Clippers Win Semi-Final In Dramatic Fashion
Story and photos by Robert Thomas
For the Briercrest Clippers the last few games have been slow starts.
But that all changed on Friday evening.
With only two seconds off the clock the Clippers Carter Waind fire up a capacity crowd with an opening dunk.
It was a deafening roar from the crowd that never ceased throughout the game.
In the end the crowd would be rewarded with a dramatic final three minutes of play and a Clippers’ victory.
The Clippers won a 93 to 88 victory over the NAIT Ooks.
The win puts the first seeded Clippers into Saturday’s tournament final.
NAIT Ooks Peter Kugba-Nyande (foreground) goes for a spill driving for the basket after being forced out by Briercrest Clippers Zach Martens - MJ Independent photo
The Clippers dominated the first three minutes of the First Quarter. The Clippers could do no wrong.
But then the NAIT Ooks game fired up. The Ooks used their size and strength to win the battle of the rebounds.
The Ooks excelled especially on defensive rebounds turning them into missed Clippers chances.
The score at the end of the quarter was Ooks 28 and Clippers 20.
The Second Quarter saw the Ooks continue their aggressive play around the backboards.
The Clippers appeared to be in bad shape as the Ooks continued to work on their opponent.
The score at halftime was Ooks 54 and Clippers 43. The Ooks were ahead by 11 points.
NAIT Ooks Peter Kugba-Nyande steps over Briercrest Clippers Jude Shepherd-Hills MJ Independent photo
The Third Quarter was a sea saw battle as the teams exchanged baskets.
The score at the end of the quarter was Ooks 70 and Clippers 62.
The Fourth Quarter saw the Clippers come alive.
Set plays and passes, which were missed in Thursday evening’s game, were right on target as the Clippers came alive.
The Clippers managed to outscore Ooks 31 to 18 in the quarter.
The last three minutes saw the Clippers tie the Ooks team. After a bit of exchanging baskets the Clippers would pull away on a field goal by Francis Dogani.
Thirteen of the Clippers’ points in the final quarter were scored by forward Carter Waind. Waind would score 22 points in the game.
Briercrest Clippers Corbin Gengehbach (right) goes around an Edmonton Ooks defender - MJ Independent photo
Another major scoring standout in the final quarter was Dogani. Dogani scoried eight points in the fourth quarter.
Dogani would sweep in deep going along the baseline a half step ahead of the Ooks guards. He scored 30 points in the game.
Riley Seaborn would score 11 points for the Clippers.
The Clippers went on to win 93 - 88.
Clippers guard Francis Dogani said the team’s victory went beyond the team’s play but rather it was largely due to how the team sees and treats one another.
“It’s just the brotherhood man. From the first guy to the fifteenth guy everybody loves each other. Everybody trusts each other. At the end of the day I feel we are the most positive team in the league.”
“If you have that close friendship and you’ve got the talent you can far with it,” he said, adding “when you’re playing basketball with your brother there’s not a better feeling.
“We just dug deep. This game is for higher stakes. Playing for a chance to go to (the national championships in) Montreal. A chance to play in the championship game. When the stakes are higher we just brought more energy…we kind of had nerves the first game…but now that we are settled in we’re calm and collected. We just found it easier out there.”
Briercrest Clippers Jude Shepherd-Hills (right) lines up a shot as NAIT Ooks Patrick Fisher jumps in an attempt to block it - MJ Independent photo
Dogani said defeating the Ooks was no easy task.
“Yeah man this is a tough team to play. They are very well coached and they’re a big team…we knew it was going to be a dogfight from the beginning but you know we knew what we could do. We trust in what we could do and we trust our brotherhood.
Dogani would score many of his baskets by sweeping to the outside and then curving in along the baseline a half step ahead of the Ooks defender the path to the basket wide open.
“I don’t know it just felt like they were not playing that well outside. I knew if I could get by my man I could make something happen,” Dogani said.
The opening basket put the crowd into the game from the start.
“I thought rhat was anazing Carter (Waind) got a dunk on the first play. And you just heard the crowd erupt and it just set the environment to play in,” he said, adding “I never heard the crowd so loud before.”
He said the crowd helped the Clippers win.
“Man it just fired us up. The bench is lit. The players are lit. It was just a fine atmosphere to play in. These are the kind of games you live for.”
Briercrest Clippers Oromo Bongomin peers around heavy coverage by two NAIT Ooks defenders - MJ independent photo
Asked how the Clippers went on to overcome the Ooks dominance in rebounding he said it was just hard work.
“We just knew they are a bigger team they play hard and very physical so we knew we made sure we did all of the little things…they’re a really well coached team so we knew we had to be more disciplined when it came to rebounding?”
Regarding the dramatic final three minutes he said it’s something the Clippers are accustomed to.
“That has sort of been the story of our year. We’ve been in all kinds of battles where we had to calm down. Where we needed to maintain the lead. But we all found a way to win. That’s been the theme all year when we have to dig deep and trust each other,” Dogani said.
Asked “about how the team was able to make their set plays on Friday evening versus Thursday evening he said it was just getting into the rhythm of the game.
“No I don’t know. We saw the ball go in a couple of times and we got the rhythm going and stayed in the moment. And you know good things happen when you can just stay focused.”
Briercrest Clippers Jude Shepherd-Hills breaks in - MJ Independent photo
Clippers head coach Shane Sowden said the team had a quick start but then it fell flat due to defensive struggles.
“That was nice. It was nice coming out on fire at the start but it’s hard to find words right now but we’ve got some things defensively we have to work on. We’ll talk about it tomorrow. We’ll give it a walk through,” Sowden said.
Despite the defensive problems he said the Clippers are a good team.
“The resilience of this group and the belief to compete and the never give up attitude…our team puts were nothing special. I just reminding them of who they are. We’ve been here before. We’ve been in the situation before and we’ve been the situation before and we’ve come back for more. Just believe in yourself we can do this,” he said.
“Keep going. Keep going one possession at a time and that’s what happened. Francis (Dogani) hit some unreal shots…Francis was massive but a whole team effort (won it). The defensive stops in the end. The rebounds.”
Coach Sowden pointed out Corbin (Gengenbach) “it was like wow. When you have two point guards like Corbin Ganganbach and Francis Dogani my goodness that’s a luxury to have on the backboard.”
Time out at the NAIT Ooks bench - MJ Independent photo
He said the Clippers shortened up the bench to play the better players but the players who sat on the bench didn’t let their egos kick in.
About the Ooks ability to rebound effectively in the first half Sowden said there were small adjustments made at halftime.
“We were just soft. We had to regroup at halftime. We switched our defensive scheme a little bit. We switched a little bit more and that helped.”
The noisy crowd interfered with the Clippers game especially in the first half.
“We were passive in the first half. It’s hard to communicate here it’s so loud. So we switched everything around and that worked. They weren’t able to get downhill like they did in the first half. Which made a massive difference.”
The second half saw a more patient Clippers who Sowden saw as rushing everything in the first half.
“It was just a fantastic team effort.”
A NAIT Ooks players wins a defensive rebound battle against Briercrest Clippers Jude Shepherd-Hills - MJ Independent photo
He said his role on the bench was to stay calm.
“Everybody said you’re so calm. I said everything else is so crazy you have to be calm. Again I don’t need to jump up and hoot and holler everybody else is doing that. I’m just like I believe in you guys full of confidence. Just keep calm for them,” Sowden said.
He said the Clippers key to victory was “good players stepping up. Francis (Dogani) was unreal and Carter (Waind) made that three pointer.”
“Big players stepping up at big times.”
The blue man guy beats on a water bottle drum to stir up the Briercrest Clippers fans - MJ Independent photo
The Clippers will face the reigning national champions - the Keyano Huskies - Saturday evening.
Keyano defeated St Mary’s Lightning 88 - 82 earlier on Friday to advance to the tournament final.
He predicted a good and tough tournament final.
“It’s going to be an absolute grind. They’re a good team. Jeremy (Weilenge) is a great coach. They’re going to be prepared. We are going to be prepared. We’re going to be prepared. And it’s going to be a great environment so we’re really looking forward to it.”
The Clippers face the Huskies at 6 pm in the ACAC championship tournament final in Caronport’s “hangar” the Margaret P. Reimer Memorial Gymnasium.
