Kodiaks prep for playoffs

The Lethbridge College Kodiaks men’s basketball team will head into the post season on a winning note.

Wrapping up their Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference regular season, the Kodiaks posted a 73-58 win over the Briercrest Clippers Saturday afternoon at the Val Matteotti Gymnasium to wrap up the season at 15-6.

The win wraps up a 2-0 weekend following an 81-65 win Friday night, clinches third place in the ACAC South Division and, perhaps most importantly, sends the Kodiaks into provincials on a winning clip.

That’s especially imporant considering the Kodiaks first opponent when playoffs begin Thursday in Medicine Hat are the defending ACAC and Canadian Colleges Athletic Association champion NAIT Ooks (17-7).

“It’s better to go into playoffs winning games than the alternative,” said Kodiaks head coach Ryan Heggie. “So we feel pretty good about ourselves. We have a tough opponent off the top.”

But on Saturday, Heggie and his coaching staff were eyeing more than just the scoreboard, points, rebounds, assists and steals.

Rather, minutes-played between starters and bench players alike was the key stat as the Kodiaks looked to give some key players a bit of rest, but not too much.

“We kept our starters and players that have been logging a lot of minutes all year active. We didn’t play them more than 20 minutes,” said Heggie. “Robert Miles played a little more (Saturday) because we had an injury at the guard spot, just a minor injury.

“So we needed him a little more. It was his last college game outside of playoffs, so he got a few more minutes. We were able to keep our starters in a rhythm instead of sitting them out and changing their rhythm. So we chose to go that direction instead of resting them. And they want to play, they don’t want to sit and watch.”

The regular season-closing weekend allowed the Kodiaks to see what kind of bench depth they’ll have going into the post-season as well.

“In that sense, it was good to get some guys (in) who hadn’t played a lot of minutes this year,” said Heggie. “Cooper (Hayward) got in some minutes. Thomas Anderson and Nathan Orr gave us good minutes. So it was nice for them because they work hard all year and it was good to reward them and for us to see where they’re at as well.”