St. Mary’s82
Concordia80St. Mary’s75
Victoria93Victoria91Victoria73
Windsor75—–VICTORIA
Brandon91
York90Brandon85Brandon65
Winnipeg76Winnipeg81
Calgary72

In the quarterfinals, held at Calgary’s Max Bell Arena, before sparse crowds no larger than 1500, the St. Mary’s Huskies, under new head coach Gary Heald and fresh from thumping St. FX in the AUAA final, edged the Quebec champ Concordia Stingers 82-80. The game was nip and tuck through the first half, with both teams shooting well, until the Huskies ran off six consecutive points in the final minutes to take a 49-41 lead. But 6-7 centre Leon Bynoe had kept the Stingers within range and the contest was still up for grabs. But as the second half unfolded, the Huskies maintained their lead, led by hot-shooting guards Lee Davis and Rick Plato. They stretched the margin to 13 and appeared to have the game in command with a 74-61 lead, after a series of Ross Quackenbush blocks led to easy layups on the offensive end of the floor. But after irate Concordia coach Doug Daignault called time out and dressed down his troops, the Stingers came out roaring, holding the Huskies scoreless over the next three minutes to cut the lead to four. Hard-pressed St. Mary’s clung to the lead, although Concordia cut the margin to two with 21 seconds to go. But freshman guard Lee Davis promptly hit two three throws to ice the contest, although a final basket by Doug Whaley narrowed the margin to two with five seconds to go. The final score was 82-80, with Davis hitting for 30 and Plato 15, all in the first half. Quackenbush, a 6-7 fifth-year centre, finished with 14 points and nabbed 19 rebounds, including 10 on the offensive glass. John Dronsella added 10 and Ron Blommers 9, while Boyd, Mansfield, King, Ross and Welge were scoreless. Doug Whaley paced Concordia with 21. Leon Bynoe, a graduate of Toronto Oakwood Collegiate, added 19, Gary McKeigan 12, Steve MacNeill 8, Richard Brown, 6, Harley Lawrence 6, Rich Hagens 6 and Lloyd Pullen 6, while Blackett and Bentley were scoreless. Stingers coach Doug Daigneault told Canadian Press that “McKeegan and Gissendaner both had strong games. Our inside game is our big game.”

        The Canada West champ Victoria Vikings pasted the Ontario West champion Windsor Lancers 93-75. Both teams shot poorly in the opening half, but Victoria was ahead by nine at the intermission, leading 45-36. The Vikings opened the second half with a 14-6 run and breezed to the final buzzer, substituting freely and still maintaining a comfortable margin. The Ken Shields coached Victoria squad totally controlled the tempo of the contest and their tough defence prevented either of the run-and-gun Lancer’s platoons from getting on stride and getting the ball inside to 6-7 Stan Korosec. Billy Turney-Loos, who’d transferred to Victoria from St. Mary’s along with Carol Turney, finished the contest with 23 points, while Ted Anderson scored 18, Gerald Kazanowski 12, Rene Dolcetti 10, Craig Higgins 8, Tom Narbeshuber 8, Mickey Welder 6, Chris Hebb 4, Ian Hyde-Lay 2 and Eli Pasquale 2, while Dukeshire and Hamilton were scoreless. John Ritchie and Jim Molyneux each scored 17 for Windsor, while Stan Korosec added 12, Brian Hogan 8, Vince Landry 7, Phil Hermanutz 6, Jack Baird 6 and Mark Landry 2, while Dykhuizen and Korchok were scoreless. Victoria hit 37-77 from the field, or 48%, while Windsor hit 29-78 or 37%. The Vikings out-rebounded the Lancers by a margin of 49-43. “You have got to give Windsor a lot of credit,” Shields told Canadian Press. “They play a scrappy aggressive style and, with our depth, the only they could hurt us was to get us to play their style.” Shields told the Windsor Star that “I was a little concerned early in the game. We were playing Windsor’s game. It was like a track meet and I didn’t want to get involved in that. They gave us a good first half. When they press and pick up at half court, you have to play their game. But eventually, we started to play our style of game. And when we did, we played quite well.” Lancers coach Paul Thomas said “they were too good a team for us. We would have to play our very best to beat them and we didn’t. They’re pretty much an ideal team, with good size, a strong bench and excellent shooting ability. They are a team with very few weaknesses. We shot only 33% in the first half, missed a bunch of foul shots and made some bad plays which turned into points for them. Then we started the second half poorly. … We tried to zone them at the start of the second half and it was effective for a while. But then got about four straight hoops on us and broke it open. … I thought if we kept the pressure on them, they might crack. But we had a problem on defence and they got too much stuff underneath.”

        Wildcard Winnipeg edged host Calgary 76-72. Coach Bruce Enns’ Wesmen were in command from the start, roaring to a 41-26 halftime lead. Dinosaurs’ all-Canadian Steve Atkin spent most of the game on bench with an ankle injury and western squad’s backcourt might as well have sat out the contest, hitting a stone-cold 2-20 (including 0-15 from the Dinnies starting backcourt). However, center Romel Raffin kept the Dinosaurs vaguely in the contest with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Bob Magel led the Wesmen with 22 points, with Belaineh Deguefe scoring 12, Devon Daley 11, Jim Grisim 9, Ken Opalko 8, Greer 4, Ron Hutsal 3 and Brian Twomey 2, while Farrer, Paul, Scott and Wade were scoreless. At one point, the Wesmen were ahead by 25, even though both teams shot poorly. Calgary closed to within four in the final minutes but Wesmen easily staved off the Dinosaur rally. Raffin led Calgary with 20. Koepke added 12, Jorgenson 9, Thompson 8, Hardisty 8, Stevenson 5, Markert 4, Duerksen 4 and Tilleman 2, while Babcock and Atkin were scoreless.

GPAC champ and top-ranked Brandon, making its first ever appearance in the national tourney, edged 3rd-ranked York 91-90 in a game featuring many of the nation’s foremost stars. The Bobcats were led by 6-2 guard Free Lee, a Bronx native and a two-time National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics All-American at Tennessee’s Lincoln Memorial University. A first Team all-Canadian, Lee had averaged 24.1ppg through the season. The Bobcats, who’d dominated their competition all season finishing the GPAC regular season 15-1, also featured 6-10 centre and second team All-Canadian Jerry Abernathy, 6-8 all-Canadian (in 78-79) Keith Streiter, and shooting guard Jude Kelly. Ontario East champions York were led by two all-Canadians 6-4 Bo Pelech from Toronto and a 6-2 guard from Tilsonburg Ont., ‘Downtown’ David Coulthard. Both teams opened cautiously. The game was tied at 16 when the Bobcats ran off seven straight points to take a 23-16 lead. York called timeout and Coulthard began bombing from outside the Brandon zone to pull the Yeoman even at 37 with 4:38 to play in the first half. With Coulthard throwing them in from the cheap seats, hitting 9 of 11 in the first half, York pulled ahead by 10 at the intermission, leading 51-41. With Brandon extending its defence to attempt to shut down Coulthard, York centre 6-5 Ron Kaknevicius hit for 12 points in the first half, often taking his defensive man backdoor for easy layups. But Lee took command of the game in the second half, driving the court and throwing up impossible Hail Mary’s in traffic which somehow found the bottom of the basket. Coulthard, in turn, replied with his own barrage of outside jumpers and York regained the lead 82-74 with 4:36 to play. Lee promptly hit several astonishing jump shots including a double pumper in traffic to pull Brandon to within one with 1:21 to go. Coulthard responded with another bomb. Streiter hit two free throws to cut the margin to one. Coulthard missed a jumper and Streiter found himself back on the foul line. The 6-8 forward hit both free throws to put Brandon in the lead 89-88 with 15 seconds to go. York inbounded the ball and called time out with 11 seconds to go. The Yeoman cleared one side of the court for Coulthard, who rose with a 15-foot jumper. But Abernathy blocks the shot into the hands of Bobcat guard Don Jackson who was fouled and subsequently hit both free throws. Paul Jones drove the floor for a layup to narrow the final margin to 91-90. Abernathy said “I saw (Coulthard) coming and I knew he would pull up for the jumper. I had to get it because I knew if I missed it was going in the hole.” Fred Lee finished the game with 25 points for the Bobcats, while Keith Streiter hit for 27, Jude Kelly 16, Jerry Abernathy 14, Don Jackson 9, Brian Pallister 4 and DeGagne 2, while Campbell, Price, Gini and Worrell were scoreless. David Coulthard netted 33 for the Yeoman, while Ron Kaknevicius scored 20, Bo Pelech 16, Paul Jones 15 and Grant Parobec 6, while Spagnuolo, Nikolaidis, Smith, Frankovich, Hubbard and Dalla Corte were scoreless. Brandon hit 46% from the field, while York hit 59%. But the Bobcats outscored the Yeoman 15-8 from the free throw line and out boarded their opponents 46-38. In what was unquestionably the best game of the tournament, Brandon finished the game with 12 turnovers, while York turned the ball over a scant six times. But the Bobcats moved onto the semi-final. Lions coach Bob Bain told The Excalibur that “we ran everything perfectly but we dind’t make some of the shots we could have. But on the whole, we did everything we wanted to. … We weren’t robbed (by the officials) as some said we were. I just don’t think we got any breaks from the officials. Brandon launched its comeback and had the momentum late in the game and I just feel the officials got caught up in the comeback and weren’t calling it even. It was just bad officiating more than anything else.”

        In the semis, Brandon defeated Winnipeg 85-81 for the sixth time in the season, with Lee scoring 30, Streiter scoring 17 and nabbing 5 rebounds before fouling out. Abernathy added 11, Pallister 4, Jackson 4 and Price 1, while Hogan, Campbell, Gini, Worrell and DeGagne were scoreless. Winnipeg had knocked-off Brandon once during the regular season but opened the semi-final with an abysmal first half, shooting only 28% and missing several open three-pointers. Brandon had raced out to a 24-point lead but a late 14-8 rally closed the margin to 45-32 at the half. Lee and Winnipeg guard Devon Daley put on a second-half shootout after the intermission. A three-point play cut the Bobcats lead to four early in the second half but Lee took over and extended the lead to 65-49 with 12 minutes to go. Winnipeg chopped the margin down to six, 69-63, after Abernathy, Keith Streiter and Brian Pallister each picked up their fourth foul for Brandon.  Winnipeg blistered the nets in the second half, and finished the game shooting 43%. Brandon shot 44% from the field, with Abernathy scoring 11 and nabbing 15 of Brandon’s 46 boards. Devon Daley finished with 24 for Winnipeg, while Bob Magel, who shot 5-18, scored 14 and nabbed 9 of the Wesmen’s 43 rebounds. Greer added 13, Deguefe 12, Grisim 8, Opalko 8 and Twomey 2, while Hostal, Farrer, Paul, Scott and Wade were scoreless. Star Wesmen forward Belaineh Deguefe fouled out after scoring 12 and capturing 6 rebounds. Brandon shot 19-25 from the line; Winnipeg hit 15-18. It was a game of runs, Lee later told the Winnipeg Free Press. “We tended to relax. We were not used to such a big lead. … We tried to keep the momentum but just couldn’t.” He also noted “it is the seventh time we’ve played the Wesmen. We knew it was going to be tough.”  Abernathy noted that “when we were up 24 points, I thought we’d blow them right out. We tried to keep the momentum but just couldn’t kill them.” Hemmings said his Bobcats were lucky to build a big lead. “I thought we’d missed our wake-up call in the second half.” Bruce Enns, coach of the wild-card Wesmen, noted that “give us another minute, break Fred Lee’s arm and we would have won. Lee just kept coming and any shot he missed as the clock ran out seemed to bounce back out. For a while there, it was our Devon Daley against Lee. Both went up and down the court and scored.”

        In the other semi, fifth-year senior Reni Dolcetti scored 32 and nabbed 12 boards to key Victoria’s 91-75 win over St. Mary’s. Billy Turney-Loos added 22 and Ted Anderson 15, Greg Kazanowski 9, Craig Higgins 4, Kelly Dukeshire 4, Tom Narbeshuber 3 and Eli Pasquale 2, while Hyde-Lay, Welder, Hebb and Dukeshire were scoreless. Ron Bloomers scored 18 for the Huskies. Rick Plato added 18 but national team member Ross Quackenbush was held to 14 and only 2 boards. John Dronsella scored 13, Lee Davis 11, Ivan Ross 2 and Lou Welge 2, while Boyd, Mansfield and King were scoreless. Dolcetti totally dominated the game. Victoria never trailed, led by 47-39 at half and almost completely shut down the Huskie backcourt of Lee Davis and Rick Plato. The pair only had 4 points in first half. St. Mary’s pulled no closer than 8 in the second half, with Victoria in control all the way. A Dolcetti slam dunk with 1:55 to go sealed the victory, as the Vikings took their revenge on the Huskies for losses in the 1979 final and 1978 semis. Turney-Loos held Lee Davis to just three baskets.

        In the bronze medal match, St. Mary’s dumped Winnipeg 91-83 as Lee Davis scored 25, Rick Plato 23, Blommers 14, Dronsella 13, Quackenbush 12 and Welge 4, while Mansfield, King, Ross and Boyd were scoreless. Daley led Winnipeg with 18. Magel added 17, Greer 12, Grisim 10, Opalko 10, Deguefe 8 and Twoney 6, while Hustal, Parret, Paul, Scott and Wade were scoreless.

        Canadian basketball history was made and a dynasty launched when the second-ranked Victoria Vikings knocked off the first-seeded Brandon Bobcats 73-65 in the final. The victory marked the first time ever that the CIAU men’s and women’s crowns had been won by the same university as a week earlier, the Vikettes had captured their first crown in Halifax. “We can now officially declare the University of Victoria the basketball capital of Canada,” Shields said. Rene Dolcetti hit 20 on 7-19 from the floor, 6-7 from the line and 13 boards, points while essentially neutralizing star Bobcat centre Jerry Abernathy. Victoria started the contest extremely tight, hitting only 1-8 from the field. They soon found themselves staring at the short end of a 10-2 score. But the Vikings battled back with a stellar defensive performance and took the lead for the first time with just seconds to go in the half on a Dolcetti free throw. But Bobcat guard Free Lee hit an outside jumper to give Brandon a 33-32 halftime lead. Ranked number one in the country at the beginning of the year, the Ken Shields’ coached Vikings opened the second half in a zone and began hitting their outside shots. The teams traded the lead until about halfway through the second frame, when Victoria took the lead for good. Brandon never again pulled closer than four points. Turney-Loos, who’d scored a scant two points in the opening frame, added 14 in the second half, on 7-15 from the floor, 2-4 from the line and 6 boards, while keeping star Bobcat guard Fred Lee essentially in check, holding him to a mere 26 (on 12-29 from the floor, 2-2 from the line and 4 boards).  Gerald Kazanowski added 14 for the Vikings on 5-14 from the floor, 4-4 from the line and 11 boards, while freshman guard Eli Pasquale showed flashes of brilliance to finish with 12 on 4-8 from the floor, 4-4 from the line and 3 boards. With 2:25 to go, Vic stretched its margin to 63-57 on a Pasquale jumper, a Dolcetti bucket and two Dolcetti free throws. Turney-Loos hit a layup with 1:03 to go that put the lead at eight, 67-59 and sealed the Viking victory. The teams traded hoops for the remainder of the contest but the Vikings prevailed 73-65.  For the remainder of the costs, Brandon traded its field goals against Vic free throws. The Vikings finished the game shooting 38% from the field and 83% from the line, out-scoring the Bobcats from the charity stripe by a 19-5 margin. They were led by Dolcetti, who’d been benched earlier in the season for disciplinary reasons but who came back to score 20, while 6-4 forward Ted Anderson scored 8 on 3-11 from the floor, 2-2 from the line and 13 rebounds, Kelly Dukeshire 2 on 1-3 from the floor and 3 boards, and Chris Hebb 1 o n1-2 from the line, while Higgins, Hyde-Lay, Welder, Narbeshuber and Hamilton were scoreless. The Vikes hit 27-72 from the floor and 19-23 from the line, while nabbing 50 boards. Streiter added 13 for the Bobcats on 6-6 from the floor, 1-2 from the line and 14 boards. Guard Jude Kelly notched 12 on 6-15 from the floor and 7 boards, Jerry Abernathy 8 on 3-8 from the floor, 2-2 from the line and 10 boards, while Brian Pallister scored 2 on 1-2 form the floor and 2 boards, while Hogan, Campbell, Price, Gini, Worrell and DeGagne were scoreless. Brandon hit 30-77 (.380) from the floor and 5-6 form the line. But the game was won on the boards, with Victoria out-rebounding the Bobcats 55-40 and easily handled the defensive glass, essentially shutting-off Brandon’s transition game. Bobcats coach Jerry Hemmings later noted that “we’ve got a lot to be proud about, considering these are our first Nationals. The biggest factor was their powerful offensive rebounding.  …Dolcetti and Kazanowski really hurt us and our big guys weren’t quite there. Keith was hurting physically and Jerry had the cement hands.” The victory marked the first of seven straight CIAU titles for the Vikings and coach Ken Shields, who’d been lured back to the province after a stint at Laurentian U. in Sudbury when wife Kathy Shields had accepted the head coaching job for the Vikettes. (Ken had coached Kathy at U.B.C. during the 1970s). Shields later noted that the Vikings were jittery but he was confident all along of the victory. The poor shooting in the opening half was the product of both team’s nervousness at the prospect of a championship game. But “I wasn’t concerned because they’re a running team and that’s not the type that would blow us out. It was just a matter of time until we got our composure.” But the victory belonged foremost to Sudbury-native Reni Dolcetti. “This was my fifth year of chasing the title. But for me, the biggest things was getting by St. Mary’s. To overcome the St. Mary’s phobia and get to the final and win, is fantastic. It couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. …In the last six minutes, I could see it in the fellow’s eyes that we had it. I knew we were gonna win.” Victoria finished (40-5) on the season.

        The all-tourney team featured: MVP Reni Dolcetti (Victoria); Billy Turney-Loos (Victoria); Fred Lee (Brandon); Jerry Abernathy (Brandon); David Coulthard (York); and Lee Davis (St. Mary’s)

        The postseason CIAU meetings also augured change in future national tourneys. In 1980, U.B.C. head coach Peter Mullins proposed a regional playoff system for the national title, with a sweet sixteen qualifying in four regionals, including the top two teams from each conference and two wild cards from each of the east and west. Proposed as a means of cutting down travel expenses and raising revenues, the 16-team format was adopted for the 1983 national tourney.

        The annual meeting also saw the resolution of an enormous controversy surrounding athletic scholarships. A year earlier, the CIAU had first approved athletic awards and then a day later, revoked the decision and referred the matter to an Ad Hoc Committee on Awards. Over the course of the year, Ontario’s men’s and women’s conferences said they wouldn’t sanction participation by their schools in national championships if scholarships were allowed. Passions were so inflamed that several schools said they would apply to NCAA Division II (where scholarships aren’t allowed) or the NAIA (where they are) if the CIAU insisted on allowing scholarships. CTV said it would not televise any university events if scholarships were allowed and even though the network wasn’t covering anything, there were fears that CBC might follow suit. It was even frequently suggested that the CIAU should be entirely disbanded and that the country should, en masse, apply for NCAA Division II membership. In fact, many argued that such a development would be in the long-term interests of athletic development in Canada. At the August 1981 meeting, Waterloo athletic director Karl Totzke led the anti-scholarship charge, saying he’d withdraw his school from the CIAU immediately if the will of the Canada West and Atlantic conferences prevailed. The Ad Hoc Committee recommended that scholarships not be allowed could not be allowed because “they may even affect the continued existence of competitive athletics in some institutions.” Delegates dutifully defeated the scholarships proposal.

        The bronze medalist St. Mary’s Huskies: Lee Davis; Rick Plato; Ross Quackenbush; John Dronsella; Ron Blommers; Ivan Ross; Lou Welge; James Boyd; Maurice King; Mike Mansfield; Tom Kappos; Mark Vickers; coach Gary Heald; assistant Larry Gudger; associate Willie Follette; trainer Alex MacLellan; manager Jim Landry

        The silver medalist Brandon Bobcats: Jerry Abernathy; Keith Streiter; Brian Pallister; Bob Dodds; Lyn Milne; Dino Gini; Fred Lee; Don Jackson; Jude Kelly; DeGagne; coach Jerry Hemmings

        The champion Victoria Vikings: Billy Turney-Loos; Ted Anderson; Gerald Kazanowski; Eli Pasquale; Reni Dolcetti; Kelly Dukeshire; Chris Hebb; Tom Narbeshuber; Bruce Hamilton; Craig Higgins; Mickey Welder; Ian Hyde-Lay; Gregg Kazanowski; coach Ken Shields; assistant Norm Vickery; assistant Jim Duddridge; manager Bob Chapman