Bringing home the bacon
U of T notched another Ontario University Athletics medal Sunday afternoon, as the badminton team captured bronze in London. The Blues beat McMaster 10-3 to capture third place at the OUA badminton championships hosted by Western.
The Mustangs, with the advantage of playing on their home court, won gold by defeating the Waterloo Warriors 12-1 in the title match.
U of T, Western, and Waterloo were all hot teams headed into the playoffs. They each finished the regular season with 4-1 records and all came to Western with golden dreams.
The Blues lost 8-5 to Waterloo in the OUA semifinal match early Sunday morning, which relegated them to the bronze-medal game later that day. Congratulations to Andy Lam, Melissa Nock, and the rest of the players and coaches for bringing medals home to U of T.
Wait, did I see that right?
Well, it’s finally happened. The Toronto Raptors earned their first win of the season Sunday afternoon, and it came against a damn good team.
Chris Bosh led the dinos to a 107-94 win over the Miami Heat to give them one win to go along with nine losses. He had 27 points and 12 rebounds to hand Miami (6-4) the loss. Dwayne Wade led the Heat with 22 points.
Mike James scored 25 for the Raptors and Jalen Rose chipped in 22 points of his own.
Critics will say that the only reason Toronto won was because Shaquille O’Neal didn’t play du to a sprained ankle, but a win is a win. If the Raptors are ever going to make progress it is essential for them to beat teams that are weakened by injuries.Sunday’s game was a must-win.
The Raptors will look for their second win of the season in Phoenix on Tuesday night, when they tangle with the mediocre-and beatable-Suns (4-5).
The sinking of the good ship Argonaut
The Toronto Argonauts’ dream of repeating as Grey Cup champions was snuffed out by a determined Montreal Alouettes team Sunday afternoon at the Rogers Centre. The Alouettes came in and handed the boatmen a 33-17 loss in the east final.
Montreal got revenge for their loss to Toronto in last year’s east final at Olympic Stadium-in which the Argos came into Alouette country and escaped with a 26-18 victory-with their triumph in Toronto. The Als will now travel to Vancouver for the 2005 Grey Cup next weekend, where they will play the Edmonton Eskimos for CFL supremacy.
The Argos, meanwhile, will rebuild the ship for a run at the 2006 Grey Cup in the coming months. Hopefully Damon Allen will return to the helm for one more crack at the CFL’s top prize. There will be serious quarterback questions if the 42-year-old grandfather decides to retire.
A face made for television
Congratulations to Byron MacDonald, U of T’s swimming coach, for winning a Gemini Award in the best sports play-by-play or analyst category.
Tune into the sports section this week for more on MacDonald and the Blues’ swimming team.
