Douglas beats Capilano with seconds left
By Courtnie Martin, Sports Reporter
Having dropped their last scheduled game against Douglas, Capilano University came out with a chip on their shoulder against the Royals’ basketball team. But again, Douglas was to be no pushover.
“We were short players due to injuries, so it was huge having all the remaining guys step up tonight,” said three-point specialist Ethan McKean, who finished the game with 16 points and six rebounds.
Douglas opened the quarter with the first bucket. From there, it was a back-and-forth race to the net. Douglas slipped early with a seven-point gap, but a few quick transition buckets later, Douglas snuck back into the game—ending the quarter up by one.
The second quarter was a different story. Douglas struggled with the second rotation as Cap easily found the open player. The Blues found a rhythm and were determined to keep Douglas down. Douglas began taking ticky-tack fouls, allowing Cap to inch away. The Blues went up six, forcing the Royals to call a timeout. As the Royals continued to lose their footing, the Blues capitalized on every opportunity, and Douglas ended the half down 42-33.
Fresh out of the locker room Douglas brought the heat as Grant Campbell converted to tighten up the score. Capilano clearly felt the pressure and set up a full-court press with sideline traps, which Douglas struggled with the first few possessions. After the Royals started to figure it out, however, Cap pulled out of the tough press. Andrew Baron, who tore it up on the scoreboard, was thrown a gorgeous alley-oop pass which would have been successful if Baron was not fouled in mid-air by two defenders.
The final quarter was by far the most intense of the four. Despite being down by 15 at one point in the game, Douglas was digging out of the hole they’d fallen into and got the game tight in the final frame. With less than three minutes left, Baron hit a three to tie it up. After some intense action, another Baron three with 34.3 seconds left put the Royals up one. Cap then took a one-point lead of their own with 25.8 seconds left. Then a converted Baron drive-and-dish to Ryan Hopson with only eight seconds left on the clock sealed the game. The final score was 78-77 for Douglas.
“These guys have shown resilience all year. Some games we make a push and come back, others we come back from being down double-digits to lose by a couple points, and then there are nights where we go down and get blown out. This is the first game that we have come back from a big deficit and won it. Ryan played a good game tonight—[his] defence and toughness really helped tonight,” said coach Denis Beausoleil.
Andrew Baron had another solid night, leading the way with 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Campbell had 13, Bradyn Norris had 11, Kristian Hildebrandt had eight point and five rebounds, and Hopson had nearly a double-double with 10 points, seven rebounds, and the game-winning bucket.
