By Natasha White, Staff Contributor
It was electric. It was how it should be.
The final three minutes at the Tigers’ last home game of the season versus the St. Mary’s Huskies was a sports fan’s dream. The intense clash between Halifax rivals came down to the wire and the crowd was roaring. Every possession was critical. Every missed free throw would come back to haunt the losing team. Every turn-over, steal, made or missed three single-handedly made the difference in the outcome of this basketball spectacle. Sadly, it would be Dal’s misses that had them on the losing end of this passionate effort.
The final score was 70-68. While the referees didn’t cause missed threes or free throws, they did do a little missing themselves. In the final minutes of the game, the refs somehow neglected to call a most obvious goal-tending violation by St. Mary’s. This gave the Huskies an undeserved two-point advantage, coincidently reflecting the final margin of victory. However, best not to dwell on what should have been.
What was is a much better story. Tiger guards Simone Farine and Andrew Sullivan each marked the game with major milestones. Farine surpassed the 1,000 career point mark Saturday night, joining a select few in Tiger history. Coach Campbell even flashed a rare sideline smile as he congratulated Simon. Despite an extremely concentrated defensive effort by St. Mary’s to shut Farine down, he scored 26 points, made seven assisted, and was the top rebounder for Dal with 10. The battle of the AUS scoring leaders of Huskie guard Joey Haywood sitting number one (averaging 24 per game) and Tiger Simon Farine sitting two (averaging 22 per game), was won by Dal’s own. Farine, who played the full 40 minutes, put in his usual outstanding effort, earning once again Player of the Game. Tiger fans should be quite thankful that we haven’t seen the last of the six-foot-two-inch co-captain.
Andrew Sullivan however, did play his last home game Saturday night. The fifth-year environmental engineering student epitomized a stellar career with his final effort of the evening. With Dal down by two and 1.6 seconds to go, Sully sacrificed it all as he dove for the ball during St. Mary’s final in-bound. He looked like a linebacker on the non-existent football team, as he took out the cushioned divider that thankfully broke his fall.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to gain possession for Dal. But you have to love Sullivan’s unfailing heart. Dal loses not only a team leader and co-captain, but the number six assist leader in the AUS and a top 15 steal leader. Sullivan’s success extends off the court: he is a five-time academic all-Canadian and Dalhousie nominee for the prestigious Rhodes scholarship.
In a recent interview with Coach Campbell, Sullivan earned high praise for his contributions to the team. Sullivan’s quiet confidence and timely threes will be sorely missed. Without a doubt Sully will be remembered as a pivotal piece in the 2009 AUS Championship team, as well as one of the best-rounded students at Dalhousie to don a Tiger uniform.
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