The UVic Vikes dropped two tough games at the Canada West Final Four men鈥檚 basketball tournament in Saskatoon on the weekend, as the stellar university career of Ryan MacKinnon came to an unexpected halt.
The #2 seed Vikes fell 63-62 to the #3 seed Fraser Valley Cascades on Friday, March 2 and then were bumped 90-85 by #1 seed Saskatchewan Huskies in the bronze medal game on Saturday, March 3.
Duncan Jones proved the Vikes' undoing on Saturday, He had a career-high 40 points, going 13-17 from the field and a career-best nine 9-10 from beyond the arc.
He hit three three-pointers in the final five minutes of the third quarter, helping the Huskies to a nine- point lead at the quarter break.
Victoria made a fourth quarter push but it was too little too late. Fifth-year guard MacKinnon was fouled while shooting a three-pointer and converted all three free throws, making the score 86-84 with 1:10 remaining. But that was as close as Victoria would get as they were unable to make a field goal in the final minute of play.
MacKinnon led the Vikes with 24 points. The former Highland Raider stalwart scored 15 points on Friday, where UVic once again fell behind early and could not dig themselves out of the hole.
The win gave the Huskies a chance at a wild card berth to the CIS Final Eight, which goes March 9-11 in Halifax.
However, on Sunday afternoon a committee of CIS coaches awarded the at-large berth to the Lakehead Thunderwolves.
The T-wolves were ranked no lower than fourth the entire season in the weekly national coaches鈥� poll, including No. 2 nods each of the last seven weeks. They finished atop the OUA West standings with a sparkling 20-2 record before being upset by Ryerson, 86-70, in the conference semifinals.
The seeding was announced Sunday night for the 2012 CIS Final Eight, hosted by Atlantic University Sport. The tournament kicks off Friday at the Metro Centre in Halifax with the quarter-final round and culminates Sunday at 4:30 p.m. Atlantic Time with the gold medal final.
Joining OUA champion and No. 1 seed Carleton University Ravens will be the No. 2 Alberta Golden Bears (Canada West champions), No. 3 Concordia Stingers (RSEQ champions), No. 4 Lakehead Thunderwolves (at-large berth), No. 5 Fraser Valley Cascades (Canada West finalists), No. 6 St. Francis Xavier X-Men (AUS finalists), No. 7 Ryerson Rams (OUA finalists) and No. 8 Acadia Axemen (AUS champions).
All games from will be webcast by SSN Canada (ssncanada.ca), while EastLink TV will have live broadcasts of the semifinals and final.
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