The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

w w w .insideH A LTO N .com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, M arch 1 7 , 2 0 1 7 | 2 2 Kevin Nagel, Oakville Beaver Sports Editor, sports@oakviNebeaver.com Sports "Connected to your Community " marc AAIDN i By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff Mackenzie experiences `the vibe' o f Oakville's Kimbal Mackenzie and the Bucknell Bison were scheduled to play West Virginia in the opening round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament in Buffalo yesterday (Thursday). The sophomore guard averaged 11.5 points per game with Bucknell this season and earned all-tournament honours as the Bison won the Patriot League title. | photo submitted W hen you achieve a childhood dream, you imagine it playing out in the m ost glamorous setting pos sible. So when the Bucknell Bison beat Lehigh University to win the Patriot League title and secure its berth in the NCAA men' s basket ball tournament, thoughts turned to where they would play their opening round game against West Virginia. It could have been sunny Orlan do, Fla. It could have been in one of the world's m ost historic arenas, Madison Square Garden. "I think I was the only one hoping for Buffalo," says Kimbal Mackenzie. And who could blame Bucknell's sophomore guard? The opportuni ties to play in front of friends and family have been few and far be tween since he moved 700 kilome tres from his Oakville home when he was 15 with the dream of play ing Division I basketball. After leading Holy Trinity to the Halton junior league title in Grade 9, Mackenzie packed up and moved to Maryland in hopes of achieving his goal. At The John Carroll School, NCAA programs took notice. Even before being named Baltimore Catholic League Player of the Year in his senior year, Mackenzie was drawing of fers and ultimately a com m itm ent to Bucknell. All those years of growing up watching NCAA tournaments fac tored into his decision. "Ju st the vibe of March Madness, the competitiveness of college bas ketball, it got me intrigued," he said. "It was definitely big in my decision of where to go. I wanted to go to a winning school where we could compete for a championship and make it to M arch." Though Bucknell has won six of the last seven regular-season titles, it will be making its first appearance in the NCAA tourna ment since 2 0 1 3 . It earned that automatic entry with an 8 1 -6 5 win over Lehigh University in the Pa triot League championship game. W ith the Bison leading by a point at halftime, Mackenzie hit a pair of three-pointers during an 18-3 run to open the second half. "We just focused on winning ev ery possession, and we looked up a couple of minutes later and had that big lead," said Mackenzie, who had a Bison-best 18 points in the final. The 20-year-old earned all-tour nament honours, averaging 12.7 points in Bucknell' s three wins. In the semifinal, his last-minute three extended Bucknell' s one-point lead in a 70 -6 5 win over Navy. Mackenzie worked hard to play a key role on a tournament team and that didn't stop once he got to Bucknell. He said matching up against Bison point guard Stephen Brown every day in practice elevat ed his game. He increased his points per game from 4.5 in his freshman year to 11.5 this season. And while he continues to shoot just a shade under 4 0 per cent from beyond the arc (he had a team high 59 threes), he upped his shooting percentage inside the arc from 4 2 to 54.3 per cent. "That first year helped me a ton. I learned a lot from the older play ers," said the Patriot League all star. "Being that second point guard coming off the bench has to be one of the hardest jobs, just because of what the position demands. I made mistakes, but I came back this year ready to rock and found m y spot in the system." Mackenzie said Bucknell already achieved its No. 1 goal before arriv ing in Buffalo. "Getting the (Patriot League) championship was the priority," he said. "Playing on in the tournament is the icing on the cake." That didn't mean Mackenzie and his Bucknell teammates wouldn't have minded a second helping of ic ing. Mackenzie made it clear Bucknell wanted to win its first tourna ment game since 2006. They went into Thursday' s firstround game as the No. 13 seed in the West Region against the fourthseeded West Virginia. Mackenzie had nine points in the opening half but West Virginia led 42-33 at the half. With seven minutes to play, Mack enzie hit a three-pointer cutting the lead to 63-60. Each time West Virginia threatened to pull away, Bucknell answered. Mackenzie hit another three -- his fifth on seven attempts -- to make it 73-68 with three minutes remaining. His 23rd point tied a Bucknell tour nament record. Time was Bucknell' s enemy, though. With the Bison forced to foul in the final minute, West Virginia capitalized, holding on for an 86-80 win. OAKVILLE 25 Y E A R S IN O A K V ILLE O W N A DULT O U TD O O R 6v6 CO -ED LEAG UES w Season runs 16 w eeks, M id-late M ay through A ug ust MARCH SPECIAL $ 1 5 off and fre e fast w ax w ith this ad. O ffer expires M arch 3 1 ,2 0 1 7 Protect your C o m p le te C ars from $ 1 1 9 -9 5 Investment!! Nights available: Monday, Tuesday, W ednesday, Thursday w Skill levels: R ecreational to Super-com petitive with the optimum in vehicle rust control and much more! NEW CARS, USED CARS, RUSTY CARS... WE DO IT ALL Team Entry Individual Entry State-of-the-art outdoor beach courts w ith H utcheson sand M axim um 24 team s per night to avoid late gam es Burloak Sports Centre - 952 Century Dr, Burlington Contact us @ 905-631-0000 ext. 200 or kristin@burloaksportscentre.ca $125 905.827.7878 -maoHTQ HAMILTON. For coupons and specials visit... Prices +HST WAVAy/RTICTTnwaTTTTI 1490 UNIT # 5 SPEERS ROAD, OAKVILLE B t R L O A K S P O R T S C E N T R E 1C A