Trojans move on to ACAC Championship final

CAMROSE, ALTA., (March 6, 2020) - The only thing better than winning three straight league titles would be to win a fourth.

The three-time defending champion Trojans had just about everything go right for them Friday night, as they beat the Keyano College Huskies 85-71 in their Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Men's Basketball Championship semifinal game played at the host University of Alberta-Augustana campus in Camrose, Alta.

"Ever since we knew we were going to get Keyano, we knew we were going to have to grind out this win," said Trojans head coach Marty Birky. "They're strong, they're physical, so tonight our motto was 'who's tougher?' We were definitely the tougher team tonight."

The Trojans will now play for their fourth consecutive ACAC title Saturday night at 6pm against South Division rival Ambrose University - who beat NAIT in Friday's other semifinal, 103-98. 

I played our top guys a lot tonight, so they need to go get some sleep," Birky said of the final. "Whenever you're playing on Saturday in March, you bless the stars and give it all you have, and we will do just that."

Evident early on Friday night was the attention Keyano College paid to Trojans guard Calvin Chambers (4th year, Memphis, Tenn., Business Administration). They worked hard to keep the First Team All-Conference selection quiet right from the start, and it worked.

However, SAIT simply turned to fellow guard Charlie Conner (3rd year, Lacey, Wash., Business Administration) to carry the load. And did he ever.

Conner scored 21 of his game-high 30 points in the opening 20 minutes of play to give SAIT a 44-36 lead at the half.

"He's a two-time ACAC champion, three-time All-Conference selection and a national tournament all-star for a reason. The guy can play," Birky said of Conner. "That's why I love March - guys show you who they are."

The one they call 'Burner', who was also named a First Team All-Conference selection earlier in the week, added seven rebounds and six assists in the victory.

"I owed Calvin. He's been ballin' the whole season, and I can't remember a game where he wasn't pushing the pace or controlling the tempo," Conner said of playing well while Keyano shut down Chambers early on. "It was nice to finally play well, but it was my team's doing, not mine. They got me open, they rebounded the ball. I just happened to hit some shots."

Don't feel too bad for Chambers, as he scored 12 of his 16 points in the final 20 minutes of play. Despite being one of the smaller players on the floor, he added an impressive nine rebounds.

What may have gone unnoticed in Conner's 30-point performance was the effort of SAIT centre Taliik Ross (3rd year, Orange Park, Fla., Business Administration). The seven-footer scored just five points, but grabbed 16 rebounds and cancelled out Keyano's height all game long.

The Huskies duo of Noah Horobetz Simpson and Stefan Jovcic combined for 40 points and 28 rebounds in their 103-79 quarterfinal win over Red Deer College on Thursday. One night later, they were held to just 15 points and 16 rebounds

A major reason for that was the play of Ross.

"He was a game changer tonight," Birky praised. "That lineup of Keyano's is a rebounding machine, but he worked his tail off to nullify them."

The Huskies, who shot the ball an amazing 89 times in the game, connected on just 27 per cent of those. Jacob Simmons ended up leading them in scoring with 25 points - 14 of those coming in the fourth quarter with the game out of reach.

When asked if Conner had any words of advice for his team going into the championship game, he talked about staying sharp on the defensive side of the ball.

"Going into it, we know what we need to do. We need to stay focused on defence," he said. "The offence may not come at times, but our defence is going to keep us in it and hopefully get us another championship."