Huskies top Tommies; finish seventh in nation for CCAA Men's Basketball
For a third-straight day, the Keyano Huskies Men’s Basketball team played in a down-to-the-wire finish against their opposition, emerging victorious for the first time in their final game of the tournament.
The Huskies fended off a late charge in the fourth quarter to earn a 77-74 win against the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association’s (ACAA) St. Thomas University Tommies, earning seventh place at the tournament.
“You’ve got to find the energy and motivation to play in the last game of the year,” Head Coach Jeremy Wielenga said. “We got off to a slow start, but I was really happy that the guys found a way to win.”
With a roster that featured six members from the program’s first Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference’s (ACAC) Championship in 2024, they took charge in Friday’s finale to end their season and this era of Huskies’ basketball with a win.
The trio of Keenan Miller, Tafari Carefoote-Jones, and Efosa Omorogbe combined for 96 on-court minutes, including a full 40 by Miller, and 38 of the Huskies’ 77 points on the day.
“They’ve been around for a long time and we’ve been through a lot together,” Wielenga continued. “They really helped elevate the level of our program since day one.
“For them to finish it out on their terms and find a way to get a win, they’ve been so valuable to the program.”
DJ Haynes, not yet done but still a long-standing veteran of the program in his own right, added 21 points in 38 minutes of action. Evan Meyer collected a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
The Tommies led by a single point after the first quarter and at halftime. A 26-17 third quarter, the traditional striking point for the Huskies, pushed the ACAC Champions ahead by enough to withstand a fourth-quarter push by the Tommies, who had one last chance at a three-pointer to send the game to overtime, but couldn’t put it down.
The win wrapped up a frustrating week for the Huskies, though there is positivity within the overall picture.
Six of the first 11 games were decided by five points or fewer; the Huskies were involved in half of those. They’ll finish the tournament with a point difference of just negative-4, but end the tournament 1-2 at the same time.
From beyond the arc, the Huskies shot 34.9% against ACAC competition in the regular season to lead all teams. In their three games in Nanaimo, that figure sat at 24.2 percent.
From the glass-half-full side though, a fifth trip to CCAA Nationals in 15 seasons cemented the Huskies' place on the national stage, a second ACAC Championship run proved they were more than just a one-hit wonder, and a fourth ACAC podium in the past five seasons continued to affirm their position as one of the most successful teams within the athletics program.
"In the quarter-final we had some mistakes that we’d like to have back,” Wielenga continued. “When you play at this level, good teams make you pay. It’s tough when you get at this level; the margins are so thin.
“A couple things didn’t go our way, but an ACAC Championship is still really huge. That’s a special accomplishment for a great group of guys.”