Seth McKenzie: February's Zueike Male Athlete of the Month
Congratulations to Seth McKenzie of Men's Basketball on being selected the CMU Zueike Male Athlete of the Month for February. The fourth-year shooting guard has been a consistent force leading the young Blazers squad to the MCAC Championship Finals this Friday in Niverville.
After the Blazers men's basketball team played themselves to a perfect record in the first half, the delayed start after the Christmas break seemed to break the group's momentum, and an early loss early in the month could have spelled disaster for the young team who were hoping to cruise to a first-round bye straight through to the MCAC finals. But the squad re-grouped, largely due to the consistent play of veteran leader McKenzie, who put in some clutch performances down the final stretch of the season. Despite their winning record, the Blazers have found themselves in a lot of close games this season, and McKenzie's big-game experience has certainly factored into the Blazers being able to come out on top more often than not.
Case in point was the Blazer's big 99-93 home win on February 19th over the visiting Providence Pilots. The Blazers trailed early in the game, and found themselves down three points heading into the second quarter, where that gap was closed so that the teams were on even footing heading into the second half. It was at that point that McKenzie got red hot, scoring 12 of his game-high 23 points in the third quarter, and followed with eight more in the final frame to lead his team to the comeback victory. In total, the veteran shooting guard netted 21 of his 23 points from beyond the arc. He followed up that massive performance with an 18-point outing on February 25th in a win over the St Boniface Rouges, which included four more three-pointers.
Mckenzie has already received some personal accolades this month, which included an MCAC Athlete of the Week nod in week 17 of the MCAC schedule after his strong play in the aforementioned Blazers win over the St Boniface Rouges. Furthermore, in their final home match of the season, McKenzie was honoured as the lone graduate on the team for his four years of commitment to the Blazers program.
"Seth has played at a constantly high level over the last month of the season," chimed in men's basketball head coach, Scott Martin, about his stud shooting guard's play. "For the season, Seth is averaging 16.8 points per game, and he has shot an outstanding 45% from the three-point line."
For head coach Martin consistency is key, as the team will look to rebound after their final regular season game, only their second loss of the season, this one to the upstart St Boniface Rouges. The Blazers have already earned themselves the bye through the MCAC semi-final round, which will have the second-seeded Pilots face the third-seeded Les Rouges on both the men's and the women's sides, which tips off on Thursday night in Niverville. The Blazers will face the winner of those matchups in the MCAC Championship Final on Friday night at the Niverville Community Resource and Recreation Centre with tipoffs set for 6PM for the women and 8PM for the men. Spectator limitations have been lifted for the championships, with mask mandates still in effect for Manitoba.
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