In the interzone 8, 9 & 15 playoffs: …………………………………………………… In the semis, the Dauphin Clippers opened with a 62-56 win over Swan Valley. The Tigers led 34-28 at the half. But the slow start didn’t faze them. “I wasn’t worried at all,” Clippers coach Tully Gawazuk told the Dauphin Herald. “That’s been our pattern against them all year, pretty much.” Colin Thompson led the Clippers with 12 points and 10 boards. Allan Bemat scored 17. …………………………………………………… In the other interzone semi, the Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans dispatched the Boissevain Broncos x-x. …………………………………………………… In the interzone final, the Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans clubbed the Dauphin Clippers 84-67. The Clippers led 41-35 at the half by pounding the ball inside to Allan Bemat. But the Spartans began double- or triple-teaming him in the second half and soon took command. Jordan Nostedt led the Spartans with 33. Sterling Nostadt added 22. Bemat pace the Clippers with 26, along with 11 boards. Sam Rempel added 11, Chanse Komik 11 and Colin Thompson 11. …………………………………………………… The Winnipeg College Pierre Elliott Trudeau Canadiens clubbed the Beausejour Edward Schreyer Barons 74-58.
In the wildcard games: …………………………………………………… The Dauphin Clippers dispatched the Winnipeg Windsor Park 66-49 after leading 33-27 at the half. Allan Bemat paced the Clippers with 21 points and 11 boards. Sam Rempel added 17, along with 11 boards. Maity Phounsavat paced Windsor Park with 23. …………………………………………………… The Winnipeg Westgate Wings defeated the Swan Valley Swan River Tigers x-x. “It is sad that we lost, but we definitely did not lose because of lack of desire,” coach Duane Whyte told the Swan Valley Star & Times. “We had trouble scoring, but it was not lack of effort at all. Our man to man and our press usually work well, but we just had trouble shooting.” The Tigers (coached by Duane Whyte, assisted by Ryan Immerkar) included Brock Effa, Nathan Reimer, Travis Church, Dallas Gade, Matthew Strate, Tanner Vestby, Tyler Burnside, Cody Lumas, Sean Sullivan and Lisle Edmunds.
In the quarterfinals, held in Brandon, the 2nd-seeded Winnipeg Nelson McIntyre Wolverines defeated the 7th-seeded University of Winnipeg Collegiate Wesmen 78-70. The Wolverines led 36-34 at the half. The Wesmen (coached by R Hechter and K Gray) included Zev Permack, Laurie Permack, Cole Finnson, Justin Holness, Komal Kaler, Matt Gray, Sital Sharma, Reese Feder, Ali Azam and Belal Abas.
The 3rd-seeded Winnipeg Westgate Mennonite Wings dumped the 6th-seeded Portage Trotters 70-54 as Nick Evans scored 21. Zack Diboll led Portage with 13. The Trotters (coached by Steve Lewis and Chris Perry) also included Kane Xoumphonphackdy, Peter Stockmann, Jared Arnott, Tyler Miller, Jay Pauch, Norman Cook, Ben Wettlaufer, Kennedy Elk, Jordan McAllister, Justin Edinger, Chad Macdonald, Daniel Pashe and Edwin Peters
The top-seeded Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans defeated the 8th-seeded Winnipeg College Pierre Elliott Trudeau Canadiens 102-54 as Jordan Nostedt scored 19. Andrew Langford led Pierre Elliott Trudeau with 13. Neelin led 44-24 at the half. The Canadiens (coached by Malcom McGann) also included Terence Natividad, Alex Kreker, Kevin Fedoruk, Andrew Sylvain, Dale Paskaruk, Mark Jacques, Sean Wegner, Daniel Kurylo and Collin Dick.
In the last quarterfinal, the 5th-seeded Thompson R.D. Parker Trojans knocked off the 4th-seeded Dauphin Clippers 82-71 as Trevor Winter scored 27. Sam Rempel led Dauphin with 20. R.D. Parker led the 36-34 at the half. The Clippers (coached by Tully Gawazuk and R.J. Mackenzie also included Kevin Thompson, Jordan Hefichuk, Jason Andrews, Chris Salyga, Phil Fafard, Ben MacKenzie, Colin Thompson, Chanse Kornik, Wade Thiele, Allan Bernat and Rob Hopkins.
In the semis, the top-seeded Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans whipped the 5th-seeded Thompson R.D. Parker Trojans 104-77 as Jordan Nostedt scored 33. Trevor Winter led the Trojans with 26. The Spartans led 51-39 at the half.
In the other semi, the 2nd-seeded Winnipeg Nelson McIntyre Wolverines defeated the 3rd-seeded Winnipeg Westgate Mennonite Wings 68-63 as Mike Hebert scored 26. Nick Miller paced Westgate with 17. The score was knotted at 30 at the half.
In the bronze medal match, the 3rd-seeded Winnipeg Westgate Mennonite Wings dumped the 5th-seeded Thompson R.D. Parker Trojans 75-62 as Nick Miller scored 24. Trevor Winter led R.D. Parker with 23. The Trojans led 37-34 at the half. The Trojans (coached by Jonathan Wamboldt, assisted by Cez Duarte) also included Phillip Kopeechuk, Mat Rushton, Aaron Watt, Dennis Venn, Ramsey Thomas, Shane Ridgeway, Jon-Ross Merasty-Moose, Michael Chabot, Josh Rab, Kenny Paynter and Ryan Okemow.
In the final, the 2nd-seeded Winnipeg Nelson McIntyre Wolverines dumped the top-seeded and previously undefeated Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans 69-59 as tournament MVP Mike Hebert scored 20 and Evan Kowbel 17. Jordan Nostedt led the Spartans with 18. Kelly McGuinness added 13, James Stewart 12 and Dylan Kellington 7. The Wolverines led 30-27 at the half. “We prepared for it and I thought today we did a really good job of preparing ourselves to play,” Neelin coach Don Thomson told the Brandon Sun. “Hats off to Nelson McIntyre. They executed a lot of stuff that maybe they hadn’t all week long … Sometimes the shots fall for us, sometimes they don’t and today it didn’t happen.” Nostedt said “we just got caught up and got away from playing our own style of game. Our game plan was to come in and play a really disciplined game of basketball and we didn’t do that. They got us out of our disciplined sets and it just kind of spiraled down from there. Credit to our guys. We’ve got a lot of young guys and some old guys too and they played hard, but unfortunately we just came out on the short end.” Sterling Nostedt tied the game 57 with a trey with 2:36 to play but the Wolverines closed it out with a 12-2 run, including an Evan Kowbel trey with a minute to play. “They hit a big three there in the corner and that made it five and, in high school, that just about makes it a three-possession game,” Thomson said. “We made a good run there but we just weren’t in good focus to get scores like we usually are.” Jordan Nostedt said “we just got caught up and got away from playing our own style of game. Our game plan was to come in and play a really disciplined game of basketball and we didn’t do that. They got us out of our disciplined sets and it just kind of spiraled down from there. Credit to our guys. We’ve got a lot of young guys and some old guys too and they played hard, but unfortunately we just came out on the short end.” Sterling Nostedt, a grade 10 guard who scored 9, hit a trey with 2:36 to play to tie the game at 57, but the Wolverines scored 12 of the game’s next 14 points, mostly on free throws. The dagger was Evan Kowbel’s trey. “They hit a big three there in the comer and that made it five and, in high school, that just about makes it a three-possession game,” Thomson said. “We made a good run there but we just weren’t in good focus to get scores like we usually are.”
The bronze medalist Winnipeg Westgate Mennonite Wings: Corey Coker; Kyle Wiebe; Lukas Douglas; Brandon Warnock; Mark Riediger; Nick Evans; Riel Banman; Nick Miller; Nick Bergen; Joshua Wiens; Daniel Epp; coach Karl Wiebe; coach David Morgan; manager Nicola Loewen; manager Kelly Riediger; manager Alan Chan
The silver medalist Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans: Garrett Popplestone; James Stewart; John McLeod; Zane Zalusky; Kelly McGuiness; Kevin Sutherland; Sterling Nostedt; Jordan Nostedt; Mitch Third; Dylan Kellington; Darcy Ruskin; Steve Shields; Mike Kuzmicki; Dan Hanna; coach Don Thomson
The gold medalist Winnipeg Nelson McIntyre Wolverines: Kevin Woods; Derrick Cheshire; Pat Anderson; Dan Marion; Joey Simon; Spencer Berard; Julien Dupont; Evan Kowbel; Josiah Prowse; Matt Bedard; Mike Hebert; coach Todd Tyler; coach Jason McKechnie; coach Kyle Hosien; manager Ginny Kypers