{"id":44261,"date":"2018-04-16T14:10:42","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T20:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=44261"},"modified":"2018-04-16T14:10:42","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T20:10:42","slug":"trojans-earn-14th-acac-title-with-provincials-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2018\/04\/16\/trojans-earn-14th-acac-title-with-provincials-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Trojans earn 14th ACAC title with provincials win"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/span>he\u00a0Trojans men\u2019s basketball team are provincial champions once again after defeating the Lakeland College Rustlers<\/a> 88-77 in the gold medal game at Lethbridge College on March 3rd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

F<\/span>irst-year guard Charlie Conner was a major factor in the game with 33 points, including a crucial 16 scored in the fourth quarter on his team\u2019s road to victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as the clock hit zero I just blacked out,\u201d said Conner.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that I took a sigh of relief and felt pure happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trojans started off the season with an incredible 10-game win streak, but came back down to earth when they lost five of their last seven games heading into the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played some hard games near the end of the season and knew that we would have to bounce back and find a new identity if we lost,\u201d said Conner.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re resilient so we focused up down the stretch and knew it was our intensity and defense that would get us here.\u201d<\/p>\n

SAIT didn\u2019t have the smoothest provincial playoff run, with two of their three games going into overtime.<\/p>\n

Although the Trojans finished the regular season with the ACAC\u2019s best record, Conner believes his team did not feel like the number one seed going into the post season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we really thought of ourselves as number one after losing a couple of guys, but we wanted to show people that were still here and we can still be known as number one at least,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t lose a step after those injuries, and I think playing like underdogs really helped us out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conner was a key player throughout the season for the Trojans this year, stepping up for the team while core players such as leader John Smith Jr. and Nick Molina recovered from injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly I\u2019m just trying to fill a role, do my best for the team and leave it all out on the court,\u201d said Conner.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody here is a key factor for the team. Each and every game someone new had to show up and I think we did that in provincials. Everyone showed up and that\u2019s what we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the win, SAIT has now won provincials in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1995 and 1996, and second year Trojans guard Dylan Cline could not be happier.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so proud and excited to be a part of this team,\u201d said Cline.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew we could win it again and we did just that. It feels great to win it two years in a row.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is SAIT\u2019s 14th<\/sup> ACAC title, and the Trojans now turn their attention to nationals as they head to the CCAA National Championship hosted by Montmorency College in Laval, Que.<\/p>\n

In order to win nationals, the Trojans will have to beat teams they have never played before, but Cline is optimistic about his team\u2019s chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been watching a lot of film. They play a different kind of game in the other conferences that were not used to, but at the same time, they\u2019re not used to the way we play,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we execute and play the way we need to, we\u2019ll be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trojans head out east to Quebec on March 14th<\/sup> in hopes of capturing gold at nationals for the first time since 1986.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Leading the team:\u00a0<\/strong>Trojans guard Charlie Conner dribbles against St. Mary’s University guard Donovan Miller on Nov. 25, 2017. SAIT would go on to win the game 102-75. (Photo by Jordan Squires\/SAIT)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trojans men’s basketball team wrap up their ACAC season with a provincials win in the gold medal game against the Lakeland College Rustlers. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":412,"featured_media":44283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S4 Trojans Win Provincials","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-44261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-image","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sait-basketball","8":"post_format-post-format-image"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/412"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44261"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44460,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44261\/revisions\/44460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}