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| Tiger Stephen Lopez goes in for a layup at the CIS championships in Ottawa (Nick Pearce photo) |
The Dalhousie Tigers finished their 2008-2009 season by making the school’s second ever appearance at the CIS Final 8 national championship in Ottawa. The event, hosted by Carleton University, featured eight of the best university men’s basketball teams from across the country.
As Atlantic University Sport champions the Tigers were seeded sixth and faced the third seed University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in the quarter-final round. Despite taking an early lead the Tigers never got on track offensively and were held to just 29 points in the first three quarters, before rallying in the final period, in a 78-54 loss. Simon Farine and Josh Beattie both scored 11 points in the defeat.
That loss put the Tigers into a consolation round game against the seventh seeded Concordia Stingers on Saturday. Despite a 30 point effort from Simon Farine, the Tiger offense still wasn’t clicking and multiple turnovers in the first half saw Dalhousie fall behind, trailing by as many as nineteen points, before closing the deficit to seven late in the game. In the end the Stingers prevailed 72-61.