1976-77 Halifax – uSports men

	McGill	78
	Laurentian	68	McGill	70
	Lakehead	80	Lakehead	77	Lakehead	63
	St. Mary’s	72
	Waterloo	85					—–ACADIA
	Alberta	73	Waterloo	63	Acadia	72
	Acadia	88	Acadia	65
	U.P.E.I.	70

In the quarterfinals, Waterloo defeated Alberta 85-73 as Lou Nelson scored 26. Waterloo was ahead 37-35 at the half. Lou Nelson paced the Warriors with 26. Visser added 22, Larman 14, Yuhasz 12, Tamburino 4, Vance 4, Hadwen 2 and Brill-Edwards 1, while Freund, Kurtz, Darcie and Graham were scoreless. Warriors coach Don McCrae told the Kitchener-Waterloo Record that “we had some trouble at the start but we didn’t lose our poise. I thought Don (Larman) and Mike (Visser) did some excellent work with perimeter shooting and the defensive play of Doug (Vance) and Lou (Nelson) was the difference in the second half.” Doug Baker paced the Golden Bears with 24. Rooney added 18, Panteluk 9, Patterson 6, Shockey 6, Smith 6, Abercrombie 2 and Lucas 2, while B Baker, Bonin, Jorgenson and Lawrie were scoreless. The Bears led 37-35 at the half. They were the nation’s party team, and lived and died by the fastbreak. “We had absolutely no size,” said Brent (Bert) Patterson. His teammates figured he looked like Bert, Ernie’s pal on Sesame Street. “We relied as much as possible on the fast break; solely, if possible. Baker was 6-foot-5 but he could only jump two inches. He might as well have been 2-foot-2.” Under head coach Garry Smith, Alberta went 16-4 in the regular season and swept Victoria in two straight to win the Canada West title. Alberta won in Victoria this year to advance to this weekend’s national tournament. “Both teams had all-Canadians that led the team,” said Baker, who averaged 25 points a game. Alberta traditionally threw a party on Saturday for the visiting team and friends. “There’d be 200 people there. We partied hard,” said Patterson. “I remember our first meeting of the year, we talked about how many beers you could have after a game.” Coach Smith voted for none, but the players voted for two. The players had their way. “It was two beer on Friday, two cases Saturday,” said Patterson. “We wouldn’t go overboard if there was a game the next day, but on Saturday there were no rules,” said Keith Smith. “The other teams used to love coming to Edmonton.” Garry Smith instituted a river valley run at 10 a.m. Sundays, partly to make his players accountable for the night before. Doug (Father) Lucas remembers the focus of the run became more fashion than fitness. “You’d wear your shorts outside your pants, and guys would be wearing whatever clothes they inherited the night before.” Lucas got his nickname because he seldom took part in the off-court activities with his teammates. Pat (Rose) Rooney wished he’d have missed one party. “We nicknamed him that after a girl he met,” said Patterson. “I think I missed that party,” said Father Lucas. “Pat hated that story. He said `Don’t publish it in the school paper, please.’ Alberta went to Halifax that March, only to have Waterloo shut down its fast-break offence in an 85-78 loss. “We were extremely nervous,” Patterson remembers. “We went in as underdogs, and probably could have used that to our advantage more. But there was an intimidation factor. The court was just a basketball court, no other lines or anything. Shooting with nothing behind the backboard, there was no perspective. It was just something we hadn’t done.” Alberta couldn’t match up with a bigger Waterloo team, and when the defensive rebounds wouldn’t come, the Bears couldn’t fire up their fast-break offence. Their chase for the gold medal ended early. “I’m sure we believed somewhere that we could win, but I don’t know where,” Patterson said. What did they do next? What do you think? “Hammered. Just blotto,” said Keith Smith. Alberta lost its second game at the tournament to Prince Edward Island. “We had guys who didn’t drink, and guys who were religious, and they were included in everything,” said Baker. “We had great team spirit.”

       Acadia, the nation’s top-ranked team for most of the year, which had qualified as AUAA champ, defeated wildcard UPEI, coached by Gary Heald, 88-70 after taking a 43-37 lead at the break. Ed Shannon led the Axemen with 28 points and 13 rebounds. Ted Upshaw added 21, Alvin Jessamy 15, along with 13 boards and Doug Roberts 12. The Axemen led 49-37 at the half. Rick Millard paced the Panthers with 23. Ken Rowe added 17.

       Second-ranked McGill pounded Laurentian 78-68 as forward Gerry Ostroff scored 21 points. The Redmen scored 10 unanswered points in the final three minutes to pull out the win. He later said it was a revenge match with Laurentian coach Richie Spears, who’d headed the Dawson College Clubs which had repeatedly pounded McGill. “Sure I wanted revenge and so did some others on this team and we got it.” The sixth man gave the Redmen a lift when coming off the bench to replace centre Charlie Galbraith, who’d picked up his fourth foul early in the send half. He scored 12 of his 21 points in the final minutes, including four of McGill’s 10 in the last 90 seconds. Ostroff also nabbed 7 boards. “Gerry did a super job out there,” said all-Canadian forward Joey Farroba, who was held to 10. “They had a lot of guys trying to stop him, but once he gets going look out.” Both teams looked nervous early and shot errantly. Galbraith missed his four shots but finished with 18. McGill was ahead 38-33 at the break, overcoming a six-point deficit midway through the first half. Laurentian’s zone press had stymied the Redmen. But they rallied in the second half, as Laurentian shot a dismal .380. “They did hurt us, especially with that zone press,” said Staples. “And I’m happy they didn’t use it as much as they probably should have.” Gordie Brabant added 10 for McGill, while Mike Heale led Laurentian with 18. Varouj Gurunlian added 14, Mark Bennett 10 and Reni Dolcetti 8. Redmen guard Dave Kassie told the McGill Daily that “they were shooting 25-footers, while we were taking 10-footers. Of course, we’re going to hit more often.” Farroba said of point guard Gordie Brabant that “he’s a real general, a floor leader. And (Gerry) Ostroff, he just played a great game.” Redmen coach Butch Staples said “I guess this is the first team to rely so heavily on Canadian talent since the Bishop’s team of 10 years ago. Gordie (Brabant), Gerry (Ostroff), Bill (Holt) and Dave (Kassie). … all of them.” The Voyageurs (coached by Richie Spears) also included Jeff Bennett, Paul Mousseau, Pat Signoretti, Steve Pettifer, Francis Sheridan, Mike Mulvihill, Larry Bertulli and Harry Blumenfeld.

       In the last quarterfinal, fifth-ranked Lakehead easily handled 10th-ranked host qualifier St. Mary’s 85-72 as all-Canadian Jim Zoet dominated the hosts and finished with 29 (also reported as 19). Al Tekoniemi added 19. Lakehead led 46-37 at the half. Frank White paced the Huskies with 22. Syd Sheppard added 17 and Billy Loos 16.

       In the semis, Acadia defeated Waterloo 65-63 on a bucket by Ed Shannon with a second left on the clock after twice squandering seven-point leads. Acadia coach Dick Hunt said Shannon’s winning bucket was “a planned play. I wanted West to have the ball and to hit Shannon in the centre. They did the right thing at the right time.”  Shannon finished with 21 points, while Alvin Jessamy topped all scorers with 27. Roberts added 14 and R Upshaw 4, while West, Hunt, T Upshaw, Skinner, Johnson, Oliver, Archibald and Aker were scoreless. Seymour Hadwen led the Warriors with 19, including 12 in the first half. Lou Nelson added 17, Visser 14, Vance 7, Larman 3, Brill-Edward 2 and Yuhasz 1, while Tamburino, Freund, Kurtz, Darcie and Graham were scoreless. Warriors coach Don McCrae told the Kitchener-Waterloo Record that “it was an outstanding game but in the end, we just couldn’t stop Shannon and Jessamy. … Despite a really super job on the boards by our centre Lou Nelson, their rebounding superiority was another key factor.” Acadia outrebounded Waterloo 44-29. The Axemen hit 7-14 from the line, while Waterloo was 7-15.

       In the other semi, 7-2 centre Jim Zoet scored 23 as Lakehead defeated McGill 77-70 in the battle of the giants. The battle between Zoet and McGill’s 6-9 centre Charlie Galbraith was all that it was advertised to be. McGill led 13-8 when Zoet took control and led Laurentian to a 46-36 halftime lead. McGill rallied in the second half with a 10-4 run to take a 59-58 lead with less than 9 minutes to go before Zoet (off an enormous Dave Preuss offensive rebound) and Mel Bishop hit key field goals in the final minute to seal the Lakehead victory. Bishop finished with 20, including 8-9 from the floor, but only 4 in the second half. Dave Preuss added 16. McGill was paced by Charlie Galbraith’s 21 points and 13 boards. Bill Holt added 17, along with 10 boards. Gerry Ostroff scored 13. Lakehead coach Arnie Donovan said his team started the second half “a little slack” but key rebounds and tough defence were the difference. “Our defence was a big factor. We confused in the first half by switching back and forth from a full-court zone press to a half-court zone press and they needed the halftime break to try and adjust,” said Donovan. “The guys played well and are used to that kind of pressure.” He added that his troops were well-prepared by tough GPAC play, he added. But Butch Staples said McGill’s poor shooting was the difference. They hit only 13-36 or .360 for the contest, while Lakehead nailed 21-36 for .580. Assistant Lakehead coach Wayne Bovay told the McGill Daily that said Bishop’s lacklustre second-half performance was a function of the fact that “they changed the damn ball on him. We played the second half with a different basketball and it affected Bishop’s shooting.” Redmen coach Butch Staples said “I thought we played well but shot poorly and missed more than our share of easy shots.”

       In the bronze medal match, Waterloo nipped McGill 80-79 as Mike Visser hit a layup at the buzzer on a play mapped out during a timeout by Waterloo coach Don McCrae. Visser finished with 20 and centre Lou Nelson 21 as Waterloo rallied from a 48-35 half-time deficit. Nelson also nabbed 12 boards. Seymour Hadwen scored 17, Vance 13, Larman 3, Brill-Edwards 3 and Darcie 2, while Tamburino, Freund, Kurtz, Yuhasz and Graham were scoreless. McCrae told the Kitchener-Waterloo Record that “considering how down the guys were emotionally after losing the night before on a last-second basket to Acadia, it was a real chore for them to do what they did against McGill. But they didn’t panic and just kept plugging away. We didn’t win the championship but I know we earned a lot of respect because this team just never quit when it might have been easy to do that.”  McCrae told the McGill Daily that he told his troops at half-time “to close the gap slowly and not to try to catch up in one surge.” It took the Warriors 9 minutes to knot the score. The lead changed hands 5 times in the final 47 seconds. Charlie Galbraith gave McGill a 77-76 lead with 24 seconds to play. Following a timeout, Gordie Brabant fouled Seymour Hadwen, who hit a pair from the line. Following another timeout, Galbraith hit a baseline jumper with 7 seconds on the clock. Joey Farroba led McGill with 19 before fouling out with two minutes to play. Charlie Galbraith and Gordie Brabant each added 18, while Gerry Ostroff scored 11, while nabbing 10 boards, Brissett 6, Holt 3 and Kossie 2, while Samimeron, Vandersa and O’Neil were scoreless. “It was a definite fatigue factor that got the better of us,” said Butch Staples. The Warriors hit 15-16 from the line.

       In the final, Acadia won 72-63 as both coaches agreed that the Axemen’s and particularly forward Ed Shannon’s containment of Jim Zoet was the key factor in the contest. Shannon earned the MVP award essentially for his defence as both Acadia coach Dick Hunt and Lakehead coach Arnie Donovan credited the Worcester, Mass.-born 6-7 centre with shutting down All-Canadian 7-1 centre Jim Zoet in the final by pushing him out of the paint. Hunt later noted he hoped the rest of the team would come up with a big game “while Eddie did a number on their big man.” Forward Alvin Jessamy from Yonkers, N.Y. responded to the challenge, finishing with 23 points, most on 10-12-foot jumpers. “Believe me, I was shooting scared,” said Jessamy. “This is most the exciting game I’ve ever played in and we’ll be back next year to do it all over again.” Shannon added 17. Lakehead was led by Prince Rupert, B.C.-born g Mel Bishop, with 21 points, Port Perry-Ontario-product Zoet and Al Tekoniemi each finished with 14. Shannon’s wild man antics and trash talking threw Zoet off his game. “He did an excellent job defencing Zoet,” said Hunt. And today, Shannon has proved to me that he is as big as he has to be and can stop anyone.” He knocked Zoet to the floor several times. “There were deliberate attempts to brutally neutralize our big man,” said Lakehead coach Arnie Donovan, who said he was disgusted with the officials for failing to eject Shannon after he’d unleashed a right hook at Zoet on a drive to the basket. Shannon said the adrenalin was flowing early. “It bothered me when people kept coming to me before the game asking how am I going to handle a guy six inches taller than myself. But you really can’t play differently just for one man because you’ll end up making sacrifices at other spots.” Acadia only lost twice all season.

       The all-tourney team featured: MVP Ed Shannon (Acadia); Alvin Jessamy (Acadia); Mel Bishop (Lakehead); Jim Zoet (Lakehead); Lou Nelson (Waterloo) and Frank White (St. Mary’s)

       After the season, several conferences modified their interpretations of the import rule. The Atlantic conference extended the eligibility rules to allow imports to play for five years instead of four, essentially allowing American players to come to Canada for a fifth year of eligibility. Ontario adopted a four-year limitation on imports, while requiring transfers to sit out a year. But it allowed Canadian players to toil for a fifth year, which essentially allowed larger schools with graduate programs to pick up athletes from schools that didn’t. In the West, five years of eligibility were allowed, provided the import had toiled at the school in his fourth year.

       The bronze medalist Waterloo Warriors: Mike Visser; Seymour Hadwen; Lou Nelson; Bob Yuhasz; Pat Brill-Edwards; Phil Tamburino; Donald Larman; Doug Vance; Thomas Darcie; John Freund; Ron Graham; Richard Kurtz; Trevor Briggs; coach Don McCrae

       The silver medalist Lakehead Norwesters: Jim Zoet; Mel Bishop; Al Tekoniemi; Jeff Bennett; Dave Preus; Martin Gysbers; Dave Kirychuk; John Zanatta; Mike Busch; Dennis Chibnall; George Hardisty; Mike Lalonde; Howie May; Brett McEwan; George Wheatley; coach Arne Donovan

       The champion Acadia Axemen: Ed Shannon; Robert Upshaw; Alvin Jessamy; Ted Upshaw; Gordie West; Tony Aker; John Archibald; Bruce Hunt; Stephen Johnson; Peter Leighton; Alan Oliver; Doug Roberts; Eric Skinner; Bruce Toigo; Norman Whynot; Don Crosby; John Thompson; John Townsend; coach Dick Hunt