIC.tv.

They will play the winner of today's second consolation game between the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds and the University of Victoria Vikes.

Meanwhile, the Capers tournament has now come to an end thanks to two consecutive losses.

Source: CIS Communications