Ottawa Gee-Gees, Johnny Berhanemeskel ‘bittersweet’ after best CIS Final 8 finish in school’s history

Blink and you missed when the silver medals were around the necks of Johnny Berhanemeskel and Gabriel Gonthier-Dubue.

The runner-ups at the Final Four get to retreat to the locker room. At the CIS Final 8, falling in the final involves lining up for the medal presentations, like and lump it. The Ottawa Gee-Gees — "by far the best team I think I've played in my five years here in the CIS," tournament MVP Tyson Hinz said after putting up 30 in his final university game — rolled their boulder farther up Mt. Carleton than any team has over the past four years, only to be crushed by it. For 2½ quarters, James Derouin's team hung in even while its best big, Gonthier-Dubue, was battling foul trouble and star Terry Thomas was vexed by Hinz, who limited the small forward to 14 points on 5-of-14 shooting.

A silver medal represents the best finish in the downtown Ottawa program's history, and also how far it still has to go. C'est la vie.

"It's just bittersweet," said Berhanemeskel, the crafty fourth-year guard who emptied the tank while scoring a team-high 19 points during the 79-67 loss in front of 7,050 at the Canadian Tire Centre. "That's just how I am. I'm a competitor. At the end of the game, I want to be having the gold around my neck. Me and Gab have gone through the grind together for the past four years and we've got one more year to do it now."

Taking on Carleton, Laval in football, or the Windsor Lancers in women's hoops means the tally posted on the scoreboard is not the actual score. A 20-point lead over any of those CIS juggernauts is like being tied with a mid-pack team. The pregame scuttlebutt was that Ottawa had a shot if it could build a big early lead. Instead, it was was down two after one quarter and trailed by two again at recess. Then Carleton happened, with a characteristic third quarter. Phil Scrubb, limited to 16 points on 3-for-14 shooting, scored the Ravens' first seven of that period to create a gap.

"I think we had a chance to do some things early on that could have given us a better cushion and that kind of hurt us in the third quarter," Berhanemeskel said. "There were a couple bounces and rebounds down the stretch."

Lost a 'great final'

The Gee-Gees finished 36-3 this season, including 35-0 against teams whose names do not rhyme with arleton. It takes two to tango, and it would be foolish to overlook that the garnet and grey had a lot to do with the announced crowd inching above 7,000, a 25 per cent bump over 2013 when Carleton bossed Lakehead by 50 in the final. Ottawa, which also got 15 points from combo foward Caleb Agada, whom Derouin contends is the best 19-year-old player in the country, helped make the moment, too.

"The feedback that I'm getting is it's pretty clear we were No. 1 and No. 2, based on the tournament performances of both our teams," Derouin said. "It was a great final. The final score doesn't look like a one-point game. Both teams fought hard. Lots of skills, lot of threes, lots of great passing. There's probably 4-5-6 guys that could be or are already all-Canadians that were in that game.

"Between [Ottawa's] Caleb [Agada], Terry [Thomas], Johnny [Berhanemeskel] and [Carleton's] Tyson [Hinz], Tommy [Scrubb], Phil [Scrubb], you're looking at it like it was an all-Canadian all-star game probably," Derouin added.

For the second night in a row, Carleton benefited after its foe's best frontcourt man got into foul trouble. In the semifinal, Alberta all-Canadian Jordan Baker got his third foul barely 12 minutes in, and didn't score until fourth-quarter garbage time.

Gonthier-Dubue, whose acumen with passing out of double teams keys Ottawa's outside shooting, got his second early and played only nine minutes in the first half. The Gatineau, Que., native finished with two points and one rebound.

"We were able to sustain the run without Gab but we lost the momentum and he lost his rhythm," Derouin said. "I didn't think he got it back. He had a nice rhythm and he was handling the double teams well while he was out there. But we had him out there for the second half. It definitely did [have an impact]."

'Carleton works their tails off to get those breaks'

Carleton was as snarly as ever on defence and on the boards. Or as Derouin cryptically put it: "To challenge that many shots and get that few fouls was impressive." While Ravens coach Dave Smart noted that each team's guards got "beat up," Carleton got to the line twice as much, sinking 21-for-25 to Ottawa's 8-for-11.

"We didn't get a break tonight, whether that was a bounce or a call or a shot to go down when we needed it," Derouin said. "But any coach or dad will tell you make your own luck. Carleton works their tails off to get those breaks."

Thomas, as a transfer from St. Francis Xavier, didn't become eligible until Nov. 29. Starting around the time of their win in the Wesmen Classic tournament in Winnipeg in the first days of the year, Ottawa's game was close to a confluence of gritty and pretty as one as likely to see in any gym across CIS. That was the output from a summer of doubling down on their off-court work after their bronze-medal finish in 2013.

"With our team if you need someone to rebound for you at 7 a.m., someone's there for you, if you need someone to help you with homework, same thing," Berhanemeskel said. "The amount of things guys have done for each other translated to the way we played. It's something I'll never forget."

Thomas is expected to dip his toe into the professional waters. Berhanemeskel and Gonthier-Dubue were the only other fourth-year players in Derouin's rotation. The Gee-Gees' window is wide-open for getting to the 2015 Final 8, which will be played on the same Mattamy Athletic Centre floor in Toronto where they won the OUA Wilson Cup on March 1. Omen?

"We've got some big shoes to fill there but we've got some good players on the way up as well," Derouin said. "We're excited for Moe [Ismail, a guard going into his third season] and [6-foot-9 centre] Matt Nelson and some of the young guys you don't see as much during the games.

"Our goal is to be back here next year. Bronze last year, silver this year and hopefully this leads to a gold next year."

That's the long view. That was not on the radar of Berhanemeskel as he left the arena.

"We'll be motivated when it's time to put the work back in. Right now it's just best to be with the guys who invested so much time and effort into a season. Be with them and share the moment.

"Just appreciate that."

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.