Heading into their final weeks of the season back at the start of February, it would have been easy for the Briercrest College Clippers men’s basketball team to just basically shut it down and stay resigned to their fate.
With only a single win on their ledger and five games remaining on their Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference schedule, the odds were so deeply against a playoff appearance it was almost impossible.
But the Clippers started doing something they hadn’t done much of all season.
They started winning.
And wouldn’t you know it, they ended up with a miracle.
“The last three weeks, basically it was pretty clear cut that it was win-or-go-home for the games of our regular season,” said Clippers men’s basketball coach Shane Sowden. “And then we pull it off. So, yeah, it was a pretty fun experience and it’s been a fun month out here.”
When all was said and done with the ACAC schedule, four of the five Briercrest College teams had cracked the post-season. The powerhouse men’s and women’s volleyball teams were no surprise, as they each finished second in the South Division and will host games this weekend.
For men’s basketball and men’s hockey, though, it was another story -- basketball hadn’t reached the post-season since the 2013-14 season, and you have to go back all the way to 2008 for the last time hockey cracked the playoffs.
The women’s basketball team finished with a 4-12 record to end up tied for seventh in the South Division, missing the playoff by four points.
Men’s basketball’s late-season surge
The Clippers picked up a pair of critical first wins on Saturday, Feb. 5 when they defeated the Medicine Hat Rattlers 77-73 and again on Friday, Feb. 18 with a 74-71 win over the Rattlers.
A 90-54 loss to the top-ranked Lethbridge College Kodiaks left no room for error in their final two regular-season games against Olds College this past weekend, and sure enough the Clippers would prevail -- winning 72-65 on Friday and taking an 81-78 win on Saturday.
The win in their regular-season finale was especially dramatic: the Clippers trailed 20-7 after the first quarter before steadily clawing their way back into the game, taking the lead in the third and eventually hanging on for the narrow win.
“We talked at the end of the first quarter and it was like, ‘guys, we've been here before, we've been down numerous times the last three weeks, we’re okay, we're just gonna run our stuff’,” Sowden said. “And there was just no panic, it was kind of surreal in some ways, we just chipped away and closed the gap and the maturity and the composure and the togetherness, it was just so much fun to see in a really fun atmosphere at home.”
With a 5-11 record, the Clippers finished tied with Medicine Hat for the sixth and final playoff spot in the South Division but had the tiebreaker on their side.
They now travel to Red Deer to face the 9-7 Kings in their playoff opener on Friday night. Red Deer defeated Briercrest in both meetings this season -- 88-77 on Jan. 28 and 100-83 on Jan. 29.
“It’ll be a new experience for the guys, but we feel like we've been in playoffs for three weeks,” Sowden said. “It's been really encouraging, and now we know we have nothing to lose… We know we can compete, we’re pretty sure know what they're gonna do, now we just have to play like we have the last few weeks. And they're young, they get to experience a playoff atmosphere, so it’ll be fun and exciting no matter the outcome.”
The top two teams from the eighth-team single-knockout tournament advance to the ACAC Final Four next weekend.
Men’s hockey sneak into playoffs with three wins
The Clippers’ men’s hockey team didn’t need any late-season dramatics to land their playoff spot, as despite enduring a tough season of their own, their 3-12-1-0 record was good enough to land sixth place in the ACAC standings
Briercrest finished three points ahead of Portage for the final spot, with a 3-0 win over the Voyageurs back on Sat. 29 putting the Clippers in a playoff spot and 3-2 overtime win against Augustana on Feb. 5 bringing some valuable insurance.
Briercrest travels to Red Deer (9-4-2-1) for their best-of-three series with games on Friday and Saturday followed by Sunday if necessary.
If their regular-season games are any indication, it could be an interesting series, too -- Red Deer won three close meetings, including a 7-6 overtime victory back on Nov. 12 to go along with two 3-0 wins on Jan. 21 and 22 back at the Barkman Arena.
Men’s volleyball looking to rebound with deep playoff run
Now, the best for last -- even if things didn’t go so great for the Clippers men’s volleyball team in their final weekend of the regular season.
Briercrest went into their final two games with a legitimate chance at taking over first place in the South Division, with a pair of wins doing just that. Instead, they’d drop a hard-fought 3-2 (22-25, 20-25, 25-12, 25-22, 17-15) decision to Olds College on Friday before falling 3-1 (25-22, 25-23, 22-25, 25-20) in the rematch Saturday.
As a result, the Clippers finished with an 11-5 record, two points back of Red Deer for first.
Briercrest was ranked as high as second in the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association (CCAA) rankings at the beginning of February, but fell out of the top 15 in the final set released Tuesday.
The Clippers are hosting the first-round playoff tournament this weekend at Margaret P. Reimer gymnasium in Caronport and have received a first-round bye. They’ll face the winner of Lethbridge (9-7) and SAIT (10-6) at 4 p.m. Sunday, with the winner there advancing to next weekend’s Final Four.
Women’s volleyball heading into post-season on a roll
The Clippers head into the women’s volleyball playoffs with six straight wins, having dropped a single set in that span of competition.
In fact, the only team to hand them a loss since the second week of the campaign has done the same to everyone else in the league -- the Red Deer Queens, who finished their regular season with a perfect 16-0 record.
All told, the Clippers ended up with a 12-4 mark and are 15th overall in the CCAA women’s volleyball rankings heading into the playoffs, marking back-to-back weeks they’ve been listed among the best in the country.
Briercrest is also holding the first-round women’s playoff tournament, with the Clippers facing the winner of SAIT (6-10) and Lethbridge (8-8) at 2 p.m. Sunday. The top two teams from the games in Caronport advance to the Final Four.
For the latest on the ACAC, be sure to visit www.acac.ab.ca, and for more on the Briercrest College Clippers, visit www.gobriercrest.ca.
