Game recap by Kirk Jessome
(Halifax, NS) – In the final matchup for day 2 of the Rod and Joan Shoveller Memorial Basketball Tournament, the host Dalhousie Tigers took on the Memorial Sea-Hawks. A strong second quarter from the Tigers helped push them to an 80-66 win to play for the championship.
The Tigers came out with energy with Keevan Veinot (Port Williams, NS) threw up a lob to Sascha Kappos (Miami, FL) at the rim for a two-handed dunk in the opening minute.
Coming back the other way, the Sea-Hawks were making great use of the transition game for quick hits in the paint, specifically capitalizing on the work of Deng Ring (St. John's, NL) for 7 points in the opening quarter including a big dunk of his own in the late minutes.
Holding for the last possession of the quarter, the Tigers shot was swatted away by Nicholas Tuff (St. John's, NL) but the Tigers still held a 25-19 lead going into the second.
It was only a matter of time before each team's shooter came alive in the game, and the second quarter saw both Jason Thompson (St. John's, NL) and Alex Carson (Lower Sackville, NS) hit from long range.
The Sea-Hawks size in the paint was being neutralized in the second quarter by the aggressive guard defence of the Tigers not allowing them space to work the ball inside, and as a result, a big lead opened up.
As the Tigers shooters were heating up with Carson and Veinot knocking down two each from deep, the Sea-Hawks were held to just 5 points in the quarter and the Tigers carried a 44-24 lead into the break.
The energy of the Sea-Hawks defence increased coming out of the break, forcing the Tigers into late clock shots from the outside and getting stops, but they were still struggling to get it done on the other end to cut into the Tigers lead.
The Sea-Hawks were able to chip away at the deficit as they continued to frustrate the Tigers shooters, and with Ring continuing to go to work in the paint, but heading into the fourth quarter the Tigers still led 59-44.
The Tigers brought the energy coming out of the timeout, with Jordan Brathwaite (Milton, ON) connecting on a three through contact for a four-point play to start the quarter before Kappos finished off another two-hand dunk to swing the momentum back the other way.
Getting down by as many as 28 in the fourth quarter, the Sea-Hawks refused to go away in the game, with Ring and Jeff Damalie (Accra, Ghana) working in the paint to bring it back to a 20-point game.
The lead was too much to come back from, however, as Matt McVeigh (Halifax, NS) knocked down a pair of shots from deep and the Tigers came away with the 80-66 win.
The Tigers will move on to face Concordia in a rematch game for the championship tomorrow at 1:00 while the Sea-Hawks will play CBU for 3rd.