Dal place sixth at Final 8

By Ian Froese and Armaan Ahluwalia, Staff Contributors

In the consolation final, the Dalhousie Tigers squandered their fourth quarter lead, took control, and then relinquished it again in the final seconds in a frantic final 1:20 of their season.

Jamie Searle sunk a three in the midst of Lakehead’s 11 – 2 point run to give his team a 79 – 76 advantage over the Tigers. They would later take the lead back to win 84 – 80. The Thunderwolves raised five fingers in their team photo to celebrate their national placing after the game. Dal finish sixth.

“I’m thinking a million things right now. It’s great to get that win, but it hurts for it to all be over like that,” said Searle, who sunk a team-high 19 points in his last university game. “I wish I had five, six more years to wear this T-wolves uniform.”

With an 80 – 79 edge, the Tigers failed to inbound the ball twice at 12 seconds to go, allowing Lakehead’s Greg Carter to steal the ball on the home side’s third opportunity. He sunk both his free throws to make it 81 – 79. It was the final lead change of the game.

The sixth place result is the Tigers best on the national stage.

“We struggled to get the ball inbounds. Obviously they made some key plays down the stretch and they made foul shots,” said Tigers head coach John Campbell. “They did good things in the last 30 seconds of the game.”

The Tigers were regularly exploited on the perimeter with the Thunderwolves sinking numerous three-pointers. Lakehead’s percentage was not spectacular, but they had 30 points from behind the arc. Ryan Thomson, player of the game, and Ben Johnson were each three-for-five.

Simon Farine fouled out with 1.4 seconds remaining to end his spectacular 31 point morning and a spectacular university career. He left the court to a standing ovation from many of the Tigers faithful in attendance.

“It’s incredible the support they’ve showed me and the team over the last couple years. We hope we gave them half as a good time as they gave us.”

Joseph Schow had 13 points and 11 rebounds in his final game. William Yengue had seven points.