The George Brown Huskies men's basketball team came to an end as they were edged 91-85 by the VIU Marines in the bronze medal semi-finals at the CCAA National Championship.
Despite not getting the results they we're looking for on the National stage, fourth-year head coach Jason Dawkins, was incredibly proud of this group when he had a chance to reflect on the whole season campaign.
"This group overcame the fact that this was the first full season since Covid. Some of them have not played basketball for over two years. This created a unique situation; the team was made up of young men who had played for GBC before, but not all of them at the same time. This was on top of the new faces we added," the coach explained." Despite all of this, they were able to form very close bonds, and this allowed them to trust each other, empower each other and give each other a platform to be able to use their voice and, on top of that, genuinely be heard. This was paramount to our success this year, which included winning the East division for the third consecutive year with a record of 17-1 during the regular season."
This game was a classic back-and-forth between two top teams in the country. The teams showed off their offensive skills from the opening tip, but the Huskies were down 29-28 after the first quarter. The game remained extremely close heading into halftime, but George Brown had a slight 49-46 lead advantage.
Unfortunately for George Brown, their offence slowed down, as they only managed 15 points in the third quarter. As a result, the team couldn't recover the rest of the game.
Fourth-year forward Derrick Taylor led the way for the team posting 12 points, nine rebounds and four steals. Thanks to that effort, he earned the Player of the Game award. In his final collegiate game, fifth-year guard Robert Ocampo dropped a team-high 13 points, two rebounds, two steals and a block in the loss.
The fourth-year forward Jeremiah Brown was the perfect spark plug off the bench throughout the CCAA National Championship. He posted a team-high 19 points on 55% shooting while registering 4.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals in the tournament. Brown's incredible play didn't go unnoticed as he was named a National Tournament Scond-Team All-Star.
