Bear Down

Recap courtesy the PACWEST

The VIU Mariners punched their ticket to the gold medal game and a berth in the CCAA national championship with an 11-point semifinal win over the CBC Bearcats on Friday afternoon.

In what would turn out to be a very physical matchup the Mariners used their bench and depth to outlast the Bearcats with seven different scorers.  All 12 players on the roster played valuable minutes, none bigger and more valuable than Player of the Game Kaia Simpson.  She had a double double of 14 points and 10 rebounds working extremely aggressively with Bearcat forward Katelyn Mallette under the hoop.  Trista Thorn gave the Mariners 26 minutes and scored 14 points and Mackenzie Cox added 10 points, all coming from the free-throw line.  Speaking of free throws, the Mariners got to the line 35 times and shot 71%.  Conversely the Bearcats got to the line 11 times.

Mallette played a brilliant game for the Bearcats dropping a game high 20 points on 10-14 shooting and played a major factor in their offensive push.  She was the only Bearcat to score in double figures as the Mariner defence shutdown Kagari Tomita and held her to just one basket.

With the win the Mariners will play for a gold medal on Saturday at 5:30pm.  The Bearcats will play for bronze at 12:30pm.