In the Interzone playoffs: …………………………………………………… In the semi, the Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans dusted the Virden Golden Bears 97-52 as Theo Faragh scored 22 and Chance Miller 16. …………………………………………………… In the final, the Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans dusted the Dauphin Clippers 81-47. Spartans coach Don Thomson told the Brandon Sun that defence proved the difference. “We held them to eight points in the second (quarter) and seven in the third quarter, which is a credit to our hard work on ‘D’.” Clippers coach Trevor Beals told the Dauphin Herald that his troops shot worse than they had all season. “And when you play a team like Neelin, I preached we had to be perfect. We had a really good first quarter. The game plan we had put in place was working. We were down two. But we had missed 10 free throws, we had missed four open layups. And then we came out in the second quarter and we were playing hard again. A few turnovers, missed shots, they came down and hit some threes and it gets going a little bit. So we were down 17 at the half. Against a team like Neelin, you just can’t come back from that. My kids played really hard, but it’s sports. It’s one of those days that just wasn’t our day. It wasn’t because of a lack of effort. But balls would be rimming in and rimming out and they’d come down and their balls would go in. … The nice thing I liked was at the end of the game, my guys weren’t hanging their heads. They were disappointed, but they understood that it just wasn’t their day. Some days you can score and some days you can’t. And we just weren’t able to put the ball in the hoop.” Beals was also disappointed that his Clippers were not awarded a wildcard. “I’m very disappointed. I’m not surprised. Unfortunately, in my opinion, there is becoming a division between Winnipeg and rural Manitoba. For some reason, rural Manitoba, in my opinion, isn’t getting a fair shake through high school athletics and the wildcard choice. For whatever reason, it seems we have to prove we’re better than Winnipeg, but Winnipeg doesn’t have to prove they’re better than us. It just seems to be the way that it is. For four teams that play in the same league and three teams that play in the same zone get a wildcard berth and myself or even The Pas, which has been ranked for most of the season, not even to get a game, to me, is really disheartening. It’s just disappointing. And I was disappointed for my kids because they worked hard.” Theo Faragh paced the Spartans with 25, along with 10 boards. Brock Hitner added 20, along with 11 boards.
In the wildcard games: …………………………………………………… The St. Boniface Windsor Park Collegiate Royals edged the University of Winnipeg Collegiate Wesmen 62-60. The Wesmen (coached by Wally Chabaty) included Tejpaul Baidwan, Marik Beraki, Justice Davey, Abraham Demsas, Stac Harder, Matt MacDonald, Chol Majur, Chace Moroz, Sunny Saran and Ish Singh. …………………………………………………… The Winnipeg St. John’s-Ravenscourt Eagles dumped the Winnipeg Nelson McIntyre Wolverines 80-70. The Wolverines (coached by David Day) included Kevin Ballie, Dalton Carver, Justin Catenza, Elias Desaultels, Jesse Fisher, McLean Hatherly, Matthew Henning, Brennan Herie, Myles Irvine, Jayden Karlsson, Merveille Madianga and Mackenzie Paterson.
In the quarterfinals, the top-seeded Winnipeg Westgate Mennonite Wings dumped the 8th-seeded Lorette Collegiate Scorpions 75-57. The Scorpions (coached by Graham Collier) included Daylon Collier, Matt Funk, Brody Gulka, Josh Kleinsasser, Chad Miazga, Jason Miazga, Shante Murdock, Tejpal Pandher, Mark Petit, Jordan Pineau, Austin Ridge, Brendon Smith and Jon Van Ieperen.
The 5th-seeded Flin Flon Hapnot Collegiate Kings defeated the 4th-seeeded St. Boniface Windsor Park Collegiate Royals 64-58. The Royals (coached by Steve Trottier) included Kamiran Adel, Emmanuel Ajack, Kalvin Barra, Bryce LeBlanc, Justin MacKay, Liam Mayer, Darian McKinney, Eric Moon, Dale Porth and Christian Whitehill.
The 2nd-seeded Brandon Neelin Spartans crushed the 7th-seeded Winnipeg St. John’s-Ravenscourt Eagles 72-44. The Eagles (coached by Jeremy Martin) included Jeremy Baker, Ramy Boles, Sandeep Brar, Avery Cadogan, Jeremy Gunn, Jeff Kim, Niko Kovacevic, Barry Mondt-Ward, Ajaipal Randhawa, Bilal Shaikh, Vaelan Sriranjan, Mohammed Warraich, Quasim Warraich, Manny Wood and Michael Xu.
In the last quarterfinal, the 6th-seeded Winnipeg St. James Collegiate Jimmies stunned the 3rd-seeded Winnipeg Gray Academy Raiders 73-66. The Raiders (coached by Gregg Beddome) included Gil Binnun, Oren Binnun, Max Brodovsky-Yager, Roman Dascal, Zach Donen, Dan Gall, Evgeny Gotfrid, Ben Meyers, Daniel Nemy, Jeremy Short, Adam Stoller and Ben Waldman.
In the semis, the top seeded Winnipeg Westgate Mennonite Wings clipped the 5th-seeded Flin Flon Hapnot Collegiate Kings 82-64.
In the other semi, the 6th-seeded Winnipeg St. James Collegiate Jimmies defeated the 2nd-seeded Brandon Neelin Spartans 87-81.
In the bronze medal match, the 2nd-seeded Brandon Neelin Spartans crushed the 5th-seeded Flin Flon Hapnot Collegiate Kings 78-44. The Kings (coached by Don Dyke) included Dustin Hartery, Luke Holubec, Sam Kinsley, Max LeClerc, Nick Novosel, Riley Rachuk, Zach Reykdal, Ryan Russell, Blake Wallaker, Garrett Whitford, Ben Wride and Nick Yewchuk. Kinsley later received the player’s choice award for the tournament.
In the final, the top-seeded Winnipeg Westgate Mennonite Wings clocked the 6th-seeded Winnipeg St. James Collegiate Jimmies 87-47.
The bronze medalist Brandon Neelin Spartans: Osian Edwards, Theo Farough, Brock Hiltner, Mason Hodgson, Quinton Hunter, Bryce Keilback, Chance Miller, Dylan Minshull, Andrew Norman, Isaak Stark, Brandon Williams, coach Don Thomson; assistant Carey Lasuik; manager Jordan Larocque
The silver medalist Winnipeg St. James Jimmies: Mike Abdi, Ali Ahmed, Ralph Bantados, Rodney Brown, Paulo Dungca, Artfel Galapon, Jonathan McIntosh, Jordan Murdock, Jessie Seng, Jayden Shelby, Kyle Stratton, Riley Thiessen-Lewchuk, Daniel Tuazon and Hamdallah Zeid, coach Ryan Kangas.
The gold medalist Winnipeg Westgate Mennonite Wings: Owen Baerg, Sam Craton, Paul Currie, Justin Dyck, Cole Friesen, Jason Friesen, Jackson Gustafson-Fish, Joel Kliewer, Ben Miller, Joshua Neustaedter Barg, Anthony Ouellette, Andrew Savignac, coach Karl Wiebe