Tritons hoop dreams fall short

Triton’s team members and coach Josh Buck display their medals during the Closing Ceremony on May 4 at Shearwater Gym, N.S. Photo: Aviator Douglas Hamilton, 12 Wing Imaging Services.

Peter Mallett, Staff Writer — The Esquimalt Tritons won a silver medal at the Canadian Armed Forces Men’s Basketball Championship May 1-4 at Shearwater, N.S.

The Halifax Mariners avenged an earlier loss to Esquimalt in round-robin play. They lifted the tournament trophy with an 88-72 victory in the gold medal game on May 4 at CFB Shearwater.

Halifax jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, paced by stellar shooting and 35 points from tournament MVP, small forward Captain Nic Leger. 

Lieutenant (Navy) (Lt(N)) Owen Murphy, Deputy Division Commander at Naval Fleet School (Pacific) and Tritons’ point guard, was also the tournament MVP and scored 30 points in the final. He was quick to credit his opponents for capturing the tournament title.

“Halifax played a great game; their shooting was excellent, and they could hurt us on transition and rebounds,” Lt(N) Murphy said. “As opponents, they were fun to play against, highly competitive, showed great sportsmanship and were definitely deserving of the win.”

The point guard captured single-game MVP honours in three of his four games. He averaged 26 points per game heading into Esquimalt’s rematch with Halifax.

At Shearwater, Esquimalt topped the round-robin standings with wins over Halifax (86-84), Petawawa (77-72) and a 69-68 decision over Halifax in the tournament semi-final. Halifax reached the championship game with an 81-54 win over Petawawa.

Esquimalt qualified for the National Championship tournament after compiling a perfect 5-0 record at the Canada West Regional tournament at Edmonton Garrison in February.

Esquimalt’s only other defeat this year was an 83-48 loss to Ottawa in the round-robin, a game in which Lt(N) Murphy sat out due to a bruised knee. Tritons coach Josh Buck had previously described Lt(N) Murphy as a true dynamo and said he didn’t disappoint at Nationals.

“He has always been the anchor of our team and has an unusual amount of athletic ability,” said Buck.

Esquimalt centre, Acting Sub-Lieutenant (A/SLt) Brent Martindale also had a massive tournament and was averaging 12.8 points over four games heading into the final and scored 24 points in that game.

The Tritons couldn’t overcome an early-game lapse against Halifax as their offence sputtered and shooting went uncharacteristically cold in the opening minutes. Esquimalt rallied late in the first half with a one-two-scoring punch between Lt(N) Murphy and A/SLt Martindale, cutting the Mariners lead to one point. Halifax weathered another Tritons onslaught early in the second half before going on a 9-2 run and pulling away from Esquimalt for good.   

Buck has been involved with the Tritons for the past 20 years as a coach and says, despite the disappointing conclusion, this year’s Tritons team is the best he has seen yet.

Lt(N) Murphy also credited his teammates for a great season.

“Everyone on this team was locked in and contributing regardless of their minutes on the floor,” Lt(N) Murphy said. “The bench was energetic, the team cohesion was great, and most importantly we trusted each other.”