Brent Mutis, CapU Sport Information & Compliance Officer
Playing in the PACWEST gold-medal game for the first time since 2017, the Capilano Blues proved they were worthy of the title shot but wound up losing narrowly in an 81-78 result Saturday night to the conference-leading and CCAA No. 1-ranked Vancouver Island University (VIU) Mariners.
The second-place finish has an additional silver lining as it still qualifies the Blues for the CCAA national championships by virtue of the fact the PACWEST conference has two berths to the tournament this year.
On Saturday, VIU got out to an early lead and even when CapU took the lead and extended it at times, the Mariners showed their mettle and playoff pedigree by refusing to buckle.
VIU led by eight after the first quarter and PACWEST Player of the Year Akoi Yuot had nine points in the opening frame though he was matched by CapU long-range bomber Martin Bogajev who made three buckets and added the same amount of free throws in the first 10 minutes.
The Blues ate away at the lead in the second, getting a trio of threes and 10 points from fifth-year guard Brenden Bailey but VIU still led 35-29 at halftime.
Capilano went on a 13-0 run to start the second half and the conference No. 3-seed took their first lead with Bogajev dialling long distance to make it 37-35. He'd hit from three shortly after to make it 42-35 Blues, prompting a VIU timeout. Mariners coach Matt Kuzminski pushed the right buttons from there and saw his team recover with a 28-9 run to hold a 12-point lead heading to the fourth.
VIU managed to hang on in the final frame despite Blues forward Sam Bailey scoring all of his six points on the night plus seven more from Bogajev. CJ Campbell finished with 10 points and nine rebounds while Tyrone Asenoguan fashioned a double-double with 10 and 10. Both had three assists.
After the game, Brendan Bailey and Bogajev were named to the tournament all-star team.
The CCAA national championships are March 24 to 27 at Humber College in Toronto. This is the first time since 2003 that Blues men’s basketball will compete for a national title.
