| (5) | McMaster | 106 | ||||||
| (4) | Brandon | 89 | McMaster | 84 | ||||
| (1) | Concordia | 80 | Concordia | 83 | McMaster | 64 | ||
| (8) | Western | 76 | ||||||
| (6) | St. F.X. | 83 | —–ST. FRANCIS XAVIER | |||||
| (3) | Calgary | 80 | St. F.X. | 64 | St. F.X. | 72 | ||
| (7) | Ottawa | 69 | Ottawa | 54 | ||||
| (2) | Winnipeg | 64 |
In the quarterfinals, the top-seeded QSSF champs Concordia defeated 8th-seeded OUA West champ Western 80-76 despite an erratic performance. Concordia blistered the Mustangs with a 21-0 run midway through the second half, forcing a series of turnovers with their full-court press. The Mustangs had built up a 42-36 lead at the half and had stretched the margin to nine 59-50 with 10 minutes to go. But the Concordia press finally began yielding dividends, forcing a couple of steals and several turnovers. The flustered Mustangs soon found themselves on the tail end of 71-59 margin. But centre Frederic Arsenault, weakened by a flu bug, struggled to hit a free throw and was replaced by rookie Emile Bigelow, who promptly bookended the remarkable run, triggering it with a steal for a layup. On the two ensuing in-bounds plays, Emerson Thomas and Dexter John pilfered the passes for buckets. Then Sullivan hit a trey, John added another, Thomas hit a layup and John drilled two more from the field, leaving Western shell-shocked. Over the five minute and 13 second span, Western managed to get the ball over half court on only four occasions and wasted a pair of time outs in hopes of stemming the tide. Trailing by 13 with three minutes to go, Western drilled a series of jumpers to rally to within three 78-75 with 14 seconds remaining in the game. But the Stingers held on for the victory. “They have a super press,” noted Western coach Craig Boydell. “We knew they were going to do it and I thought our kids handled it well most of the time. But there was a stage of the game where we had trouble with it.” Stinger coach John Dore noted that “we’re an explosive team and that’s what we’ve been doing all year. But most of the time we haven’t had 30-minute droughts.” Stinger guard Patrick Sullivan scored 19 and grabbed 6 boards, while first-team all-Canadian 5-10 guard Dexter John added 18 and forward Emerson Thomas 18. Forward Michael Lynch scored 22 for Western. King added 17, Brendan Noonan 14 and 6-9 center John Vermeeren 14. Sullivan later said “we were scared, real scared. But every game we’ve played this season, we’ve had a run. We knew it was going to happen this game. It was only a question of time. It was scary for us because we didn’t want to be too far behind when the run came.” Concordia assistant Harvey Liverman likened the match to a Las Vegas casino. “It’s like we were a crap table all night with things really going badly, and then suddenly, the dice started rolling our way.”
The 5th-seeded wildcard McMaster started slowly against GPAC champ and 4th-seeded Brandon but caught fire from the three-point line, eventually hitting 10-20 from beyond the arc as they romped to a 106-89 victory. Brandon led 14-6 early but forward Jeff Zownir keyed the Marauders rally with a series of three points. Zownir finished with 23, guard Derek Howard 21 and centre Jack Vander Pol 17 as six Marauders scored in double figures. “We’re a pretty balanced team and that showed today,” said Marauders coach Joe Raso. Six players scoring in double figures is a lot. It makes it hard for the other team when you can put the ball in the basket a lot of different ways.” Brandon tied the game at 68 with an 8-0 rally. But Zownir hit another three-pointer and McMaster pulled away. Forward Mike Thomas led Brandon with 39 points but the Bobcats only shot 4-17 from the arc and 13-23 from the line. Keith Vassell added 21. It marked the fourth consecutive year that Brandon lost in opening round. Bobcats coach Jerry Hemmings said “the bottom line is they shot very well. 10-20 on your three pointers is very good.” Raso, whose parents had immigrated to Halifax in 1951, said “this is like a homecoming for me. A whole generation of our family has landed here to work their way into the rest of the country.”
In a close fought game between 6th-seeded AUAA champ St. FX and 3rd-seeded Canada West champ Calgary, the X-Men pulled ahead late in the game and prevailed 83-76. The X-Men were paced by forward Guy Mbongo with 26 points. All-Canadian Richard Bohne countered with 34 for Calgary, which fell a Hail Mary short as Bohne’s attempted trey with five seconds to play, bounced off the rim. Calgary coach Gary Howard was proud of his troops. “Let me make this perfectly clear. Our boys gave an outstanding effort. They did everything that was humanly possible to win this game. I’m sad for them. They wanted this very badly. But they have nothing to hang their heads about.” St. FX trailed for most of the first half but the knotted the score at 49 as the buzzer sounded when Merrick Palmer slammed home a dunk. Led by Central African Republic products Mbongo and Richard Bella, St. FX took command early in the second half and led by as many as eight. Calgary rallied to within 79-77 with 80 seconds to play but Bella snagged a board and scored on a missed one-and-one, extending the lead to 81-77. The X-Men added a bucket, to the delight of the wildly partisan Metro Centre before Bohne hit a trey to close out the scoring. Mbongo hit .710 from the floor, while grabbing eight boards. Bella scored 10, while Merrick Palmer tossed in 15. Ian Minnifee added 17 for Calgary, while Craig Newman scored 13. Post Jeff Smith scored 9.
The 7th-seeded OUA East champ Ottawa knocked off 2nd-seeded wildcard Winnipeg 69-64, overcoming the Wesmen’s tremendous advantage size. That edge was evident early as Winnipeg, led by 7-0 centre Norm Froemel and 6-8 forward Jeff Foreman, stormed to a 32-20 lead. But the Gee-Gee’s speed proved the difference as they rallied to tie the game at 36 at the half and their pressure began to force turnovers in the Winnipeg backcourt. Ottawa pulled ahead by 10 in the second half and then survived a late Winnipeg rally. With Ottawa leading 65-64 with 11 seconds to play, Rod Lee hit a critical bucket from the corner and then after Winnipeg turned the ball over, converted a pair of free throws after being fouled. Gee-Gees coach Jack Eisenmann called it an incredible win. “Super, super, super job by everyone.” The win was Ottawa’s first on the championship side of the draw in tournament history. Ottawa was led by guard Rod Lee’s 21 points. Norm Froemel scored 18 for Winnipeg, while first-team All-Canadian Jeff Foreman notched 17. The Wesmen turned the ball over 19 times. The Gee-Gees shot a mere 40% but outrebounded the Wesmen by 10.
In the semis, St. Francis Xavier defeated Ottawa 64-54 after capitalizing on an incredible discrepancy in free throw shooting. The X-Men were 18-26 from the line, while Ottawa was 0-2, getting their only chance at a free throw when Chris Lemcke missed a pair with 6:18 to play. That was in part the product of an aggressive defence, which saw the Gee-Gees constantly hacking the X-Men. But Ottawa coach Jack Eisenmann said inexperience and questionable hometown refereeing also played a large part. Six Gee-Gees picked up at least three fouls and starter Dave Reid fouled out. No one on St. FX picked up more than two. X-Men coach Steve Konchalski said his troops turned the tide after he ordered them to go into a 1-2-2 zone defence and start applying pressure further up-court. It forced the Gee-Gees to the perimeter, where they hit a dreary 4-25 from the arc. Rod Lee was 1-8, Bobby Brown 1-6, Greg Maillet 1-5 and Reid 0-4. St. FX trailed 37-31 when Konchalski moved to the zone. On the ensuing two possessions, the X-Men scored buckets on turnovers and then 6-9 centre Richard Bella slammed a dunk to knot the score at 39 with 7:39 to play. With the crowd going made, rookie Merrick Palmer added a trey to give St. FX a lead it never lost. Eisenmann said the Gee-Gees inexperience was so evident that when Reid threw up a trey, it missed everything. Bella led all scorers with 18 points, while Palmer and Guy Mbongo each added 10. Bella, Mbongo and Aristide Nguilibet were all from the Central African Republic, which Konchalski had played against while serving as an assistant to the national team. CAR officials had asked if Konchalski could help find an educational opportunity in North American. “Jack Donahue (coach of the national team) asked them how big they were and when they said, 6-9, 6-8 and 6-6, our interest perked up quite a bit. Bella was a dominant player, although offensively his skills were very limited in those days. He was a big strong rebounder. Mbongo hardly got in the game. He was a young player. Nguilibet wasn’t there. He’d injured an ankle.” The X-Men also featured Brian Lee, an Ottawa product who’d chosen to attend St. FX rather than the U of O after graduating from Sir Robert Borden High. Clarence Porter paced Ottawa with 12 points. Ted Weltz added 9, Reid 8, Rod Lee 7 and Brown 7. Bella led St. FX with 18. Palmer and Guy Mbongo each added 10.
In the other semi, McMaster rallied from a 55-42 second-half deficit to stun top-ranked Concordia 84-83. The Marauders balanced offence, featuring both an interior attack and sound perimeter shooting, proved too much for the Stingers to handle. Concordia led 48-37 at the half and built their lead to 17 before McMaster responded with a 22-22-6 run to take a 64-61 lead with 5:14 to play. The Stingers tied it five times and led 81-79 but Derek Howard nailed a trey to give the Marauders an 83-82 lead. Patrick Sullivan countered with a pair of free throws for Concordia but Sontrop took the inbounds pass and went coast-to-coast for a layup as McMaster pulled out the win. “I wasn’t really supposed to take it coast-to-coast,” said Sontrop. “We had a designed play but the lane was open so I took advantage of it and thankfully, it went in.” Jack Vanderpol led McMaster with 28 points and 12 boards. Derek Howard added 15 and Shawn Francis 13. Robert Ferguson paced the Stingers with 18. Dexter John added 14. “We all knew it wasn’t going to be over until the final buzzer,” Patrick Sullivan told the Montreal Gazette. “We were confident at halftime, but certainly not over-confident. This team has been through a lot and we’ve played enough games together to know that it isn’t over until it’s over.” Coach John Dore added that “we had our chances. And the kids poured their guts out tonight. We just came up short.” Dore said the turning point was the successive three-pointers early in the second which gave McMaster the momentum. “We had shut down their outside shooting until that point. We’re extremely disappointed. But what more can be said other than that somebody had to take the last shot.” Sullivan said “I saw Dex open. I don’t know, maybe I didn’t see the floor as well as I should have.”
In the consolation final, Calgary defeated Brandon 89-79 as fifth-year senior Ian Minnifee scored 27, Mark Loria 18 and Craig Newman 17.
The final saw St. FX bring the national title back to the Maritimes for the first time since 1979 won school’s first title by dumping McMaster 72-64. The X-Men had squeezed into the fourth and final playoff spot of the AUAA with a last second win over Dalhousie. In the AUAA semi against Cape Breton, they won with a buzzer beating 40-footer by guard Jason Hirtle before topping St. Mary’s in the AUAA final by 84-71. Their game plan in the final was to push the ball inside to centre Richard Bella, who’d come to St. FX from the Central African Republic in 1969. Bella finished with 32 points and 17 rebounds and was selected tourney MVP. Point guard Brian Lee added 11, Toronto freshman Merrick Palmer 7 and Jason Hirtle 7. McMaster, which had entered tourney as sixth seed, saw their outside shooting desert them in the final as they hit only 3 of 25 from the three-point line. “When you’re a shooting team, some days you have it and some days you don’t,” said coach Joe Raso. “This time we didn’t have it.” Forward Shawn Francis scored 20 and all-Can Jack Vanderpol scored 19 and had 18 rebounds. McMaster took a nine-point lead early, but trailed by five at half time, looking tired after their upset semi-final win over Concordia. The Marauders kept it close until St. F.X. pulled away in the final four minutes. McMaster shot .380 from the floor and committed 23 turnovers to 10 for St. FX, which shot .380 from the floor. McMaster had a 52-41 edge in rebounds but was undone by turnovers, 23 to St. FX’s 10. “We’ve been living with the outside shot most of the season. It got us through a lot of big games. We had the shots we wanted today but they didn’t fall,” Raso noted. Bella observed that “I didn’t have any problem with Vander Pol. He’s a good player but he couldn’t stop me.” Vanderpol noted that Bella was a tough foe. ‘It’s always a tough matchup when you play somebody that good. He’s a great player.” Konchalski, who’d found Bella and two other African players, Guy Mbongo and Aristide Nguilibet, at the 1988 Olympics, noted that “Bella was unstoppable. I think he should everybody in the country what a great player he is.” Four years earlier, Nguilibet had only spoken French and he praised Konchalski for his efforts. Konchalski “was like a father,” said Nguilibet. “He taught us not only about basketball but about life.” Konchalski, the Elmhurst, N.Y. native had played for the Acadia title team of 1965, became the second person to win the title as both a player and a coach. ‘I haven’t had that trophy in my hands for 28 years,” he noted. “It feels awfully good.” In his 18th year as a head coach, Konchalski noted, “it’s hard to explain how you feel. It hits you so fast. I’m really, really happy, but I’m trying to keep things in perspective. By most people’s standards this is a great accomplishment, but I don’t coach just to win national championships. I coach for a lot of different reasons. The most important thing is that I enjoy working with young people at an important time of their lives. That’s why I’ve been coaching for so long.” Konchalski dedicated the game to two former members of the St. F.X community who’d been closely involved with the team – the university’s former athletic director, Father George Kehoe, who died in a car accident a year and half ago, and guidance counsellor Ernie Foshay, who recently died of cancer. “This is amazing,” said X-men point-guard Brian Lee, watching pandemonium of 8,569 rabid fans erupt. “It such a family feeling we have at our school. We didn’t just win this one for ourselves. We won it for our coach and we won it for the students and for Antigonish and for all the great basketball players who’ve been at St. F.X. over the years.” Criticized for years for being unable to “win the big one,” Konchalski reveled in the victory. “I don’t coach to win national championships, although it’s a great feeling and it’s a bonus.”
The all-tourney team featured: MVP Richard Bella (St. Francis Xavier); Richard Bohne (Calgary); Jack VanderPol (McMaster); Guy Mbongo (St. Francis Xavier); Mike Thomas (Brandon); and Brian Lee (St. Francis Xavier).
The co-bronze medalist Concordia Stingers: Emerson Thomas; Dexter John; Frederick Arsenault; Gaetan Prosper; Robert Ferguson; Patrick Sullivan; Raphael Tyrrell; Kevin Forman; Eric Corej; Emile Bigelow; J.P. Reimer; Benoit Jacob; coach John Dore; assistant Harvey Liverman
The co-bronze medalist Ottawa Gee-Gees: Clarence Porter; Dave Reid; Rod Lee; Greg Maillet; Wayne Charles; Chris Lemcke; Edward Weltz; Bobby Brown; Steve Kokelj; Vince Smyth; Royston Hohenkirk; David Bajurny; Tim Mathieson; Mike Milne; Shawn Turnau; Paul Holness; coach Jack Eisenmann; SID Morgan Quarry; athletic director Carol Turgeon
The silver medalist McMaster Marauders: Jeff Zownir; Jack Vanderpol; Shawn Francis; Cesare Piccini; Greg Caldwell; Paul Maga; Lance Postma; Derek Howard; Marc Sontrop; Sheldon Laidman; Kannin Osei-Tutu; Charles Hafron-Benjamin; Nathan Aryev; Andrew Peters; Andrew Gillis; John Hogeterp; coach Joe Raso
The champion St. Francis Xavier X-Men: Richard Bella; Brian Lee; Jason Hirtle; Guy Mbongo; Mark Corrigan; Blair White; Merrick Palmer; Mike Clarke; Sean McLean; Sean Clarke; Aristide Nguilibet; Joe Odhiambo; coach Steve Konchalski