The Mathieu-Martin Matadors wrote another page of history on Saturday by winning the championship of the first edition of the Coupe de l’Acadie basketball.
The event took place on the grounds of the Olympians of the Odyssey, the hosts of the competition.
The Dieppois won 84 to 72 over the Olympians to earn the title.
Matador MVP Sohan Riedel was beaming after the great win.
“It’s great, we won the first tournament and made history. This touches our hearts”, underlines the one who collected 41 points during this meeting.
Nick Ahmady added 18. Michel Fournier was the best of the Olympians with 26
“I believe I was chosen MVP because I participate a lot in all facets of the game. I also try to give maximum effort all the time and I train a lot to achieve that,” he adds. .
The young basketball player said he was happy with the work done by his team over the weekend.
“The difference in the final was our ability to adapt. We also gave the best of ourselves to win and we played as a team.
With only three losses to their credit since the start of the season, the Matadors can logically aspire to the provincial title.
The assistant coach, Marc Boucher, spoke for his part of the fine tradition of his team.
“It’s great to see a French-speaking tournament and as a former Matador, it’s the first time that I’ve attended a tournament only with French-speaking teams,” he says.
“This victory is good for us and demonstrates the success of basketball in the Francophonie. By the end of the season, we want to finish strong and we are preparing for the end-of-season playoffs. We hope to win a second provincial banner for the Matadors like last year.
The Louis-J.-Robichaud Patriotes won the bronze medal with a 73 to 54 win over the Sainte-Anne School Beavers in Fredericton. Zack Melanson and Patrick Chamberlain, his team’s MVP, led the attack with 22 and 21 points, respectively.
Caleb Boudreau was the best on the Castors side, with 18 points.
Chamberlain said he was satisfied with his team’s performance.
“We have a good group of guys. We were happy to represent the Patriots here and each player did his part,” said the 12th year player.
“All played well and represented their school well. It was a great idea to organize this tournament and I hope there will be another one next year. We were aiming for the first position, but we are happy with the third.
