The Saint Mary’s Huskies were going as far as Mark McLaughlin and Joey Haywood could take them.
But even 22 points apiece from the Huskies’ star guards and a combined 48 field-goal attempts weren’t enough to get them beyond the quarter-finals at the Atlantic University Sport Final 6 men’s basketball championship.
The fourth-seeded Huskies were upset 79-70 by the fifth-seeded Panthers Thursday night at the Metro Centre.
“Our team was centred around those guys,” said Huskies head coach Ross Quackenbush.
“Their numbers, 9-for-25, 9-for-23, those aren’t great numbers. Sometimes that’s a matter of them trying to do too much, sometimes it’s a matter of having to do too much. That’s how our team was built.”
The game, jam-packed with lead changes, was up for grabs until early in the fourth quarter, when P.E.I. went on a 12-2 run to seize control and sink the defending champs.
“It just seemed like right at the wrong moment, bang, bang, bang, all of a sudden (they’re up),” Quackenbush said.
The Huskies, who also received a solid 14-point, 17-rebound effort from six-foot-five forward Ikeobi Uchegbu, managed to narrow the deficit to five on a Mark McLaughlin three-pointer with 1:13 to go, but that was as close as they got.
P.E.I.’s Jonathan Cooper went 10-for-10 from the free-throw line and sank eight of them in the final 68 seconds.
“Ice in his veins,” said Panthers teammate Andrew Black, who posted a team-high 19 points and eight boards.
“By the numbers, we were underdogs, but we faced them all year, we matched up good with them, and we felt comfortable with this matchup. We came out with the win.”
Cooper had 16 points and Nick Toews had 17, while Gamaliel Rose added 14 points and 14 rebounds.
The Huskies had only two returning starters from last year’s team and seven newcomers. The inexperience showed at times, and the highest scorer outside of Haywood, McLaughlin and Uchegbu had only five points.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do (to get ready for next year),” Quackenbush said. “That’s what it boils down to.”
