CCAA Opener: Blues vs. Hawks

The Capilano Blues face the Humber Hawks of Etobicoke, Ont. in their tournament opener at the CCAA National Championship Wednesday night.

Posted: Mar 12, 2025

CapU Blues sports info

The Capilano Blues open up their 2025 CCAA National Championship account Wednesday night when they take on the Humber Hawks.

GAME TIME: 5:30 p.m. PDT

TOURNAMENT WEBSITE: Click Here

WATCH LIVE (pay-per-view): Click Here

HOST VENUE: Vanier College, Montreal, Que.

HOW THEY GOT HERE:
The PACWEST had just one berth to the national tournament this year and Capilano claimed it by winning the PACWEST gold medal after entering the provincial tournament as a No. 3 seed. The Blues knocked off higher-seeded Camosun in the semifinal, a thrilling 75-66 double-overtime victory and came back the next night to defeat No. 1-seed VIU by a 75-70 score. Ahmad Athman was named Tournament MVP while David Featherston Jr. and Damein Coleman were named to the tournament All-Star Team.

Humber was the top-ranked team in all of the CCAA for the last six weeks of the season, going undefeated with an 18-0 record in OCAA conference play. The OCAA postseason plays out over three weekends and the Hawks marched to the final with wins of 113-67 over La Cite, 98-67 over Algonquin and 83-63 over Georgian. Meeting the 17-1 Durham for gold, Humber was a slight favourite but got upended 67-61 in the title match.

LAST TIME THEY PLAYED:
The Blues and Hawks faced each other in their opening game at the 2022 CCAA National Championship hosted at Humber in Etobicoke, Ont. The host Hawks got out to a quick start against a Blues team that, at that point, had not been to nationals in 19 years. Capilano was able to close the gap in the second half, but Humber never trailed in the game on their way to an 88-78 win which propelled them on to the national title on home court.

WHO TO WATCH FOR:
Capilano's Kash Lang has been a PACWEST All-Star in each of the last two seasons and led the Blues in scoring this season at 15.1 points per contest. Damein Coleman repeated as conference Defensive Player of the Year while point guard Ahmad Athman played his best basketball of the year in the PACWEST provincial tournament, posting almost 18 points per game with six assists per game during over the three games.

Athman, Featherston Jr., Josh Vandevelde, Zach Klim, Shakir Yakubu and Russell Curley were all part of the Blues 2023 PACWEST championship team and have experience from that year's nationals hosted at SAIT in Calgary.

For Humber, Jalen Menzies was part of the Hawks' CCAA bronze-medal-winning team last year and earned a spot on the tournament First Team of All-Stars while Malik Grant got a spot on the Second Team. Both are key contributors again this year, with Grant averaging 16.2 points per game and almost seven boards while Menzies averages 14.5 points per contest with over two steals per game.

INTERESTING:

Humber's entire roster is made up entirely of Ontarians, mostly from the Greater Toronto Area. Capilano features two Ontario natives (Athman, Yakubu) and three Americans (Lang, Featherston Jr., Coleman)
This will be the third meeting ever between the Blues and Hawks. Each meeting has come in the CCAA national tournament opener. Humber won 86-79 in the 2003 event and 88-78 in 2022.
Humber's Romeo Osas Joshua is the only player on either roster that was active when these teams last met in 2022.
Both the Blues and Hawks hosted their provincial championship tournament. Humber lost the title game to Durham College on Mar. 2 at their Humber Athletic Centre while the Blues upended VIU for PACWEST gold Mar. 1 at CapU's Centre for Sport and Wellness.
Humber has been in the CCAA Top-15 the entirety of the season, attaining top spot in the Jan. 21 poll and staying their through the final poll which was published Feb. 25. Capilano was in the national rankings through the first four polls, reaching the No. 7 spot on Nov. 12 but were out of the Top-15 by the end of November.