EDUFUL, GRUJIC LEAD WAY AS HAWKS TAKE OUT LANGARA
Humber's Men's Basketball Team opened the National Championship on Thursday afternoon, taking on PACWEST runner-up and defending champion Langara in the quarter-final.
The Hawks came out firing from deep; Gibson Eduful and Brayden Gohn hit back-to-back triples and forced Langara to call a timeout just two minutes in. Eduful continued the early push, finishing on the fast break with a pretty floater to extend the lead to 12-1. The barrage kept coming thanks to some great ball movement and a Chawd Bewley three again extended the Humber's lead to double digits.
Langara fought back thanks to some work of their own on the break as a Max Neumann deuce capped a Falcons run that trimmed the advantage to three. A nice feed from Kenny Ejim to Dickson down low stemmed the tide and led to a trip to the charity stripe. At the end of the first Humber held a narrow 23-20 lead.
The second quarter opened with OCAA Defensive Player of the Year Ty Dickson finishing strong in the paint. Eduful continued his red hot shooting with his third triple of the afternoon, but Langara followed shortly thereafter with one of their own. Vule Grujic bullied his way into a bucket down low and Dickson picked off the preceding inbounds pass to stem any momentum Langara may have had. The Falcons were forced to take their second timeout of the afternoon.
With the half winding down, Langara's interior presence began got make a difference as All-Canadian Jitinder Locham did some damage in the paint. At the buzzer Humber held a 45-38 advantage in large part thanks to 6-for-15 shooting from beyond the arc.
A minute into the third disaster hit, as Dickson took what looked to be a shot to the neck and fell to the ground. After several minutes on the floor, to everyone's relief he was able to get up under his own power and walk off the court. Humber refused to let the loss get to them and a pretty finish down low from Grujic had the Hawks up seven again. Incredibly, after just three minutes on the bench, Dickson re-entered the game. Brayden Gohn finished a pretty rim attack and the Hawks again extended their advantage to double digits with the third quarter winding down.
Humber continued to attack the rim relentlessly as Curwin Elvis got hacked on a hard drive. Unfortunately for the blue and gold Langara would end the quarter on a 4-0 mini-run; the Hawks led 60-54 headed to the fourth.
Lanagara extended their run to 8-0 early in the fourth and appeared to have all the momentum on their side and the lead trimmed to two. As he had all afternoon, Eduful responded with a massive three that was followed in short succession by an Ancil Martin deuce at the rim. An 11-0 run was capped by an offensive board and finish from Vule Grujic, and Humber held a thirteen point advantage with just under five minutes to go.
The Falcons refused to go away, and a questionable five-second call on the inbound gave Lanagara the ball down seven with just under two minutes to go. As has been there calling card all year, the Hawks defense stepped up defensively and proceeded to shut the Falcons down. Dickson and Grujic combined to control the paint, and at the final buzzer Humber took the 77-71 decision. Vule Grujic was named Player of the Game for his sixteen point, eight rebound performance. Gibson Eduful was unbelievable all day as well, finishing with eighteen points and eight boards.
Next up for the Hawks is a Semi-Final match-up with top seeded Holland, opening tip is set for 6pm.
For full Tournament Schedule, Event Information and more please visit http://www.ccaa.ca/national-championship-s15104.
To watch live, please visit http://www.ccaa.ca/watch-live-s15170.
