| (1) | Brock | 100 | ||||||
| (8) | Laurentian | 74 | Brock | 90 | ||||
| (5) | U.B.C. | 86 | U.B.C. | 82 | Brock | 77 | ||
| (4) | Brandon | 75 | —–BROCK | |||||
| (2) | Winnipeg | 83 | ||||||
| (7) | Concordia | 77 | Winnipeg | 66 | St. Mary’s | 71 | ||
| (6) | St. Mary’s | 52 | St. Mary’s | 88 | ||||
| (3) | Guelph | 50 |
The annual wild card controversy saw Guelph and Brandon selected, outraging Atlantic runner-up Acadia and prompting CIAU marketing director John McConnachie to muse that “marketability” had to be considered a future factor in wildcard decisions, what with the tournament slated to continue to be held in Halifax for the next seven years (in addition to the nine in a row as of 1992). Brandon coach Jerry Hemmings was miffed. “They sign a seven-year contract and then they turn around and want to change things. I thought that was one of the reasons it was moved from Waterloo – they would only have the tournament if they were in it. I think the tournament has been very successful here without any guarantees.”
In the quarterfinals, top-seeded Brock, making its inaugural appearance in the national tourney, opened by handing 8th-seed Laurentian a 100-74 pasting. The Badgers were led by Gord Wood a 6-8 forward, MVP of the Ontario West conference, and Brian Bleich, MVP of postseason Ontario tourney, in which Brock knocked off Concordia in tourney final 111-87, as well as three-point shooter Allen MacDougall and conference rookie of year Dave Picton, the starting guards. First-team all-Canadian centre Gord Wood paced Brock with 28 points, while grabbed 8 boards and blocking six shots. Brian Bleich added 21, while nabbing 10 boards and making five steals, Allen McDougall 13, David Picton 11, Mike Pullar 9, Pat Sullivan 8 and Rob DeMott 7. “I’m elated,” said Brock coach Ken Murray. “Brock has come a long way. …I think today there was more pressure on us than all season long. Everybody’s expectations of us were very high coming in. In our community, at least, if we don’t win it all, they’re going to view us as a big disappointment.” Brock dominated the paint and held the country’s leading scorer Norm Hann, who’d been averaging 27.1 ppg, to a mere three free throws. Laurentian shot 28-75 (.380) from the field and 12-19 from the line, while Brock shot32-68 (.470) from the floor and 30-36 from the line. Brock led 31-17 early. Laurentian rallied to within 33-23 but the Badgers rebuilt their lead to 47-37 at the half and led by as many as 32 in the second half. “I think if you’re going to be successful at the national championships, you have to have a good inside game,” said Murray. “If we can get our perimeter game going, we’re going to be very difficult to beat.” Brad Hann paced Laurentian with 18. Tom McKibbon added 16, John Campbell 12 and Chris Risher 12. The country’s leading scorer, Norm Hann, averaging 27.1 points on the season, hit just three free throws after being effectively contained by DeMott. DeMott told the St. Catharines Standard “that was my job today. All I had to was stop Hain. I played some pretty good defnece but I don’t think he shot as well as he normally does either.” Murray said “Rob did a great job. He played Hann tough and tight all game. Rob didn’t let him breathe.” Gord Wood added that “hann was the only guy we really had to worry about. They didn’t have anyone who could play with us inside. Hann is their main threat and Rob did a number on him.” DeMott said “it was a good way for us to ease into the tournament. We were in control all the way. I thought we’d be more nervous but everyone felt good. I know we were all anxious to start playing. We’ve been sitting around here for two days with nothing to do. Halifax is a terrific city with some great night spots but we can’t take advantage of any of that. We were climbing the walls; we just wanted to get this thing going.” David Picton said he wanted to prove that voters were wrong in selected Brandon’s Keith Vassell as national rookie of the year. ‘I was disappointed. It bothered me quite a bit because it was something I was working for. … I’d like to have impact on anyone who didn’t vote for me.” Voyageurs coach Peter Campbell said “the way they launched missles at us, I almost know how Saddam Hussein must have felt. We met a better team today and they kicked our ass.”
The 5th-seeded U.B.C. Thunders defeated the 4th-seeded wildcard Brandon Bobcats 86-75 in a sloppy affair. “I don’t give a (bleep) whether it was pretty or not,” said U.B.C. star J.D. Jackson. “What counts is that we won.” The high-scoring Jackson was held to 16 points, including 10-10 from the line. Brandon jumped out 12-2 in the opening minutes but U.B.C. rallied to a 40-39 halftime lead as Jason Leslie scored 14 before the break. Leslie finished with 18, while Roger Rai added 13, including two three-pointers. Jackson played less than half the game, picking up nine rebounds, five steals and one block before getting hit with his fourth foul with 11:42 to go. Brian Tait scored 12 and Derek Christiansen 10 for the T’Birds. U.B.C coach Bruce Enns noted “It wasn’t pretty and we certainly didn’t win the game with our offence. We won it with good solid defence and some key shots by Brian and Roger.” The Bobcats were led by freshman Keith Vassell 13, David Nackoney 12, John Rasp 12, Euan Roberts 12 and Harvey Marshman 12. Brandon coach Jerry Hemmings noted “we had an excellent start. We were up 13-2. They were cold and we were running on all eight cylinders. … We had a very slow start in the second half. They were up eight points early (in the second) and it was up to 13 before we got it down to six, 58-52, with about 10 minutes left. We couldn’t get the ball in the hole in the second half. We missed two dunks, one layup, four or five put-backs. That was the real big difference.” Hemmings added that his troops did a good job containing Jackson and “we got him in foul trouble but he hurt us with some crucial defensive steals.” But David Nackoney’s foul trouble hurt. “He got into foul trouble because he was guarding J.D.,” said UBC coach Bruce Enns. UBC outrebounded Brandon 46-29.
The 2nd-seeded Winnipeg Wesmen defeated the 7th-seeded Concordia Stingers 83-77 as Rhett Turner scored 30, including 11-15 from the floor. Norm Froemel added 17 boards and 20 points, all in the second half. Winnipeg shot 59.6 per cent overall and was 17-21 from the free-throw line. Stingers forward Ernie Rosa told the Montreal Gazette that “the guys worked their butts off. We had our chances, plenty of chances. They played it smart in the end and took advantage of their size. For myself, well, I take the blame for not doing more, especially on office. If only I could have done more.” Concordia hit 29-62 from the floor and 5-21 from the arc. Guards Raphael Tyrell and Robert Ferguson were a combined 7-39. “This hurts, really hurts,” said Tyrell, who scored 9 and pilfered 4 balls. “We had so many chances to do it but we blew them. It was ours to win. Instead we ended up dead.” Winnipeg shot .620 from the floor as guard Rhett Turner hit a career 30, including 20 in the second half. “Turner killed us,” said Concordia coach John Dore. “We knew he was a pretty fair outside shooter. But he did a better job of faking that outside shot and penetrating the middle than we expected.” Winnipeg led 48-41 in the second half when Concordia rallied to a 58-54 lead with 11 minutes to play as Robert Ferguson pilfered the ball from David Kopela at midcourt and streaked for a layup. Turner snapped a 62-62 tie with a 10-foot jumper and a trey to give Winnipeg a five-point lead. The wheels came off for Concordia with three minutes to play and Winnipeg leading 69-67. The Wesmen began a parade to the foul line that yielded 12 points, off 14 opportunities. Dexter John, who led Concordia with 21, hit back to back treys with 10 seconds to play but the outcome had long since been determined. “We got what we expected, tremendous pressure,” said Winnipeg coach Bill Wedlake. “Their full-court pressure and transition game has to be the best in the country and it left us shaky at times.” Winnipeg had led early by a 21-8 count after ripping off 12 unanswered points. But the Stingers rallied to within 37-34 at the half. “We kept coming back and were right in it until the end,” said Dore. “In retrospect, all year we were overmatched in terms of probably being the smallest team in the country and we always found ways to win. It was the work ethic, heart and desire that got us as far as we got.” Wesmen coach Bill Wedlake said his troops felt pressure to win their opener because the school of 3000 had seen three other sports teams (men’s and women’s volleyball, as well as women’s basketball) make the final four of their sports in CIS championships. “Everybody from our school made the final four and there was a little pressure on us because we’re the only ones left. … They’ve got a lot of experience and they pressed us for the full 40 minutes — they’re quick. We expected a real game from them. They’ve got a tremendous full court press. … Rhett Turner was absolutely phenomenal. They dared us to shoot from the outside and Rhett delivered. We turned the ball over a little and gave them a few opportunities but we made some crucial free throws — overall our poise was good. I think they were a little jittery. I just said to enjoy and relax. You have to enjoy the nerves and the electricity in the air.”
In the last quarterfinal, the 6th-seeded St. Mary’s Huskies upset third-seeded wildcard Guelph 52-50 despite playing without all-Canadian and AUUA MVP Brian Thompson, who’d been admitted to hospital earlier in the day with a viral infection. But centre Will Njoku picked up the slack to the delight of 8,125 Haligonians at the Metro Centre. He scored 28 points and grabbed 21 boards before fouling out with 2:36 to play. “It was all-out courage on behalf of my guys,” said St. Mary’s coach Ross Quackenbush. The Gryphons missed a chance to win when Chris O’Rourke’s three-point attempt with four seconds to play failed to drop. Guelph claimed that O’Rourke was fouled on the play. The Huskies had taken a 30-28 lead at the half and then extended it to 46-39 midway through the second half. Guelph cut the margin to one with 30 seconds to play and twice had attempts to win it but missed both opportunities. Guelph shot 20-60 from the floor and was paced by Brent Barnhart’s 15 points. Tim Mau added 14. St. Mary’s led 30-28 at the half. Njoku was phenomenal, even hitting a trey, his first of the season. “I called than on my own,” he said. ‘The play was for the big guy to come out and take a jump shot. But I said ‘no way, I’m taking this three’ and right then I knew I could make it.” Richard Sullivan added 7 for the Huskies before fouling out. Dale Stevens notched 5. Guelph created a stir by refusing to shake hands after the match. Coach Tim Darling later apologized. ‘I don’t want you to think we’re bad sports. We’ve just had some tough losses. Full credit to St. Mary’s.” Andrew Gibb grabbed the ball out of Tim May’s hands with 1:20 to play and was fouled, hitting a pair from the line to put the Huskies ahead 51-48. With 25 seconds remaining and the Huskies leading 52-50, Darling called a time-out and drew up a play to get the ball inside, but the Huskies packed the paint and the ball swung out to Humphrey Hill, who bounced a trey off the rim as the buzzer sounded. “All day I was a wreck,” said Njoku, who fouled out with 2:36
remaining and St. Mary’s up by three. “I didn’t eat much at dinner. But when I heard Brian was out of the game, I snapped out of it. I figured: ‘I gotta play’.” Njoku rallied the Huskies with a jumper and a pair of free throws to erase Guelph’s half time lead. He added a trey to make it 42-39 St. Mary’s with 12:12 to play. “I was open,” Njoku said. “It was really momentum. I just felt it. As soon as I let it go, I knew it was going in.” Njoku followed with two more jumpers and St. Mary’s led the rest of the way.
In the semi, Brock overcame a 49-36 halftime deficit to defeat U.B.C. 90-82. Wood later noted “we dug ourselves into a deep hole versus U.B.C. and in that respect, I guess it was a tougher game (than the final). But we’re a second half team. We always have been. We’ve played our best ball all year long in the second half.” Dave Picton scored 6-9 from beyond the arc, including five in the second half. The Welland-native finished with 22 points, 10 assists and five rebounds. He scored 19 in the second half. “I was surprised that U.B.C. didn’t make an effort to defence me,” he noted. “They seemed more concerned with posting up against our big guys inside (Wood and Brian Bleich). That just opened the door for our perimeter game. If you give us the time and space at the perimeter, we’re drain threes the entire night.” Allen MacDougall added 21 points, as did Gord Wood. The T’Birds J.D. Jackson finished with 24 points before fouling out with 5:38 to play and Brock ahead 74-71. A minute later, Jason Leslie picked up his fourth foul and Brock closed with a 16-9 run. U.B.C. coach Bruce Enns noted “we didn’t play particularly smart basketball in the second half. I’m not sure I want to word it this way, but I’ll say it anyway: our balls took over from our brains in the second half.” Brock’s Allen MacDougall finished with 23 points, including five from beyond the arc. Brock coach Ken Murray said “our defence got us going in the second half. When we made those steals, it enabled our running game to get going and when we start to run, we can be really tough. … At the half, I tried to keep our players composed, focused on what they had to do. We denied the entry pass and
that enabled us to get our running game going. And when we’re running, we’re at our best.”
In the other semi, St. Mary’s whipped Winnipeg by 88-66. All-Canadian forward Brian Thompson returned from a stint in the hospital to score 28 points. He hit 12-15 from the floor as the Huskies built a 41-31 lead at then extended it to as many as 30 in the second half. William Njoku added 18 and grabbed 13 boards for the Huskies, who led 41-31 at the half and by as many as 30 in the second half. Norm Froemel paced Winnipeg with 23 points and 13 boards. “All I thought about was how badly I wanted to play and how the guys pulled together for me and for themselves,” said Thompson. “I told them I didn’t want to disappoint them.” Huskies coach Ross Quackenbush noted that “I’m as stunned as the next guy after this one.” Richard Sullivan added 10 points and Jason Darling 8 for the Huskies. Rhett Turner notched 12 for Winnipeg. All-Canadian Jeff Foreman was held to 7. St. Mary’s shot 33-59 (.560) from the field, while Winnipeg was 24-58 (.420). The Huskies committed 7 turnovers and Winnipeg 17, while out-rebounded the Wesmen 39-28. “We played quite well but they took it to us big-time,” said Winnipeg coach Bill Wedlake. “We learned a lot.”
In the final, Brock, ranked number one and riding a 13-game winning streak, overcame an 11-point disadvantage to defeat hometown St. Mary’s 77-71 before a crowd of 8,000. The rally was keyed by 6-3 St. Catharines-native guard Allen MacDougall, who hit six three pointers in the final and scored 25. Tourney MVP Gord Wood scored 16, grabbed 19 rebounds and two assists. David Picton added 13 points and 10 assists. St. Mary’s opened with a flurry as 6-8 centre William Njoku blocked the first shot and guard Richard Sullivan hit a jumper. Riding their own 12-game winning streak, the Huskies raced out to 18-7 lead. But Brock roared back with two MacDougall three-pointers, a Wood dunk and another MacDougall three pointer. A layup by freshman guard Dave Picton tied the game at 20. St. Mary’s led by a point, 44-43 at the half. Brock opened the second half in a 3-2 zone which rattled the Huskies and forced a series of turnovers and bad shots. Nevertheless, St. Mary’s were ahead by as much as nine and led by five 60-55 with nine minutes to go, when all-Canadian forward Gord Wood, from Paris, Ontario, went to the bench with his fourth foul. The pressing zone finally began to work as both Njoku and all-Canadian Brian Thompson turned over the ball repeatedly. “The turnovers will kill you every time,” said St. Mary’s coach Ross Quackenbush. MacDougall, a transfer from Toronto, nailed a three pointer with four minutes to go to tie the game at 64. Two Picton free throws put Brock ahead for the first time in the second half with three minutes to go. They never trailed. “That kid MacDougall was shooting the lights out,” said Quackenbush. “It’s hard to beat a team when a guy’s shooting like that. … It’s unfortunate that when you get in a situation like this somebody has to lose. It’s even more unfortunate when it had to be us. But it’s over. Nothing more can be done. When you run the risk of winning, you also run the risk of losing. It’s disappointing but you can’t be afraid of failure.” Quackenbush had played on St. Mary’s 1978 title team. Njoku led St. Mary’s with 23 pts and 15 rebs. Thompson scored 22. Richard Sullivan scored 12 in first half but only two in second to finish with 14. “It doesn’t get any better than this as far as I’m concerned,” said CIS coach of the year Ken Murray. “I don’t think anything could happen more positive to our university than this. … I can’t put into words how this feels. This was something I was never able to do as a player. It’s the greatest moment in my life. It can’t get any better than this. … The crowd here wasn’t really a big factor against us. We’re used to playing in front of hostile fans. When we play at Guelph, we usually have 2,500 screaming lunatics to contend with. The foul trouble we ran into was a concern for a time, though. But surprisingly, St. Mary’s didn’t take advantage of it.” Wood was forced to bench with four fouls midway through the second half but returned four minutes later to get the Badgers back on track. Murray told the St. Catharines Standard that “to come from behind two times like we did shows character and poise. It’s the true mark of a champion. … We took away their three-point shooting and we were able to keep them from getting the ball in to the big guy. When they did, our perimeter people could sag back to help out because their big men don’t play right under the basket.” MacDougall said “we have players who refuse to give up. It’s so much fun playing with these guys. There is so much talent, yet it’s unselfish talent. We’ve got confidence in each other and we’ll do anything we can to help the team. … I was into that type of rhythm in the game. I felt good. Even when I missed I felt comfortable because everything was fine with my mechanics. I knew there was nothing seriously wrong. It’s when you start making adjustments or when you hesitate before you shoot that you get into trouble. That wasn’t the case today.” Picton said “we were here on a mission. Nothing was going to get in our way. We made mistakes today like we did throughout the tournament. But we shook them off. We didn’t let that rattle us. I think that’s what won it for us.” Gord Wood said “I had butterflies. I’ve never played in front of 7,000 people before. It takes you a while to get used to them.” Brock hit 28-56 from the floor and 14-19 from the line, while St. Mary’s hit 28-55 from the floor and 10-11 from the line, while outrebounding the Badgers 36-24. Huskies guard Dale Stevens said “it’s sad to see it come to an end. I enjoyed playing at Saint Mary’s, and all the pride. I hope we didn’t disappoint anybody this weekend. It’s pretty hard to do it front of your home crowd. Nobody expected us to get this far, so I guess we can take some solace. Take some pride in that. I have to, because I don’t have any left, so I’m going to take what I can get from it. And I know these guys will be here next year.” Brock finished (31-7) on the season. Three years earlier, the tiny school on the Niagara escarpment had gone 0-14 in OUA play. “We never lost our poise even when they jumped out to that nine- point lead early in the second half,” said Murray. “Demott was one of the keys. He played tough defence and came up with some big steals that got us going.” Months after the tournament, Wood suffered a serious brain injury during a fighting outside a bar in Guelph. The 6-8 was taken to Hamilton General Hospital on July 10 in critical condition after hitting his head on a curb during a fight outside a bar.
The all-tourney team featured: MVP Gord Wood (Brock); William Njoku (St. Mary’s); Norm Froemel (Winnipeg); Brian Thompson (St. Mary’s); Allan MacDougall (Brock); and David Picton (Brock).
The co-bronze medalist British Columbia Thunderbirds: J.D. Jackson; Jason Leslie; Derek Christiansen; Bob Heighton; Brian Tait; Dereck Dirom; Paul Langley; Roger Rai; Randy Ellis; Ricardo Cavalieri, Jason Pamer; Jonathan Mayan; Dwayne Washington; Mike Clarke; coach Bruce Enns; assistant Kevin Hanson
The co-bronze medalist Winnipeg Wesmen: David Korpela; Lutzer; Rob Derksen; Rhett Turner; David Zagordo; Anderson; Jeff Foreman; John Mathieson; Norm Froemel; coach Bill Wedlake
The silver medalist St. Mary’s Huskies: William Njoku; Brian Thompson; Richard Sullivan; Jason Darling; Jeff Baltzer; Dale Stevens; Chris Lawrence; Andrew Gibb; Tom Dobson; Jonathan Waye; coach Ross Quackenbush
The champion Brock Badgers: Gord Wood; Brian Bleich; Allen MacDougall; Dave Picton; Rob Demott; Mike Pullar; Pat Sullivan; Glen Tone; Jamie Huebert; Stath Koumoutseas; Kevin Stevenson; Joe Dekker; coach Ken Murray; assistant Brian Milligan