Langara Falcons get ready for CCAA National Championship

Despite being down in the fourth quarter and still pulling through to win the PacWest championship game, the Langara Falcons will use the experience positively as they move on to nationals.

National championship in Squamish from Mar. 12-15

The men’s basketball team is seeded number one for the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association’s national championship. Their first opponent will be the Concordia Thunder who is a wild card entry and seeded eighth in the tournament. The CCAA national championship is taking place in Squamish from Mar. 12-15.

“They have five or six players that actually get good playing time for them,” said Elliot Mason, forward for the Falcons. “We’ll be able to expose them with our fast pace offense and our depth on the bench and really take it to them.”

Falcons use provincial championship win as motivation

The Falcons defeated the Vancouver Island University Mariners 90 to 84 in the PacWest championship game to qualify for nationals.

“There was a lot of pressure on that game.  It’s a relief that we came back and got it done,” said Paul Eberhardt, head coach of the team.

The Falcons were trailing most of the game against the Mariners, as they were down by six after the third quarter. However, Mason and Falcons’ guard Brody Greig took over the game in the fourth to lead the Falcons to the gold medal.

“To experience a game where we are trailing in the fourth quarter and have a close tight game like that, I think that will really help us having gone through that experience,” Eberhardt said.

Mason is equally positive about the game.

“We weren’t as sharp as we needed to be, but we saw some things that we needed to change in there and we’ll use that moving forward,” he said.

However, Eberhardt and the team believe their practice routine will help them prepare for the upcoming tournament.

“We like to keep to the routine of what we do,” Eberhardt said. “We’re going to get some shots out at Quest [University] and get used to the [gym] floors.”

Reported by Graham McFie