By Eli Shupak
The Ryerson Rams will have to go through the back door if they are to advance to their first-ever CIAU men’s national basketball championship next weekend in Halifax.
The Rams’ chances of heading out east took a turn for the worse last Saturday afternoon following a heart-breaking 79-73 loss to their cross-town rivals, the University of Toronto Varsity Blues. It was the second year in a row the Rams have lost in the OUAA East Final, last year losing 85-73 at Laurentian.
As a result, the Rams now await a decision, likely to be announced this Sunday, as to who the wild card teams will be that go to the Nationals. It appears McMaster, Ryerson and Winnipeg will be vying for one spot, with Alberta or Victoria likely gaining the other.
The Rams looked to be down and out trailing by 14 points on the road will 13:30 to play in Saturday’s game after Carl Swantee hit a three-pointer and Lars Dressler converted both free throws following Scott Belasco’s intentional foul on the three-point shot.
Ryerson took a time-out, down 61-47, and slowly chipped away at the lead until they tied it on Ainsworth Slowly’s trey with 1:37 to play. U of T quickly regrouped and proved ot be too much for the Rams down the stretch. A Lars Dressler dunk followed by a Ryerson turnover and then an easy lay-up by Eddy Meguerian put the Blues up by four and all but sealed the victory.
The Blues were very confident heading down the stretch after Ryerson had tied up the game. “That was familiar territory to us,” said Blues guard Roland Semprie, who hit 5 of 9 from three point land and 21 points on the day. “I said to the guys, ‘We’ve ben here before and we know what to do. Now’s the moment to decide whether we’re going to Halifax. We can’t let anybody take us out of the game. Not Ryerson, not the refs, nobody.'”
The stingy U of T defence came up big on the possessions following Slowly’s game-tying shot and translated that into valuable points which led them to victory.
“The biggest thing was that we stopped them and then came down and scored,” said Ken Olynyk, who’s heading to his second National Championships in six years as a coach of the Blues. “If (Ryerson) would’ve taken the lead, it would have been very tough.”
The Blues biggest weapon on the day was their three-point shooting. They connected on 12 of 23 from downtown, including five each from Semprie and Swantee, who led the Blues with 25 points.
“We were keying on threes,” admitted Ryerson coach Terry Haggerty. “We were right there or just a split second from being there and they still hit them. I’ve got to give them the credit.”
“I’m proud of the guys on the team,” Haggerty said. “Nobody else at Ryerson has done anything like this at any time on any team and people should realize that this is [a] pretty special group of guys. It was a hell of an effort.”
Scott Belasco had 19 points to lead the Rams, while Alex Beason had his lowest output of the season scoring only 16 points and hitting just 6 of 20 field goal attempts. Slowly had 13, but only hit 4 of 17, as the Rams managed to hit only 12 of 22 free throws and shot 37 per cent from the field. Michael Chisholm hit three treys and had 12 points.
“They hit all the shots they had to hit and we didn’t execute down the stretch,” said Rams guard Adrian Foster. “The game could’ve gone either way.”
With the win the Blues advance to the Wilson Cup game (OUAA Final) on Saturday, where they will face the OUAA West Champion Guelph Gryphons for provincial bragging rights (CHCH, 2 p.m.). Guelph advanced with a 76-62 victory over the McMaster Marauders in the final of the Wild West Shootout last Sunday at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton. Both teams advance to next weekends National Championships.
The Rams had advanced to the OUAA East Final with a 101-91 semi-final victory over Laurentian in Sudbury on Feb. 25. “The score was a bit deceiving,” Haggerty said. “We were in control throughout.”
Beason led Ryerson with 25 points, while Brad Hann matched Beason’s 25 to lead the Voyageurs, but hit on only 1 of 9 three-point attempts.
Beason wrapped up his OUAA career as the regular season scoring champion for the second year in a row. The 6’7″ forward averaged 26.7 points per game, edging out Brock’s Clint Holtz, who finished with an average of 25.8.
Beason, along with Hann and Shawn Swords from Laurentian, Eddy Meguerian from U of T, and Ottawa’s Dave Reid were named first team OUAA East All-Stars last week. Ryerson’s Ainsworth Slowly and Scott Belasco, as well as Carleton’s Taffee Charles and U of T’s Carl Swantee and Jason Dressler were named to the second team.
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