CIS HOOPS: TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT... FOR THE REAL FINAL

The TV listings are wrong. The real national championship game at the CIS Final 8 is tonight, not Sunday as previously stated.

Bring on the Maritime malice, Westman wrath and perhaps a bit of, "oh, why'd you have to say that?" from our Carleton Ravens and Ottawa Gee-Gees. Would that the CIS could just declare the winner of the Carleton-Ottawa semi-final (7:30 p.m. Eastern, TSN) is the national champion. After all, how is Sunday's final possibly going to be a topper to Canal War, Part 4 played in the shadow of the Halifax Citadel, with Oz Jeanty and the Ravens going for five in a row and Josh Gibson-Bascombe and the Gee-Gees attempting to make sure a different team arrives at Ottawa International Airport on Monday with hardware in hand? Why leave it to chance when what it's going to take for either team to win tonight may leave the survivor totally bourqued for the final against either Brandon or Saint Mary's?

It's worth spreading it (some folks out West and down East might say that last word is short an sh) a little thick. The Brandon Bobcats won their quarter-final by 17 points over Windsor, who beat Carleton in the Wilson Cup and also beat Ottawa early in the season, so they are bona fide. Saint Mary's took down two Top 5 teams, Cape Breton last weekend and No. 1 Concordia yesterday, so the hometown Huskies are legit, even with a .500 record.

The Gee-Gees took out the UBC Thunderbirds, 92-85, although it wasn't really a seven-point game. Gibson-Bascombe (23 points. 5-of-7 on threes) sat out the latter part of the opening 20 with a wonky ankle and foul trouble, leading to a 16-point swing which put the Thunderbirds up two at the half. T-Birds star Casey Archibald couldn't miss (32 points on 13-of-15), yet that wasn't near enough.

Carleton's winning margin against Acadia, 86-38, looked like a typo, with Nepean's Kevin McCleery putting a game-high 15 points and nine boards. (Aaron Doornekamp had 14 and Jeanty added 13.)

In the grander scheme, nothing can match the intensity and level of play between Carleton and Ottawa. The record book may end up saying something differently, but it's hard to shake the feeling that the best team in the CIS for '06-07 is tonight's winner. No offence, all you BU and SMU supporters.

On the other side of the bracket:

Brandon 81, Windsor 64: Barnaby Craddock's Bobcats held the Lancers to 4-for-25 on threes. How many uncontested shots will they give to Saint Mary's this afternoon?

SMU 63, Concordia 62: The Huskies' Mark McLaughin put up 23 points, including the go-ahead free throw with three ticks left, to shepherd the No. 8 seed Saint Mary's Huskies past No. 1 Concordia in a ragged opening game. Judging by the stats (both teams shot around 40 per cent) and reading Mark Wacyk's updates, it sounds like it was an ugly contest. What a heartbreaker for Concordia, who got to the free-throw line just 13 times, making only six.

It's not the first time a No. 1's gone out on Friday -- Brandon reached the final as a No. 8 around 2000. Anyway, credit Saint Mary's coach Ross Quackenbush for coaching the hell out of his underdog team -- five years ago, he nearly did the same in the 2-7 quarter-final against Alberta, going down to the final minute against the eventual national champion.

Related:
CIS Hoops.ca (Mark Wacyk and Dale Stevens doing a bang-up job)
Halifax volunteers bid adieu to their own March Madness (James Mirtle, globesports.com)
TV all but ignoring our hoops tourney (Chris Zelkovich, Toronto Star)

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.