The Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA)Men's Basketball National Championship took place last week at John Abbott College (JAC) in Ste. Anne de Bellevue and the Islanders finished in 6th place with a record of 1-2.
The seven best collegiate teams in the country plus the host team of John Abbott were competing for the honours this weekend. It was do or die at every game since the winner would have to obtain a 3-0 record to take home the championship.
The sixth-seeded Vancouver Island VIU Mariners won the gold by defeating the fifth-seeded Holland College Hurricanes (P.E.I.) 77-70 Saturday night in the finals. Earlier on, the Langara College Falcons (Vancouver) had won the bronze medal against the Sheridan College Bruins (Toronto) by winning the game 99-93.
The Islanders ended their tournament early Saturday morning by losing to Sheridan College 85-58 in a Bronze-medal qualifying game. They had previously beaten the other representative of Quebec, Champlain College, 73-62 in the consolation semi-final on Friday afternoon.
The Islanders' hopes of taking home the gold had evaporated quickly Thursday when they had lost their tournament opener against the first-seeded Langara College in a one-sided match. Langara had jumped to an early 11-0 lead in the first four minutes of the game and never looked back, maintaining an over 20-point gap through most of the game and winning 90-63.
"We couldn't get by that gap. They just have more experience. They're older. My guys played hard and I couldn't expect anything more from them," said Islanders' head coach David King.
