DORIAN GEIGER
Sports Editor

HALIFAX — Coming home empty handed was not the outcome the No. 3 Huskies expected heading into the CIS Final 8 this weekend.

The Huskies were downed by the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 106-90 in the bronze medal match Sunday at the Halifax Metro Center.

Although this was a fight for third place, the Dogs were up against the best team in the country on paper. UBC and Saskatchewan have proven to be two of the highest scoring teams at the Final Eight and scored 279 points and 269 points, respectively.

UBC was relentless on Sunday, averaging nearly 28 points per quarter with their big guns Alex Murphy, Kamar Burke and Nathan Yu. Even with the absence of standout player Josh Whyte, UBC had minimal trouble in picking apart the Dogs’ defence.

Headed into halftime, the UBC Thunderbirds had a comfortable 64-46 advantage over Saskatchewan. The Tbirds established their dominance after a monstrous 16-2 run brought on by two technical fouls on Huskies’ head coach Barry Rawlyk and point guard Jamelle Barrett.

If a potent rivalry existed between these two teams, it wasn’t evident on the court — a lack of intensity on the Huskies’ part that coach Rawlyk blamed on exhaustion afterward.

“I just didn’t think our energy level was there today. I’ll attribute that to fatigue. It’s been a long weekend,” said Rawlyk.

“We had guys playing a lot of minutes. It just wasn’t there for us today,” he added.

If the Carleton Ravens’ Hinz was the primary source of frustration for the Huskies’ ailing defence yesterday, the Dogs had an even tougher time containing the vast depth of UBC’s offensive unit.

“They’ve got a lot of weapons,” said Rawlyk of UBC. “[Alex] Murphy obviously had a really good game. He’s a product of all the other guys they have too, so you know, they’re a very good — they’re one of the premium teams in the country.”

Rawlyk said the UBC bench was deep enough that the team did not need to rely on one or two key players.

It’s a mystery whether or not the Huskies would have fared differently with Greg Jockims, who is on leave for a year.

It’s up in the air whether or not Rawlyk will return to the Huskies program next season.

“The plan was all along that Greg [Jockims] is going to come back next season and he’s going to be the head coach again next year. Personally, if I’m going to be back with the program that remains to be seen,” said Rawlyk.

“I think either way — no I don’t think so. I think Barry gave it his all and Jockims would have done just as well doing the same job,” said forward Michael Lieffers who cashed in on 12 rebounds throughout the game.

In the end, some enormous dunks by Lieffers combined with Barrett’s perpetual ability to defy gravity and sink that perfect layup just weren’t enough for the Dogs. The closest the Huskies came in the later half of the game was following a layup by Barrett that made the score 89-79 and brought Saskatchewan within ten.

Regardless of the loss, the Huskies still have reason to hold their heads high; this season they were the first Huskies men’s contingent in the history of the program to uphold an 18-game winning streak.

Fifth year Huskies guard Trevor Nerdahl, having just played his final game of his CIS career, remained optimistic about the loss.

“It’s a tough way to go out, for sure, but I’m just thankful I had the opportunity to play Huskies basketball,” said Nerdahl.

“I had a great two years here. Last year obviously we got to go to the national championships and got to experience the highs and right now we’re definitely experiencing the lows. But all in all, I made a lot of friendships to last a lifetime,” added Nerdahl.

Nerdahl, who played with the Trinity West Spartans in 2006-07 missed out on his former team’s historic run that has placed them in the gold medal finals against Carleton.

Post-game reaction

Interview with coach Barry Rawlyk

Interview with Chris Unsworth

– –
image: CIS