1999-2000 Halifax – uSports men

(1)	Alberta	57
(8)	Brandon	73	Brandon	61
(4)	Western	90	Western	58	Brandon	60
(5)	Laurentian	78
(2)	Lethbridge	90					—–ST. FRANCIS XAVIER
(7)	Concordia	77	Lethbridge	75	St. F.X.	61
(3)	St. F.X.	82	St. F.X.	80
(6)	McMaster	79

In quarterfinal action, second-seeded wild card Lethbridge prevailed 90-77 over seventh-seeded Quebec champ Concordia. The Horns took a 10-1 lead to open the affair but the Stingers rallied back to tie it at 14. Lethbridge emerged from the sloppy first half with a 34-32 lead. Lethbridge opened with an identical 10-1 run to start the second half and while Concordia responded with a pair of threes, Lethbridge answered back and maintained a double-digit lead at 63-48 midway through the half. The Stingers gamely rallied to cut the margin to five with about eight minutes to play but Lethbridge quickly reasserted itself and won comfortably. Spencer Holt led Lethbridge with 19 on 8-18 from the floor, 1-2 from the arc, 2-3 from the line, 4 boards, 7 assists and 8 steals. Danny Balderson added 16 on 5-14 from the floor, 3-7 from the arc, 3-3 from the line, 11 boards and 9 assists. Chris Wilde scored 12 on 4-11 from the floor, 0-1 from the arc, 4-5 from the line, 8 boards and 2 blocks. John Tschritter added 10 on 5-10 from the floor, 0-2 from the line, 12 rebounds and 3 steals. Michael Myers added 9 on 4-10 from the floor, 1-2 from the arc, 0-1 from the line, 4 boards and 2 steals. Ryan Reed added 8 on 2-5 from the floor, 0-1 from the arc, 4-4 from the line, 6 boards and 3 assists. Dennis Bekkering added 5 on 2-5 from the floor, 1-4 from the line, 5 boards and 2 assists. Jason Harrison added 5 on 1-4 from the floor, 3-4 from the line, 2 boards and 2 assists. Ryan Hall scored 4, along with 5 boards and 2 steals, and Aaron Edlund 2, while James Spiess and Darryl Mimick were scoreless. The Horns shot 33-82 (.402) from the floor, 5-15 from the arc and 19-30 (.633) from the line, while garnering 56 rebounds, including 24 on the offensive glass, 21 turnovers, 29 fouls, 30 assists, 7 blocks and 16 steals. Eric Zulu paced Concordia with 26 on 11-19 from the floor, 3-10 from the arc, 1-2 from the line, 7 boards, 2 assists and 3 steals. Wayne Alexander added 19 on 4-10 from the floor, 0-2 from the arc, 11-19 from the line, 16 boards, 4 assists and 6 steals. Real Kitieu scored 14 on 5-12 from the floor, 4-7 from the line, 15 boards and 2 blocks. Michael Kieran notched 9 on 3-9 from the floor, 3-7 from the arc and 5 boards. Alfonz Simmonds added 4, Glenwyn Alexander 3 on 1-5 from the floor, 1-2 from the line and 9 boards, and Mark Spence 2 on 1-7 from the floor, 0-3 from the arc, 0-2 from the line, 4 boards and 6 assists. Armal Kitieu, Guillaume Tual, Sidney Shreeves and Todd Brown were scoreless. The Stingers shot 26-75 (.347) from the floor, 7-24 (.292) from the arc and 18-36 from the line, while garnering 58 boards, including 26 on the offensive glass, 22 fouls, 14 assists, 23 turnovers, 3 blocks and 11 steals. “I thought we came a little slow again,” said Pronghorns forward John Tschritter. “With a bye week, we always come out a bit slow in the first half. We had a good talk at halftime and had to suck it up and play with a little more emotion. I don’t think we played with enough emotion in the first half. The second half we had the emotion, we had the desire. We were all over the boards, getting loose balls. All the stuff we weren’t doing in the first half.” Rookie Ryan Reed said it was a good start for the Pronghorns. “It kinda got scrappy with almost fouls on every possession. Sometimes you win pretty, sometimes you win ugly. This was one of the ugly wins.” Lethbridge coach Dave Crook noted that “I thought we played the worst half we played all year and we were still ahead. We’re a smaller school and it’s our first time here. You want to make your presence felt. So, there’s a little added motivation.”

       The third seeded AUAA champs St. FX defeated sixth-seeded McMaster, OUA West champs, 82-79 in the last quarterfinal. McMaster jumped out to an early 10-2 lead but the X-Men quickly tied the score at 12. Tied at 20, St. FX began to assert control as all-Canadian Fred Perry and point guard Randy Nohr began to click. They grabbed a 45-34 lead at the half and then quickly stretched their lead to 14 midway through the second half before the Marauders caught fire. St. FX dominated the paint. But McMaster’s defence kept them in it and they rallied to within 78-71 with two minutes to play. Steve Maga cut to it to one 78-77 with a minute to play. St. FX brought the ball down the floor and E.L. Adams hit a leaner to stretch the lead to three. Unable to get a clear look for a three, Rodney Baptiste drove a lane and was fouled with 5.1 seconds on the clock. He made both free throws. But Mac was forced to commit a quick foul on Jordan Croucher with four seconds to play. He hit both to make it 82-79. After a timeout, the Marauders got the ball back and Emmanuel Ostojic attempted a running three at the buzzer but it hit the back iron and bounced off. Nohr and Perry were named co-players of the game scoring 20 points each. Nohr notched his 20 on 6-6 from the floor, 8-11 from the line, 4 boards, 10 assists and 5 steals. Perry added his 20 on 9-16 from the floor, 0-2 from the arc, 2-3 from the line, 7 boards, 4 assists and 2 steals. Dennie Oliver added 13 on 4-11 from the floor, 1-2 from the arc, 2-4 from the line, 9 boards and 3 assists. Jordan Croucher scored 10 on 3-8 from the floor, 2-4 from the arc, 2-2 from the line, 5 boards, 4 assists, 2 blocks and 4 steals. E.L. Adams added 9 on 3-6 from the floor, 1-1 from the arc, 1-2 from the line and 2 boards. Krzysztof Stach scored 6 on 3-7 from the floor, 0-1 from the line, 9 boards and 2 assists. Jason Kerswill added 4 on 2-8 from the floor and 5 boards, while Tom Kennedy, Billy O’Neill, Greg Marenick, Paul Ricketts and Jonathan Daniel were scoreless. The X-men shot 30-62 (.484) from the floor, 4-9 (.444) from the arc, and 18-25 (.720) from the line, while garnering 41 boards, including 12 on the offensive glass, 22 fouls, 26 assists, 17 turnovers, 5 blocks and 12 steals. Maga and Graham Hewitt each scored 21 for McMaster. Maga notched 21 on 6-17 from the floor, 4-12 from the arc, 5-6 from the line, 3 boards and 10 assists. Hewitt hit 21 on 7-12 from the floor, 1-1 from the arc, 6-6 from the line, 8 boards, 4 assists and 3 blocks. Rodney Baptiste scored 15 on 5-11 from the floor, 0-2 from the arc, 5-8 from the line, 9 boards, 8 assists, 2 blocks and 2 steals. Goran Franjesevic scored 10 on 4-7 from the floor, 2-3 from the line, 3 boards and 2 steals. Doug Doyle added 6 on 3-8 from the floor, 0-2 from the arc, 3 boards and 2 steals. Kevin McKenna added 4 on 1-2 from the floor, 1-2 from the arc, 1-2 from the line and 4 boards. Jeremey Storry scored 2, along with 2 blocks, while Justin Boye, Emmanuel Ostojic, Mark Maga, Phillip Vayalumkal and Jay Egbo were scoreless. Boye nabbed 7 boards. The Marauders hit 27-65 (.415) from the floor, 6-20 (.300) from the arc and 19-25 (.760) from the line, while garnering 38 boards, including 12 on the offensive glass, 20 fouls, 25 assists, 14 turnovers, 8 blocks and 7 steals. “Just as everybody anticipated, it was a matchup of two great backcourts,” said X-men coach Steve Konchalski. “You look at Steve Maga and Randy Nohr, where else could you see a matchup of two point guards like that in Canada?” Maga told the Hamilton Spectator that “every guy in our room can think back to when they could have made a shot, or boxed out a little better, or grabbed a rebound. Tomorrow, I could hit all of them.” Marauders coach Joe Raso said “we had a decent shot. I thought the ball had eyes. I guess I didn’t get to my rosary quick enough. I wish we could have started the game the way we ended it. As the game got close and time ran out, our composure got better. We thought it was enough to get it done.”

       The fourth seeded wild card Western Mustangs defeated fifth-seed Laurentian 90-75 in a game ironically featuring two players who’d each spent a year in Atlantic Canada before returning to Ontario. The Mustangs Micah Bourdeau, who’d been selected AUAA rookie of the year in 1995, but then returned to hometown London hit 5-6 from the floor and 4-4 from the line in the first half as Western took a 52-37 lead. Laurentian’s Ted Dongelmans, from Orillia, had spent a year at Dalhousie before enrolling at Sudbury. He struggled early against Western centre Chris Brown but got on track with a jump hook midway through the first half and a 20-footer which trimmed the Western lead to seven. But the Voyageurs never got closer. Dongelmans scored 20, including 16 in the second half, and grabbed six boards. Bourdeau scored 21. It was a much more pleasant experience that his first return to Halifax in 1999, when the Mustangs lost to the Huskies. “It’s something that I’ve thought about a lot. It was painful. Now that’s I’ve returned, it all came back to me again.” Jim Grozelle scored 23 for Western and called the final score deceptive. “I wouldn’t call it easy. We were lucky we got out of the blocks pretty quick. But we knew they weren’t going away.” Kevin Gordon led Laurentian with 31 points and eight assists. Mustangs coach Craig Boydell told the Halifax Gazette that “we won the game in the first half. We had to hold on in the second half for dear life for quite a while. They came back really hard and strong.” Grozelle, who was chosen player of the game, said “I really didn’t feel very good in the warm-up. When the game started, I just wanted to find my spot in the offence and do what I normally do – distribute the ball. But I did get a couple of looks early and I was just lucky to hit them both.” Voyageurs coach Peter Campbell said his troops were too reliant on Ted Dongelmans and Kevin ‘Flash’ Gordon. “You don’t win here with two guys. I feel sorry for Ted and Flash because they basically tried to carry the team single-handedly and you can’t win here [that way]. To Western’s credit, every time they got a look they buried it. And when things weren’t going well, [Western guard] Micah [Bourdeau] would slide in and get an easy basket at back of the defence.” Grozelle said he thought Laurentian’s concern with defending Western big man centre Chris Brown may have opened things up for his team’s perimeter shooters. “We know Chris Brown has been a force down low all year so we expected maybe for them to help out down low. They had to leave us with something and today they left us with the three [point shots].”

       In the last quarterfinal, Brandon shocked the top-seeded Alberta Golden Bears 73-57 as Earnest Bell scored 31 and grabbed eight rebounds, four steals and six assists. Brandon jumped to a quick 14-2 lead but Alberta gamely rallied to within 36-33 at the half. The Bears’ Ryan Baldry hit three successive shots from beyond the arc and Reuben Hall added a layup to give Alberta a 44-39 lead in the second half. But Brandon responded with 10 unanswered points caped by open-court dunks by Greg Walker and Josh Masters. Brandon hit 17-26 from the floor in the second half and their dominance of the boards proved the difference down the stretch. “That’s the key to our game,” Bell said. “We have to rebound, be patient and get a good shot every time.” Brandon out-rebounded Alberta 39-22. “I don’t think I surprised them,” said Bell, who scored 19 in the first half. “I just played my game. Even though I struggled at first, coach told me I was just rushing too much. After that, I just took what they gave me. They were giving me jump shots, so I took them.” Greg Walker added 16 for Brandon while Josh Masters scored 12. Bobcats coach Jerry Hemmings said the key was team defence, rebounding and holding all-Canadian Nick Maglisceau to eight points. “Our game plan called for us to be with Maglisceau all the time; we didn’t want to give him any space at all. I think we did a good job scouting and we executed well. When we needed hoops, Bell stepped up and played like a first team all-Canadian, instead of a second-team all-Canadian. He took over in the second half.” The Bears had defeated the Bobcats convincingly early in the season. “We didn’t play with enough emotion, with enough desperation, but the credit goes to Brandon,” said coach Don Horwood. “It’s not Nick’s fault. He has to have the ball in order to score, and we didn’t do a good enough job of getting the ball inside to him. We were static on offence a lot of the time, and consequently we didn’t get Nick involved in the game enough. If we don’t, then that’s going to be the result.” The Bobcats Jerry Hemmings noted that “no one expected anything from us. We were able to sneak in early and do some damage. That was by far our best game of the year. We played on high octane today.” With 11 new players in the line-up, Brandon wasn’t expected to fare well during the season. But the Mount Airy, North Carolina born Hemmings always attracts top talent to the tiny school of 1900. “We have a tremendous tradition at our school. That helps us to get into doors with potential recruits that others can’t We had a system that works. WE just need to go out and get players that we thought could contribute right away.” The roster included three Toronto-area players, four from B.C., an Albertan and a pair of U.S. imports, all-Canadian forward Bell from Louisville, Kentucky (who’d redshirted last year) and centre Jermaine Harden from Jackson, Mississippi. Only three of the Bobcats were from Manitoba.

       In the semi-finals, St. FX defeated Lethbridge 80-75. Lethbridge took an early lead before the partisan crowd but point guard Randy Nohr got the X-Men running in transition and Dennie Oliver hit a layup to give St. FX a 29-23 lead with eight minutes to play in the half. Lethbridge rallied to take a 34-33 lead with four minutes to play. But St. FX re-asserted itself and took a 46-39 lead into the lockers. The X-Men scored the first five points of the second half to take a 51-39 lead. They maintained a double-digit margin until midway through the half when Danny Balderson drilled a three to cut the margin to single figures. But Balderson then missed three straight looks from the perimeter and the Pronghorns free shooting went awry. Still, they trimmed it to 72-64 with five minutes to play. Lethbridge closed the deficit to 75-70 with 2:28 to play and after all-Canadian Fred Perry was called for a charge, Balderson missed another from the arc and X found itself with the ball and a six-point lead with 1:33 to play. Nohr turned it over and John Tschritter hit a bucket to the margin to four. But Nohr then iced with a 12-foot jumper. “That’s two games in a row now Jordan has stepped up with big baskets right before the half. That sent us in on a high and our opponents on a low,” said Konchalski. CIAU player of the year Danny Balderson said “We had the open shots, but we just didn’t make them. You have to give credit to X though, they played really good defence.”  Nohr was chosen player of the game for the X-Men. Nohr scored 28 on 10-12 from the floor, 8-10 from the line, 5 boards, 8 assists and 3 steals. Jordan Croucher added 16 on 6-10 from the floor, 4-8 from the arc, 3 boards, 5 assists and 2 blocks. Dennie Oliver notched 15 on 6-13 from the floor, 1-2 from the arc, 2-2 from the line, 20 boards, 2 assists and 4 blocks. Fred Perry scored 12 on 4-8 from the floor, 0-3 from the arc, 4-6 from the line, 2 boards, 4 assists, 6 blocks and 3 steals. Jason Kerswill added 5 on 1-4 from the floor, 3-8 from the line and 9 boards. Krzysztof Stach added 4 on 1-4 from the floor, 2-4 from the line, 6 boards and 2 assists, while E.L. Adams, Billy O’Neill, Greg Marenick, Paul Ricketts, Jonathan Daniel and Tom Kennedy were scoreless. Adams nabbed 3 boards.

St. FX shot 28-52 (.538) from the floor, 5-13 (.385) from the arc and 19-32 (.594) from the line, while garnering 45 boards, including 9 on the offensive glass, 21 fouls, 25 assists, 25 turnovers, 13 blocks and 10 steals. John Tschritter paced Lethbridge with 19 on 8-16 from the floor, 3-8 from the line and 16 boards. Spencer Holt added 15 on 5-15 from the floor, 0-2 from the arc, 5-6 from the line, 6 boards and 3 assists. Danny Balderson notched 11 on 4-26 from the floor, 2-12 from the arc, 1-2 from the line, 4 boards, 4 assists and 3 steals. Chris Wilde notched 8 on 4-12 from the floor, 0-2 from the arc, 9 boards, 3 blocks and 7 steals. Jason Harrison scored 8 on 4-6 from the floor and 3 boards. Michael Myers added 7 on 2-4 from the floor, 1-1 from the arc, 2-4 from the line and 3 boards. Ryan Reed added 5 on 2-2 from the floor, 1-1 from the arc and 3 boards. Ryan Hall added 2 on 1-4 from the floor, 0-2 from the arc, 4 boards and 8 assists. Denis Bekkering, James Spiess, Robert Slavich and Aaron Edlund were scoreless. Lethbridge hit 30-85 (.353) from the floor, 4-20 (.200) from the arc and 11-21 (.524) from the line, while garnering 47 boards, including 20 on the offensive glass, 22 fouls, 21 assists, 15 turnovers, 5 blocks and 13 steals.

       In the other semi, Bobcat Josh Masters hit a shot from midcourt at the buzzer to give Brandon a 61-58 win over the Western Mustangs. Brandon rallied from an eight-point deficit with 4:27 to play to tie the game at 58. A dunk by Brandon’s Jermaine Harden with two seconds left in regulation was ruled to have come after the shot clock had expired, giving Western the ball under its own basket with 1.8 seconds to play. After taking two timeouts, the Mustangs’ Chris Brown tried a long pass that was intercepted by Masters, who took one dribble and then heaved a shot from midcourt that hit nothing but net as the buzzer sounded. The shot was only the second bucket of the game for Masters, who spent a long stretch on the bench in the first half for showboating. “A couple of coaches and a couple of teammates said to me: ‘you’re going to come in and get a big shot or a defensive stop for us and help us win the game’ but I didn’t think it was going to happen like that. I had just enough left to throw up a prayer and it went in for me. Thank God.” Hemmings later joked that the play happened just like he drew it up. “I’ll tell you what,” he said. “What a great play Josh Masters made. He’s got great instincts as a player.” But Hemmings couldn’t imagine a better way for Masters to get out of the doghouse. “We had to get over the emotion of having a dunk that we thought won the game but the shot-clock violation got us. In the timeout, we said to make the pass as difficult as we could. What a great play.” Western coach Craig Boydell said he didn’t think the pass was risky. “We feel it’s a conservative play and also a play that can win. We didn’t come here to do anything but win. The reason we won so many games this year is because we can stop people defensively. We did that today. …we just came up a tad short. What do you say to your team when you lose like that? I thought the two-handed set shot went out about 40 years ago but there it was.” Brandon had scored the game’s first six points before Western rallied back to a 16-15 edge. Then the Mustangs again went cold and Brandon began dominating the boards, moving ahead 30-26 at the half. The Bobcats extended their lead to 42-33 early in the second half before Western hit a pair of threes to trim the margin to five. Chris Brown began to assert himself in the paint and when Micah Bourdeau sliced into the paint for a layup, Western took its first lead of the half 47-46. Western extended the margin to 56-49 with just under 4 minutes to play. But Charlton Weasel Head hit a trey and then Josh Masters a layup to trim the margin to 56-54. Western turned the ball over and Greg Walker hit a 10-footer jumper to tie the game at 56 with 1:22 to play. The teams exchanged buckets in the paint and with 32.6 seconds to play, Chedo Ndur was fouled and went to the line for a one and one. He missed the front end. Brandon grabbed the rebound and called timeout with 22.2 seconds to go and 20 seconds on the shot clock. As it expired, Jermaine Harden slammed home a bucket. But officials ruled the shot clock had expired turning the ball over with 1.8 seconds to play, setting the stage for Masters’ miracle. Greg Walker led Brandon with 21 on 10-15 from the floor, 1-2 from the arc, 0-1 from the line, 4 boards, 3 assists and 2 steals. Earnest Bell added 19 on 9-15 from the floor, 1-2 from the line, 10 boards, 4 assists, 3 blocks and 4 steals. Jacob Hall scored 11 on 5-7 from the floor, 1-3 from the line, 9 boards and 2 steals. Josh Masters added 5 on 2-8 from the floor, 1-4 from the arc, 2 boards and 6 assists. Charlton Weasel Head added 3 on 1-3 from the floor, 1-1 from the arc, 3 boards and 5 assists. Junior Leslie added 2, while Jermaine Harden, Jason Dawkins, Joseph Asante, Gill Cheung, Len Mauthe and Brendon Plamondon were scoreless. Harden nabbed 7 boards, while Cheung pilfered 2 balls. Brandon hit 28-56 from the floor, 3-8 (.375) from the arc and 2-6 (.333) from the line, while garnering 37 boards, including 10 on the offensive glass, 17 fouls, 22 assists, 26 turnovers, 5 blocks and 11 steals. Micah Bourdeau paced Western with 19 on 8-15 from the floor, 1-3 from the arc, 2-3 from the line, 3 boards, 4 assists and 3 steals. Chris Brown added 15 on 7-15 from the floor, 1-2 from the line, 16 boards and 2 assists. Matt Tweedie notched 8 on 2-4 from the floor, 1-3 from the arc, 3-5 from the line, 2 boards and 4 assists. Chedo Ndur added 6 on 3-8 from the floor, 0-1 from the line, 3 boards and 4 steals. Jimmy Grozelle notched 4 on 1-8 from the floor, 1-5 from the arc, 1-2 from the line, 3 boards, 6 assists and 3 steals. Stephan Barrie added 3 on 1-3 from the floor and 1-2 from the arc. Kelsey Green scored 3 on 1-2 from the floor, 1-2 from the line and 2 boards, while Rich Tamminga, Mark Porte, Timothy Shanks, Oskar Cieslewicz and Mark Nielson were scoreless. Western hit 23-55 (.418) from the floor, 4-13 (.308) from the arc and 8-15 (.533) from the line, while garnering 31 boards, including 10 on the offensive glass, 10 fouls, 18 assists, 19 turnovers, 1 block and 13 steals.

       In the final, the St. FX X-men scored the final 10 points in a furious last-minute rally to defeat Brandon 61-60 and capture their second CIAU crown. The Bobcats led 60-51 with 28 seconds to play, but the X-Men fought back and won it as Randy Nohr hit a jumper with 20 seconds to play. Nohr scored just 9 points in 15 minutes of playing time but his final two buckets were the difference. “I was playing terrible but I thought I could hit that shot,” Nohr later said. “Someone had to take over and I thought I owed it to my team after playing so bad the whole game.” Nohr had twice led Langara College in Vancouver to national community college titles, winning tourney MVP each time. Last year, he was the CCAA player of the year while averaging 24 ppg. He’d earlier led Aldergrove to successive B.C. high school titles. “I’ve won back-to-back titles twice already,” he said. “I think I’d like to do it again.” The teams exchanged buckets early and were tied at 14 after five minutes of play with Nohr and Bell on the bench with two quick fouls apiece. Nohr returned with 13 minutes to play in the first half to trigger a 7-0 X-Men run but the Bobcats answered with their own 9-1 run to take a 23-22 lead midway through the half. Nohr picked up this third foul with 6:21 to play and was forced to bench. Bell returned with four minutes to play and led the Bobcats to a 35-33 lead at the break. St. FX took a 43-40 lead five minutes into the second half on buckets by Perry and Croucher but Brandon hit seven unanswered points to take a 47-43 lead. The Bobcats took a 51-47 lead when Nohr picked up his fourth foul midway through the half. After two minutes on the bench, he returned to drill a three to cut Brandon’s lead to 55-51 with 7:15 to play. Masters replied with a three for Brandon and Bell added a bucket to give the Bobcats a 60-51 lead. A pair of buckets by Fred Perry cut the deficit to five, including a jumper with 2:11 to play. An offensive foul on Charlton Weasel Head led to an off-balance runner by ex-Bobcat Dennie Oliver which cut the lead to three. E.L. Adams then stripped Weaselhead of the ball on the inbounds pass with 1:13 to play and called a timeout. The Metro Centre crowd of 8,391 went ballistic. “That little Adams, he showed unbelievable poise out there for a freshman,” St. FX coach Steve Konchalski later noted. Croucher missed a shot. Brandon grabbed a rebound and called timeout but turned over the ball again and Nohr drove the lane and made a finger roll to make it 60-59. Brandon was pressured into a halfcourt time violation and Nohr summarily drained the winning bucket by backing a Bobcat defender into the paint, spinning around and hitting a fadeaway jumper with 18.9 seconds on the clock. Bell missed a 10-footer at the buzzer. “It looked insurmountable there for a while, down nine, but they never gave up,” said ST. FX coach Steve Konchalski. “We had Randy Nohr on our side, which was a major factor. Defence was the key because our shots weren’t dropping. I can’t say enough about this team – the heart and character they showed to win this championship. We did it by heart, pure heart.” Brandon coach Jerry Hemmings called it “a devastating loss. We were up nine and X’s pressure started to give us problems. We didn’t manage the game well in the last few minutes, and then Randy Nohr stepped up and showed why he’s the best point guard in the country. We just didn’t manage the time very well. X was tough. They stepped up. It was just unfortunate we couldn’t look after it.” Fred Perry paced the X-Men with 21 points on 9-13 from the floor, 3-6 from the arc, 5 boards, 3 blocks and 2 steals. Jordan Croucher added 11 on 4-13 from the floor, 3-11 from the arc, 5 boards, 3 blocks and 2 steals. Dennie Oliver scored 10 on 3-12 from the floor, 0-2 from the arc, 4-6 from the line, 14 boards, 5 assists, 6 blocks and 4 steals. Randy Nohr scored 9 on 3-4 from the floor, 1-1 from the arc, 2-2 from the line, 4 boards and 4 assists. Jason Kerswill notched 4 on 2-4 from the floor and 5 boards. E.L. Adams added 4 on 1-7 from the floor, 1-3 from the arc, 1-2 from the line, 3 boards and 2 steals. Krzysztof Stach added 2 on 1-3 from the floor and 4 boards, while Billy O’Neill, Paul Ricketts, Jonathan Daniel, Tom Kennedy and Greg Marenick were scoreless. The X-Men shot 23-56 (.411) from the floor, 8-23 (.348) from the arc and 7-10 from the line, while garnering 36 boards, including 12 on the offensive glass, 10 fouls, 20 assist, 19 turnovers, 9 blocks and 10 steals. Josh Masters paced Brandon with 16 points on 6-11 from the floor, 3-5 from the arc, 1-1 from the line, 6 boards and 3 assists. Earnest Bell scored 14 on 7-14 from the floor, 0-1 from the arc, 10 boards, 4 assists and 4 steals. Greg Walker scored 12 on 4-18 from the floor, 2-4 from the arc, 2-2 from the line, 7 boards, 4 assists and 4 steals. Charlton Weasel Head scored 6 on 2-10 from the floor, 2-7 from the arc, 4 boards, 3 assists and 4 steals. Junior Leslie scored 6 on 3-5 from the floor. Jacob Hall added 2, along with 6 boards, Jermaine Harden 2, along with 7 boards, and Joseph Asante 2, while Jason Dawkins, Gil Cheung, Len Mauthe and Brendon Plamondon were scoreless. The Bobcats hit 24-64 (.375) from the floor, 7-17 (.412) from the arc and 5-9 (.556) from the line, while garnering 41 boards, including 18 on the offensive glass, 14 fouls, 20 assists, 17 turnovers and 15 steals.

       The all-tourney team featured: MVP Randy Nohr (St. FX); Steve Maga (McMaster); Nick Maglisceau (Alberta); Earnest Bell (Brandon); Greg Walker (Brandon); Fred Perry (St. FX)

       The co-bronze medalist Lethbridge Pronghorns: Ryan Reed; Spencer Holt; James Spiess; Robert Slavich; Jason Harrison; Ryan Hall; Michael Meyers; Danny Balderson; John Tschritter; Denis Bekkering; Darryl Mimick; Aaron Edlund; Kevin McBeath; Chris Wilde; Gerald Marcoux; coach Dave Crook; assistant Rick Pawlak; assistant Dave Adams; trainer Lucas Ferguson; trainer Dawn Patrick

       The co-bronze medalist Western Mustangs: Chris Brown; Micah Bourdeau; Jim Grozelle; Matt Tweedie; Chedo Ndur; Mark Porte; Rich Tamminga; Kelsey Green; Stephan Barrie; Tim Shanks; Konrad Cieslewicz; Mark Nielsen; coach Craig Boydell

       The silver medalist Brandon Bobcats: Earnest Bell; Gilford Cheung; Greg Walker; Josh Masters; Charlton Weasel Head; Ronald ‘Junior’ Leslie; Joseph Asante; Mike Raimbault; Joshua Masters; Donald Phillips; Chris Passley; Carlos Martinez; Jacob Hall; Jermaine Harden; Jason Dawkins; Len Mauthe; Brendon Plamondon; coach Jerry Hemmings

       The champion St. Francis Xavier X-Men: Randy Nohr; Fred Perry; Jordan Croucher; Dennie Oliver; Krzysztof Stach; Jason Kerswill; E.L. Adams; Tom Kennedy; Billy O’Neill; Greg Marenick; Paul Ricketts; Jonathan Daniel; coach Steve Konchalski