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Wednesday, March 21, 2001 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Silver lining at nationals By Matt Ross SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Shutting down potent Humber College to a paltry 55 points during the championship final should have been enough to secure the Sheridan Bruins men's basketball team its third Canadian College Athletic Association tide. However, Sheridan only scored 51, itself, allowing the Hawks to capture their fifth CCAA trophy at home on Saturday. Humber's score was the lowest winning total in the 27-year history in a CCAA final while the combined 106 points from both teams also set the new nadir for offensive futility. Bruins' coach Jim Flack refused to criticize his squad for its inability to find the basket. While Sheridan hit on a paltry 30 per cent of its shots, Flack insteacf rushed to praise his defence. "We are the best defensive team in the country, bar none, but it (offensive woes) caught up to us in the final." There was no indication the Bruins, or the Hawks for that matter, would bury themselves in a scoring funk. Sheridan connected on its first five shots, jumping out to an 11-4 lead. Elvis Dennis potted eight points in 10 minutes, including two 3balls, as Sheridan stretched its lead to 22-15. Then, inexplicably, the Bruins went frigid, making just 6/28 on their tries the rest of the half after the torrid start as the teams headed to the lockers even at 29. Sheridan's shooting percentage continued to plummet when the team managed only nine field goals in the second half. It certainly was n't for the lack of opportunities, though, with the Bruins out-rebounding Humber 35-26 in the match, including a thorough 19-6 domination on the offensive glass. Fourth-year centre Ricardo Edwards exemplified the Bruins statis tics. He yanked down six rebounds but only netted five points, all in the first half, as he shot just 1/9 from the floor. "I feel like I didn't do what I was supposed to do and part of this loss is my fault," said Edwards. The offensive offences were masked by the excitement of the final ten" minutes where the margin of difference rarely wavered by more than the final four-point spread. After Hugh Bent's three-pointer gave Sheridan its last lead, 42-41, the Bruins were held scoreless for more than six minutes but only sur rendered eight points to Humber during that stretch. Bent ended the drought and with five quick points, he pulled Sheridan back to 51-49 with less than a minute remaining. If it wasn't for Bent's efforts in the second half, Sheridan's offense would have bor dered on the anemic. The third-year forward was good on 7/11 for 17 points while his teammates combined for a mere 2/21, many from in close, and five points in the second half. Bent led all scorers with 21 points and seven rebounds and he realized that as he had the hot hand, he needed to get the rock. "I just wanted to win this game. All through this tournament every one (at different times) stepped up and you just do what you have to do to win." With Sheridan coming within a bucket at 51-49 with 40 seconds remaining, Cornell Brown, named the tournament MVP, was instru mental in preserving the Humber victory. His gorgeous rainbow lay-up with a dozen seconds left stretched Humber's lead to 53-49. A quick Denton Daley hoop reduced the deficit back down to 53-51 for Sheridan, but they were then forced to foul Humber. And Brown knocked down both free throws with four seconds left to secure the national trophy. Coach Flack displayed few regrets about the loss, stating Sheridan stayed within its planned defence in keeping Humber to a 42 per cent shooting clip. Not bad, considering the Hawks had the benefit of a home court and the allegiance of most of the 1,800 in atten dance. "We were a team hardly ranked (nationally) to come to losing the final in the other team's house by four," said Flack. From the season's outset, there wasn't an indication by the CCAA that Sheridan would take a stab at its first title since 1990. On the periphery of the national rankings, the Bruins wouldn't even crack the top ten until finishing 11-4 in the regular season of the cen tral division last month, earning them the #9 spot. Beating Humber at the provincial final in Ottawa solidified a thirdseed over the weekend but there were still lingering questions. Preliminary round wins against Langara (Vancouver) and Grant MacEwan (Edmonton), 70-65 and 85-82 (OT), respectfully, erased any lingering doubt, but the pain of losing the final still hurts. "Being that close is never easy to accept, whether you're ranked or not," said Bent, who was named to the tournament's first all-star team. "Even though we won our way to the nationals, we were still doubt ed and this tournament proved we are one of the best teams." Fifth meeting for* local arch rivals By Steve Walker SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER The Sheridan Bruins gave their heart and soul but were narrowly defeated 55-51 by the Humber Hawks for the gold medal at the CCAA National Basketball Championships over the weekend at Humber. It was a painful loss by the Oakville squad who won two preliminary round thrillers before losing to their arch rivals from Toronto. It was only fitting that Humber and Sheridan should hook up in a battle for Canadian college supremacy. They had already met four times -- three regular season games and once for the Ontario championship (which Sheridan won in double OT) -- and each team had won twice. So, this was the tie-breaker for it all -- the explosive Hawk offence against the ferocious Bruin defence which deeply concerned Humber head coach Mike Katz: "Sheridan is as good a defensive team as I've seen in years." Sheridan came out strong and controlled most of the first half building a 24-15 lead. Humber got untracked over the final five minutes of the half and put together a 14-5 run to make it 29-29 at the break. The closely played match continued in the second half. After four ties and six lead changes, the Bruins led it 42-41 with five minutes left. The Hawks, stifled all night long by the ferocious Bruin defence, got things going on offence and scored eight in a row to take a 49-42 lead. But, the neversay-die Bruins came back on a 7-2 run to make it 51-49 with 40 seconds left. A Humber put-back made it 53-49 but Sheridan scored to make it 53-51 and immediately fouled the Hawks. All Canadian guard and tournament MVP Cornell Brown went to the line and drilled both free throws to seal the win and the gold for Humber. Sheridan did a great job defensively and outrebounded Humber 53-40 (23-6 offensively) but shot a dismal 30.3 per cent from the field to seal their fate. It was a gutsy effort for the Bruins and while they were extremely disappointed with the loss, they came a long way over the last few months and proved a lot of people wrong along the way. "Being this close to winning the gold is never easy to accept" said Bruins forward Hugh Bent, who finished with a game high 21 points and was named a first team tourna ment all-star. "We struggled early in the season and a lot of people did n't respect us. But, we came together as a team and we proved to everyone that we can play with anyone and we're as good as anyone in the country." Point guard Elvis Dennis, who added 10 points in the final, and also was a first team, all tournament all-star, added: "We gave it everything... we never gave up, but we just fell short." The Bruins showed a lot of their heart in preliminary action. (Quarterfinal) In their quarterfinal game, they trailed Langara (B.C.) (See 'Bruins' page D4) TOP LEFT: super fan Kent Barr, a Sheridan business student. TOP RIGHT: Ricardo Edwards goes up for the lay-up. BOTTOM: intensity by this unidentified Sheridan player. Photos by Erin Riley