Blazers Hope For A Repeat Cinderella Performance In Saturday's Semifinal
It has been another challenging MCAC regular season for second year head coach Billy Isaac and his staff. Their ten point loss last weekend to the University of Winnipeg on home court left the Blazers with an overall 2014-15 conference record of 2-13 to add the previous seasons record of 3-11 for a two season total of 5-24.
The saving grace for the Blazers over this period was the semi-final upset that the team pulled off in Otterburne last March. To date, this was the first-time in MCAC Men's Basketball history that a #4 has beaten a #1 seed in a conference semifinal and CMU did it on the back of a determined first-year guard Ryan Kehler who led the Cinderella-Blazers with 32 points.
"Home court advantage should be a big advantage for us" said second-year guard Kyle Booy, "last year at Providence, with the extremely loud supportive crowd we had, even away in the semifinal, it helped us play the way we needed to to upset a top team. This weekend, I expect the crowd to be even more enthusiatic, and it will give us a big lift in this game. Hopefully enough for a the same kind of performance."
On Saturday at 2 pm, the Blazers will face 2015 top regular season Men's Basketball team; the Red River Rebels. Led by energetic head coach Sukhvir Singh, the Rebels have posted a jaw-dropping six consecutive conference banners and this season are carry a record of 14-1 into Saturday's semi.
The last meeting between the two Route 90 rivals saw the Rebels inflict a 58 point margin of victory on CMU at Notre Dame, which may lead many to count out the 2015 Championship hosts. However, in early January, when the two teams met at the Loewen, CMU was four minutes away from upsetting the conferences top dogs only to see a late momentum shift when Rebel's guard Kevin Quirante couldn't miss from 3-point range over the final moments, closing the game with a 90-84 win.
"In these one-game, winner moves on, championship formats you can never really predict what the outcome will be," added Booy. The winner of Saturday's semifinal will move on to play in the 2015 Confernence against the winner of the other men's semifinal being played at 6 pm between the #2 Providence Pilots and the #3 University of Winnipeg College Wesmen.
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