Mariners To Play For Gold

The top team in the country, the VIU Mariners survived a scare from the fourth seeded Langara Falcons and recorded a 98-80 victory on Friday night in the men’s semi-final.

The Mariners trailed after three quarters and needed some hot shooting from Richard Henderson in the interior to regain the lead and ultimately push his club into the gold medal game.  Henderson scored 10 of his 19 points in the quarter as the Mariners shot 68% from the field in the final frame.  Tori Odom was a major factor running the offence and tallied a game high 28 points on 9 of 15 shooting.  Cameron Gay added 24 points and Akoi Yuot chipped in with 21 and grabbed 13 rebounds.

As a team the Mariners shot 47.7% and took advantage of their trips to the free-throw line knocking down 29 of 36.  They will head back to their 13^th straight PACWEST gold medal game where they will face the Capilano Blues at 8:00pm on Saturday.

The Falcons surprised everyone and pushed the Mariners to the brink.  Despite the fouls heavily against them they hung with the nation’s top team and took a lead into the fourth quarter but ran out of gas.  They shot 37.8% from the field and had a massive third quarter in which they knocked down eight-three pointers.  AJ Chahal collected 22 points and Allayasa Bray had a double-double of 20 points and 11 rebounds.   With the setback they will play for PACWEST bronze when they meet the Camosun Chargers at 3:00pm on Saturday.

Players of the Game:

Mariners – Cameron Gay
Falcons – AJ Chahal