Brent Mutis, CapU Sport Information & Compliance Officer

Playing for PACWEST bronze Saturday afternoon, the Capilano Blues were forced to confront disappointment again in a 67-63 defeat to the Douglas College Royals.

The setback to conclude the 2021-22 season came a day after CapU was defeated 82-73 in the tournament semifinals by an upstart Okanagan College (OC) Coyotes side that went on to stun No. 1-seed and CCAA No. 1-ranked Vancouver Island University (VIU) 79-74 in the gold-medal game.

For the Blues on Saturday, it was a familiar feeling to the OC loss the day before. Just like in the semifinals, CapU held leads at halftime and after three quarters but were unable to make it hold up. Douglas dominated the fourth quarter, outscoring the Blues 27-10, with Sharlene Siy and Karalee Antoine each scoring seven points.

Capilano held a lead until the game's final minute. Antoine's three with 16 seconds to go was the dagger for the Royals and gave them the lead for the first time in the second half.

The Blues were led in scoring for the second-straight game by Mackenzie Smith who picked up 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting. The 6-foot-3 forward ended up with 30 points for the tournament on 12-of-17 shooting (70.6 per cent) to go along with 10 rebounds.

Kirsten Abo scored 12 points including a pair of threes while Jenna Griffin went 4-of-6 coming off the bench and finished with nine points. 

It was the final game in the career of Blues forward Devon Wood. Several of the Blues players wore their hair up in buns in honour of Wood who played two seasons for the Blues after transferring from the University of Northern B.C. The North Vancouver native and graduate of nearby Windsor Secondary started Saturday and collected eight points on 4-of-7 shooting while grabbing four rebounds.

OC and VIU are both off to the CCAA National Championships hosted at VIU March 24 to 27.