In legend, the griffin was thought of as the king of all creatures. At the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) women’s basketball championships held at Olds College from Feb. 28 to March 2, Griffins were the queens of the court.
In legend, the griffin was thought of as the king of all creatures.
At the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) women’s basketball championships held at Olds College from Feb. 28 to March 2, Griffins were the queens of the court.
After an undefeated run in the eight-team tournament, Edmonton’s Grant MacEwan University Griffins, the No. 1 seeded team in the tournament, claimed the gold medal after a thrilling battle with Camrose’s University of Alberta Augustana Vikings on the evening of March 2.
With lively fans from both schools occupying stands on either side of the main court at the Ralph Klein Centre, the No. 2 seed Vikings, who finished first in the ACAC tied with the Griffins, came out of the gate strong and led the game for two quarters.
After coming out of the half ahead 36-32, however, Augustana surrendered the lead midway through the third quarter when the Griffins went on a run that put them ahead 55-50 before the start of the final frame.
The Vikings had trouble finishing their shots in the second half and although they managed to stay within as much as six points of the Griffins, MacEwan was able to keep Augustana at bay and win the championship with a score of 74-65.
MacEwan’s Bayan Kurd, who scored 18 points in the final, was named the tournament’s MVP and took the first turn at cutting down the basket netting.
In the bronze medal game held on the afternoon of March 2, the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) Ooks went head-to-head with the Lethbridge College Kodiaks for third-place honours in the most exciting contest of the championship.
In the first and second quarters, the Kodiaks were ahead until the dying minutes of each frame when NAIT would rebound to take the lead by a slim margin.
At the half, the Ooks were ahead 30-27 but Lethbridge tied the game 46-46 to end the third quarter.
Lethbridge’s Brooke Taylor flushed a huge three-pointer at the 4:30 mark in the fourth to put the Kodiaks ahead 55-52 and with two minutes left in the game, the Kodiaks were up 61-56.
After each team traded a series of free throws in the last 120 seconds, Breanna Synowec of the Ooks nailed a three-point shot with 24 seconds left to put NAIT within one point of the Lethbridge lead.
With less than 10 seconds left and the Ooks down 65-63, Josephine Peacock drained two free throws to tie the game for NAIT and send the match into overtime.
Lethbridge kept it close in the extra frame but Kodiak turnovers and fouls decided the game in NAIT’s favour and the Ooks won the bronze medal with a final score of 78-75.
As for the No. 8 seed host Olds College Broncos, who captured the ACAC title last season with a Cinderella-esque run in the finals, it was a sixth-place finish after a 75-67 loss to the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) Trojans on March 2.
The Broncos played their best game one day earlier when they defeated the Grande Prairie Regional College Wolves 85-70.
Four Broncos players tallied double-digit points totals in that game, with Carmen Deal finishing the match with 26 points and April Freeney finishing with 25 points.
Olds had lost its first game of the tournament on Feb. 28 to the Griffins by a score of 87-55.
But anyone in the Ralph Klein Centre gymnasium would never have known the Broncos were down based on the overwhelming cheers coming from Olds fans.
At one point during a timeout, MacEwan head coach Rob Poole had to pull his team onto the court so they could hear each other over the cacophony.
Olds fans were responsible for a similar scenario during the gold medal game when they forced Augustana to conduct a timeout meeting away from the bench near the key.
Broncos head coach Reg Carrick said the message he shared with his team in the locker room following the final game was that he was proud of them.
"They could have quit at any point this year," he said. "We were second-last for most of the year and we finished sixth. So they dug themselves out of a big hole. They should be proud of that and there’s lots of character in that dressing room, just not enough legs. We needed some more legs."
He added the team did feel some pressure to repeat last year’s championship victory, especially since Olds College was hosting the tournament, but at the end, everyone was happy with what was accomplished.
"I think achieving potential is what sports is all about. As much as we wanted to hang up another banner this year, it probably wasn’t the potential of this group if we’re being honest with ourselves."
Everyone gave their all during the tournament, Carrick said, but when the team looked for leadership on the court, they found it in Deal and Freeney.
"We don’t turn around our season without those two," he said. "You can’t say enough about April, she’s our quarterback, she’s our point-guard."
Carrick said he would return to coach the team next season and he and assistant coach Jen Donofrio are already scouting for new talent.
"We’ll pound the pavement and we’ll get back to where we need to be."
Gregg Meropoulis, the ACAC’s court sports director, said he could only hope future championship events "live up to the standard" Olds College set during the weekend.
"In my 30 years I have never seen an ACAC championship hosted as well," he said. "What we saw was what I would expect at a national championship minus the hospitality room. I cannot say enough about how many volunteers they had in all areas right down to the high school kids cleaning the floor to the paid play-by-play announcer and colour commentators to the professional entertainer at halftime."
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