| (2) | Regina | 80 | ||||||
| (7) | Western | 61 | Regina | 54 | ||||
| (3) | Calgary | 79 | Calgary | 63 | Calgary | 41 | ||
| (6) | Laval | 67 | ||||||
| —–VICTORIA | ||||||||
| (1) | Victoria | 71 | ||||||
| (8) | Memorial | 59 | Victoria | 73 | Victoria | 57 | ||
| (5) | Alberta | 72 | Alberta | 58 | ||||
| (4) | Laurentian | 64 |
In the quarterfinals, held at the University of Alberta, the top-seeded Victoria Vikings, who’d been ranked number one all season, dump the 8th-seeded Memorial Sea-Hawks 71-59. Coach Doug Partridge’s Sea-Hawks were the surprise AUAA champs knocking off UNB, Dalhousie and UPEI in the postseason tourney after finishing 9-11 in regular season play. “If we had played them like we did in the second half for a full game, there’s no telling what could have happened,” said Memorial coach Doug Partridge. The Sea-Hawks trailed 39-25 at the half. Ann Murrin led Memorial with 24 points and 8 boards. Erica Coultas added 13, including a trio from beyond the arc. Erika Stokes notched 10 and Amy O’Reilly 9, all from beyond the arc. Victoria opened with a 16-3 run and notched a late 10-0 run in building up the half-time lead. Janet McLachlan led Victoria with 24 points and 10 boards. Kim Johnson added 21 including 5-7 from the arc. “(Memorial) came out very hard. They were very confident,” said McLachlan. “They just wanted it very, very badly, and they played well.” Partridge said his troops “didn’t defend in the first half. We gave them easy looks at the net, and that Johnson kid just lit it up.” The Vikes started the game on the fly, going up 16-3, but in the second half, it was the Sea-Hawks who were doing the flying. Suddenly the paths Victoria had been beating under the basket were blocked off. The Vikes, perhaps having some trouble believing the unranked, upstart Sea-Hawks could actually be playing that well, got unorganized and were forced into poor, outside shooting. After a nearly disastrous 10 minutes, point guard Lindsay Brooke got everyone back on track. “It shouldn’t (make a difference playing an underdog), it’s a bit of a subconscious thing,” said McLachlan. “You say `We’re No. 1, they’re No. 8. They came out of their conference in a big upset. I think you forget a lot of times that the underdog doesn’t have anything to lose, and they can come out and play a lot harder than anyone ever gives them credit for. They did that tonight.” The Seahawks (coached by Partridge, assisted by Tami Pennell, Peter Benoite and Karen Cameron) also included Melissa Skanes, Joanne McNeil, Kerri Highmore, Sandi Ennis, Heather Dawe, Kendra Wheatley, Gwyn Pryse-Phillips and Cori Hanan.
The fifth-seeded host Alberta Pandas edged the OUA champ 5th-seeded Laurentian Voyageurs 72-64. Rookie guard Cristi Allan, who hadn’t slept for three nights heading into the nationals, came off the bench in the second half to rally the Pandas from a 15-point deficit. ‘It’s all about digging down, giving other people lifts,” said Allan, who posted 10 points, 4 assists and 4 steals. Pandas coach Trix Baker said “Cristi was unbelievable. I wanted her in the national junior tournament and she plays under pressure. She is a clutch kind of player. The great the pressure, the great she plays. That’s why we recruited her so hard.” Laurentian led 42-29 at the half after hitting 17-19 from the line in the first frame, while the pandas were 2-5 and relinquished 14 points off turnovers. “I think a little bit of fear came into it, realizing this could be it,” said Pandas guard Sara Armstrong. “I was thinking: this can’t be happening.” But Allan came off the bench and the Pandas caught the Lady Vees at 51-51 with 11:30 to play. “We just got our composure back,” said Armstrong. “We might have been a little nervous. And we weren’t playing as hard as we could. Cristi has a lot of spunk to her. She got us going. She really hustles on defence.” Cathy Butlin led Alberta with 23. Armstrong added 20. Karen Vos paced Laurentian with 15. Stephanie De Sutter added 14. The Voyageurs (coached by John Campbell) also included Stephanie Harrison, Shauna Conway, Gillian Eccles, Nicole Walker, Emily Hahn, Chantal Gregoire, Tammy Kenzie, Brooke Johnson, Claire Beatty, Nicole Walker, Teri Dickinson and playing coach Leanne Hazlett.
The 2nd-seeded Regina Cougars clipped the 7th-seeded Western Ontario 80-61 as Corrin Wersta scored 16. Laura Verbeeten led the Mustangs with 27. “Excellent … It was a tough game to play,” said Cougars coach Christine Stapleton. “To come out on top the way we did is just excellent. We played very hard. We played with a lot of team effort.” Five Cougars scored in double figures, led by Wersta. Heather Dedman added 15 points and nine assists. Bree Burgess, Andrea Gottselig and Phoebe De Ciman tossed in 12 points apiece. “Dedman did some great things,” Stapleton said. “Corrin struggled a bit in the first half then regrouped and was terrific in the second half. Burgess played great defence. Our defence is really playing strong. But we struggled a bit on offence. Consistency is still a problem. We have to focus on playing for 40 minutes.” The Cougars led 46-30 at the half, only to have the Mustangs close to within eight early in the second half. “They hit a couple of threes and defensively we needed to step up,” Wersta said. “But we’re very pleased. We felt we had control. We were calm. We executed well. We’re very confident. We just went out and played basketball.” Cougars forward Corrin Wersta told the Western Gazette that “we came out raring to go. We executed well on both offence and defence.” Mustangs coach Bob Delaney said “what was hurting us, was us. We were making silly mistakes. So, we went into the second half with a bigger lineup and we turned it around.” Regina coach Christine Stapleton said “in the second half they set us back and [Western] played us with no fear. It was in the last few minutes [of the game] that our experience showed and we were able to make some good defensive stops. Anyone who saw the game would see it was not a 19-point game.” The Mustangs (coached by Bob Delaney, assisted by Jodie Hauch, Dan Coleman and Dave Bartolotta) included Cindylea Scott, Holli Clarkson, Laura Verbeeten, Sarah Lercara, Joanne Chehade, Lindsay Kennedy, Michelle Crowley, Anne Van Leeuwen, Michelle Longpre, Jennifer Grebeldinger, Stephanie Howard, Emily Northcote, Tricia Young and Stephani Wray.
In the last quarterfinal, the 3rd-seeded Calgary Dinosaurs defeated the 6th-seeded Laval Rouge et Or 79-67 as Jill Beker scored 20. Isabelle Grenier led Laval with 23. The Rouge et Or (coached by Linda Marquis, assisted by Monique Parent and Genevieve Laporte) also included Isabelle Chaperon, Valerie Samson, Marie Pedneau, Marie-Helene Lafleche, Julie Cantin, Emmanuelle Migneault, Valerie Pellerin, Nathalie Corbeil, Martine Huot, Karine Desrosiers, Veronique Aubin, Caroline Moreau and Julie Dionne.
In the semi-final, Calgary defeated Regina 63-54 after taking a 44-27 lead at the half after sinking 6-8 treys. Leighann Doan, selected player of the game for the Dinnies, scored 19 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and handed out six assists. Corrin Wersta, selected Regina’s player of the game, scored 20, and added 7 rebounds. “Coming into this tournament, our game plan was very simple,” said Calgary coach Shawnee Harle. “We didn’t put anything new in. We didn’t change anything. We didn’t come in with any magic game plans. We just tried to play Calgary basketball.” The Cougars crept to within 7 midway through the second half but the Dinnies defence proved the difference down the stretch. Regina simply dug itself too big a hole, said coach Christine Stapleton. “It’s very disappointing. … we just didn’t execute the defensive game plan at all.” The Cougars trailed 31-16 just past the midway point of the first half. “We got the (bleep) kicked out of us,” Stapleton added. Calgary hit 7-11 from the arc in the first half, including 4-5 by Cathy Payne, a three-point specialist who took last season off and toured through Europe, the Middle East, Thailand and Australia. “She didn’t get one off in the second half,” Stapleton said. Regina got to within four points, 58-54, in the game’s final minute, but had to foul and Calgary made five free throws in the dying seconds. “We still nearly won,” Stapleton said, adding that getting that close only made things that much more disappointing. Cymone Bouchard added 14 for Regina. “Bouchard and Wersta played without fear,” Stapleton said. “They were excellent. They were awesome. And (Phoebe) De Ciman gave us some really good minutes.” What really hurt the Cougars was an inability to hit the outside shot. Crystal Heisler was 0-for-6, Andrea Gottselig 1-for-6 and Bree Burgess 2-for-7. “That was us,” Stapleton said, when asked if those numbers were attributable to the U of R’s shooting or Calgary’s defence. “We had good looks … we just didn’t make anything.”
In the other semi, Victoria defeated Alberta 73-58 as Megan Dalziel scored 22 points and grabbed 10 boards en route to her selection as the Vikings player of the game. Kim Wyley was selected Alberta’s player of the game. She and Cathy Butlin each scored 12 for the Pandas. Jackie Simon said the Pandas suffered from defensive lapses. “Defence always wins game like this. We gave up 43 points in the second half. That was definitely the difference.” The score was knotted at 55 with seven minutes to play but the Vikes ripped off an 18-3 run. “They were very focused,” said Simon, one of four Panda starters to foul out. … They’re a very good team down the stretch, very good under pressure. They took it to the hoop hard and we got into big-time foul trouble. They just shot the ball very well.” The Vikes hit 32-41 from the line, while Alberta was 7-8. “You have to answer their shots or else you’re going to get behind,” said Sara Armstrong. “That’s what happened. We got behind and we had to start fouling to try to get back into it. It didn’t work.” Victoria coach Kathy Shields said her troops “rebounded well in the second half. Our zone defence gave them some problems in the second half.” The Vikes normally reliable shooting deserted them during the first half, but rather than falling apart, the team turned up the defence and kept plugging away until the balls started dropping. “It was a hard, hard fought game, and we played great defence. We executed our game plan perfectly,” said Megan Dalziel. Janet McLachlan added 14 for Victoria, Kim Johnson 10, and Lindsay Brooke, who drove through the Pandas like a Jack Russell terrier, had 12. The teams played the first half nearly dead even, with the Vikes looking tight, and both teams shooting less than 40 per cent from the field. Johnson couldn’t find an opening for the long balls, but made some early drives that helped the Vikes at least keep pace. Once during the half, the Pandas had a five-point lead, but by intermission the score was 30-30. “We’re thrilled,” said Vikes coach Kathy Shields. “This crowd (more than 2,000 at the U of A) was amazing. You couldn’t hear yourself think, and it’s very hard to communicate. I just think my team played with so much heart and toughness. The Pandas played a very tough first half, but I think in the second half we just played a little bit better.” The Vikes, looking more relaxed, took tenuous control a few minutes into the second half to go up by five. They were 32-41 from the line, including 22-27 in the second half, while Alberta had four players foul out. The Pandas battled back to tie the game at 55-55 with five minutes to play, but that was as close as they’d get to defending their national title. “We’re a good shooting team, and we just weren’t hitting anything at the start of the game,” said Shields. “We just kept playing defence, kept playing defence, and finally the shots started to go in. I thought the girls showed a lot of mental toughness staying with it, and not getting panicked.” Dalziel said the Vikes were determined to earn redemption after losing to Alberta in the 1999 final. “It was a very, very sweet one for us.”
In the bronze medal match, the Regina Cougars defeated the Alberta Pandas 66-53. Despite the loos, graduating Panda Sara Armstrong was philosophical. “Finishing fourth in the whole country. There’s a lot of teams that don’t even make it to nationals. We’ve got to take all the positives that we can from this. We really wanted to win a medal. Especially three of us (along with Jackie Simon and Kim Wyley, who were also graduating), we wanted to go out with at least a medal. But you know, all we have to say is that it’s better than fifth.” Wyley spent most of the game in foul trouble. “I just felt like I was watching from a bubble. The girls were in. The bench was in it. I just can’t believe it’s over. It hasn’t hit me yet. We just want to remember the good times because this is awful. This doesn’t sum up my five years here at all. I’ve got thousands of great memories and a couple of bad ones that will be forgotten.” The Pandas shot .400 from the field. “We were almost trying too hard,” said coach Trix Baker. “If you scored points for trying, we’d have lots of points. We couldn’t hit anything. Their defence is good but it’s not outstanding. We just didn’t hit shots. You’re not going to win if you don’t score.” Phoebe De Ciman scored seven unanswered points late in the first half to give Regina a 29-24 lead. The Cougars never again trailed. They led 31-27 at the half. Corrin Wersta led Regina with 18. Andrea Gottselig added 16. Cathy Butlin paced Alberta with 21. Jackie Simon nabbed 10 boards. “It’s every coach’s goal to win their last game,” said Regina coach Christine Stapleton. “And it’s only the second medal for a basketball team in the history of the school so there are so many positive things I can get out of this weekend.” Cymone Bouchard added that “we won a medal. It’s not gold but it’s just about the next best thing so we’re excited about it.” Stapleton said “we played very, very well against Alberta. The girls executed the game plan and we beat them badly – we dominated them.” The Pandas (coached by Trix Baker, assisted by Shelaine Kozakavich, Susan Tokariuk and Jocelyn MacLean) also included Robyn Haig, Cristi Allan, Megan Depew, Sara Armstrong, Kim Wyley, Diane Smith, Elisha Williams, Erin Sandusky, Kathryn Watson, Amanda Smith, Pam Hoyles and Heidi Dennis.
In the final, Victoria captured its eighth crown under the guidance of Kathy Shields by thrashing Calgary 57-41. The Vikettes were ahead 7-0 early and then 26-18 at the half. They extended the lead to 41-21 early in the second half. Calgary rallied to within 10 but the Vikings responded with a 10-3 run. Megan Dalziel scored 18 points on 4-6 from the line and 7 boards for Victoria, while Janet McLachlan scored 10 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Lindsay Anderson and Kim Johnson each added 10 points. The Vikings contained national player of the year Leighann Doan to 7 points on 3-18 from the floor and 10 rebounds. Jill Beker and Jennifer Goldade led Calgary with eight points apiece. Lindsay Brooke was chosen tournament MVP and player of the game for Victoria, while Goldade won the player of the game award for Calgary. Brooke was elated. “The sweatshirts too big,” she chuckled. “But I like the medal. I want to go enjoy it with my team right now.” Brooke scored only two points but dominated the floor, dished 7 assists, nabbed 4 boards and pilfered 3 balls. “She’s a role model for so many young players out there who realize they don’t have to be the top scorer to be a valuable contributor,” said Shields. “Lindsay’s our leader. Lindsay’s our heart, our soul. She’s our head. She’s the one out there who runs the team. She controls the team at both ends of the court. She’s just wonderful, very smart.” Calgary post Leighann Doan said that “when the pressure came on, we got a little tentative and back on our heels. They got us out of our comfort zone. They seemed to play very controlled.” Doan, who scored but 7 points on a 3-18 effort from the floor, added that “it’s frustrating for that to happen in a game like this. I wasn’t looking to have my best game ever. You just want to do whatever it takes. I came in with the mentality that if it takes 5 points or if it takes 50, that’s what you do. You play with a lot of emotion out there. Sometimes, that’s a good thing. Sometimes, that’s a bad thing. You need to have the opportunity to be in it once or twice, just to see what it feels like.” Kim Johnson said “it felt so neat. All of us standing together in that line, hugging, crying, just so happy to be together. … We won together. We celebrated together. It was awesome.” Shields said “the players have the thrill of the win. My feeling is more a great feeling of satisfaction that players, who last year came up a little bit short through fighting their own nerves, and ghosts, and goblins and fears, came through bigtime. That’s ultimately what you’re trying to accomplish – to get these players to play at their best in the biggest situation they’re going to face. And that’s what they did. … Taking care of business) is a very good way to say it. Today was all about business. We were focused, we had a lot of energy, but we weren’t as nervous as we’ve been in the past few years.” Megan Dalziel said the Vikes did an excellent job shutting down Doan. “Our post players did an awesome job on Leighann, and our whole team did an awesome job on Leighann. Every shot Leighann had was tough. Every look she had at the basket was tough.”
Dalziel scored 18 points on Sunday (including two three- pointers), had seven rebounds, and went four of six from the line. Both teams shot .340 from the floor but the Vikes got nearly half their points, 22, off turnovers. “You play with a lot of emotion out there. Sometimes it’s a good thing, but sometimes you can play with a little too much,” said Doan. “A lot of my shots were a little hurried, because I knew the double (team) was coming. They did a good job defensively.” Victoria kept pressure on Calgary’s big post players, forced the team into foul trouble, and closed down the offensive plays that usually allow Doan to slip within firing range. The Dinos did move within three points about halfway through the first half, and had their red-shirted fans whooping, when Joanna Holdsworth came off the bench to relieve Anderson. Holdsworth nailed a three-pointer for Victoria, and Calgary never got any closer than that. The Vikes were up 26-18 at the break. “It’s amazing, so amazing,” said Holdsworth. “I knew we were going to win. I went into the change room at the beginning, and I told the girls we were going to win. We all felt it.”
The poise shown by the Vikes was a very apparent benefit of being in the final for each of the last three years, winning in 1998, and losing last season. Calgary coach Shawnee Harle said her Dinos appeared distracted by playing in a national final. “I know what it takes, but you can only understand that as a player when you’ve actually experienced it. It’s been a great season for us. I’m not at all disappointed. We got beat by a good team tonight, and we’re going to take this game and put it in our back pockets, and use it to build on for next year.” Four minutes into the second half, the Vikes had stretched their lead to 20 points, 41-21, getting rebound after rebound to keep control of the ball. The Dinos eventually got on a bit of a roll to shrink the margin to 51-39 with five minutes remaining, but as usual, the Vikes came up with a stopper. This time it was one of Dalziel’s threes, and two free throws by McLachlan that brought Calgary up short. Shields said it was typical of her indefatigable point guard “(Dalziel’s) our leader. Our heart, our soul, our head. She’s a role model for so many young players out there who’ll realize they don’t have to be a top scorer to be a valuable contributor to their team.” Brooke called it a “great team effort. … It’s nerve-wracking out there. We just took our experience to a whole other level. We had six, seven, eight girls come in and really give us good, good minutes.” The Vikings finished the season with a (31-2) record.
The all-tourney team featured: MVP Lindsay Brooke (Victoria); Cathy Butlin (Alberta); Corrin Wersta (Regina); Janet McLachlan (Victoria); Leighann Doan (Calgary)
The bronze medalist Regina Cougars: Corrin Wersta; Heather Dedman; Becky Poley; Bree Burgess; Andrea Gottselig; Rumali Werapitiya; Christa Lapointe; Phoebe De Ciman; Crystal Heisler; Cymone Bouchard; Kaela McKaig; Tenille Kirkland; Tara-Lee Crosson; coach Christine Stapleton; assistant Dave Taylor; assistant Diane Hilko
The silver medalist Calgary Dinosaurs: Linnae Bee; Catherine Payne; Jill Bekar; Jennifer Goldade; Leighann Doan; Anna Bekkering; Rena Carriere; Alison McGinn; Laura Jablonski; Laura Fleming; Jennifer Pearson; Candace McMaster; Sarah Howard; Karen Debbink; coach Shawnee Harle; assistant Claire Mitton
The champion University of Victoria Vikettes: Lindsay Anderson; Kim Johnson; Janet McLachlan; Megan Dalziel; Lindsay Brooke; Joanna Holdsworth; Emily King; Lindsay MacDonald; Krystal O’Bryne; Kim Oslund; Kimberley Lobb; Christy Solomon; Jen Diana; coach Kathy Shields; assistant Brian Cheng