| (1) | Dawson | 76 | ||||||
| (8) | Humber | 87 | Humber | 93 | ||||
| (4) | Mount Royal | 98 | Mount Royal | 63 | Humber | 55 | ||
| (5) | Mt. St. Vincent | 61 | ||||||
| —–DURHAM | ||||||||
| (2) | Langara | 73 | ||||||
| (7) | Grant MacEwan | 82 | Grant MacEwan | 67 | Durham | 66 | ||
| (3) | Durham | 75 | Durham | 75 | ||||
| (6) | Malaspina | 63 |
In the quarterfinals, held in Vancouver, the 4th-seeded Mount Royal Cougars pounded the Mount St. Vincent Mystics 98-61 as they began their hunt for their first national title since 1979. The 4th-seeded Cougars fell behind 15-6 at the seven-minute mark but finally overcame their jitters after a 15-minute delay was imposed on the players to repair shot clocks. Mount Royal came out of the extended break and built a 51-39 lead at the half. Player of the game Troy Gedlaman led the Cougars with 17 points. Ryan Tanner added 12, along with 11 boards. Todd Hirtle paced Mount St. Vincent with 14. “I thought they’d give us a better game,” Gedlaman told the Calgary Herald. “In the second half, it was like they almost packed up and we home. We pressed for the first half and got to the point where we didn’t need to anymore. I don’t think they’ve ever seen anything like that out there. They’re not used to 40 minutes of pressure.” Mark Clarke added 13 for the Mystics. “I don’t know what happened,” said Mystics coach Rick Plato. “We stopped moving and we looked like two totally different teams. Mount Royal went on a surge. They got the loose balls. We went out and made 24 turnovers. We missed foul shots and shot 32 per cent. They played tough. I’m really disappointed. We were pressing a doing a good job but when we needed our seniors to take over and give us leadership, we didn’t get it. In my nine years of coaching this is the worst I’ve seen my team play. When you put it all together, they just spanked us.”
The 8th-seeded wildcard Humber Hawks stunned the top-seeded Dawson Blues, coached by Olga Hrycak, 87-76. The Blues led 22-18 after one quarter. “We were nervous in the first half and that showed in our play,” Hawks coach Mike Katz told The Coven. Humber took its first lead at 25-24 on a Stephan Barrie trey and they extended their edge to 45-38 at the half. They opened the second half with a 25-11 run to take command. The Blues ripped off a 6-0 run to draw within 60-54 but the Hawks kept their poise and Rowan Beckford hit a pair of treys to maintain a comfortable margin for Humber. “This team has showed time and time again that they are like an elastic. We bend and stretch but we don’t break,” said Katz. “We really played better in the second half. We rebounded better and Jason Daley played like an All-Canadian,” Katz said. “Our top five starters put in quality minutes tonight.” Jason Daley paced the Hawks with 25. Adrian Clarke added 15, Stephan Barrie 15, O’Neil Marshall 13 and Rowan Beckford 12. Hawks guard Patrick Nelson said “that was no upset, we came here expecting to win this game.”
The 3rd-seeded Durham Lords dumped the 6th-seeded Malaspina Mariners 75-63 as player of the game Delawn Grandison scored 23 and Augusto Duquesne 17. Lords coach Kerry Vinson told The Chronicle that Trevor Challenger also “stepped up. He hasn’t played this much this year but came in and hit a couple of big threes. I just had a feeling that this was going to be his day.” Patrick Lowen led the Mariners with 26. Greg Bateson added 13. Durham took command with a 12-0 run early in the second half. Mariners manager Mark Duffield told the Nanaimo Daily News that “when we did run the offence, we were able to score. But we just weren’t able to run it enough.” The Lords led 37-34 at the half. The Mariners notched 12 steals but committed 19 turnovers.
In the last quarterfinal, the 7th-seeded Grant MacEwan Griffins clipped the 2nd-seeded Langara Falcons 82-73.
In the bronze quarterfinals, the Dawson Blues dumped the Mount St. Vincent Mystics 88-79.
In the other bronze quarterfinal, the Langara Falcons dusted the Malaspina Mariners 87-78. Patrick Lowen led the Mariners with 21. Colin Vigilance added 14, Tim Munro 12, Robert Hart 11 and Greg Bateson 10. The score was knotted at 37 at the half.
In the semis, the 8th-seeded Humber Hawks hammered the 4th-seeded Mount Royal Cougars 93-63 with a stellar display of perimeter shooting, particularly by Stephan Barrie and Rowan Beckford. “Our game plan was to pack the middle and not let them have easy points inside,” Mount Royal coach Ron Wuotila told the Calgary Herald. “But they were very warm from the perimeter and we were cold. We were capable of beating them. We just didn’t perform well.” Player of the game Rowan Beckford paced the Hawks with 24. Jason Daley added 14. Ryan Mulholland led the Cougars with 16. The Hawks depth off the bench was also instrumental in the win. Al St. Louis scored 13 of his 16 in the first half for the Hawks. Humber’s man-to-man defence also denied the Cougars any looks in the paint. “We did everything right. Our defence was great,” Hawks centre James Ashbaugh told The Coven. “It was the most complete game we’ve played all year.” The Hawks led 50-35 at the half and opened the second frame with a 20-8 run to take total command. Jeremy Murray said “it’s all D, baby.”
In the other semi, the Durham Lords dispatched the Grant MacEwan Griffins 75-67 as player of the game Bill Crowdis scored 16, nabbed 9 boards and pilfered 6 balls. Cuban sensation Augusto Duquesne added 14, along with 11 boards, and Shawn Nicely 10.
In the bronze semis, the Langara Falcons outlasted the Mount Royal Cougars 107-100. Troy Gedlaman led the Cougars with 33. Sam Salter added 29.
In the other bronze semi, the Dawson Blues defeated the Grant MacEwan Griffins 100-93.
In the bronze medal match, the 2nd-seeded Langara Falcons defeated the top-seeded Dawson Blues 104-79. “The third-place game is bittersweet,” Langara standout Louis Johnson, the 6-foot-3 shooting guard who led the Richmond Colts to the Triple A boys’ basketball provincial championship in 1991, told The Province. “We all know that we should be in the final game.” Things were tight for much of the first half, and Langara carried a slim 43-37 lead into the intermission. But, paced by the long-range exploits of sweet-shooting Johnson, the Falcons went on an 18-5 run to start the second to take command at 61-42. Dawson got to within 12 points with 11:03 remaining but Johnson promptly nailed a couple of three-pointers to put the game away Johnson, who finished with 40 points, was named the player of the game. Dawson athletic director John Davidson was pleased with the Blues effort. “Our guys did very well considering we have eight rookies in our line-up and were pretty much worn down by the 13-hour trip out west.”
In the final, the 3rd-seeded Durham Lords defeated the 8th-seeded Humber Hawks 66-55. The Lords told The Chronicle they were confident heading into the championship bout, having previously defeated Humber 5 of 6 times during the season, including the OCAA central division final (75-60) and the OCAA final (57-52). The Lords led 40-32 at the half. Lords assistant Bob Marsh said “we told the team at half-time that it’s a long flight home and that we’re sharing the flight with Humber. If we don’t win it’s going to be a long four hours. Mentally and psychologically we are 20 minutes away from being national champions.” Lords coach Kerry Vinson “we started to work real hard for this goal in the middle of September and worked hard every week, putting in hundreds and hundreds of hours. I told them we have to play hard for 40 more minutes and we’ll get it. Then half-time we’re up and I said we have to play hard for 20 more minutes and we’ll do it. … We held Humber to 55 points. They scored 100 against Mount Royal the other day and we held them to 55 points.” Lords guard Tom Cory said “it all came down that we wanted it more. We’re the best team in Canada and that’s what we worked for. We worked hard to get here and win this. When we got here, I knew we wouldn’t lose. It didn’t matter who we played against.” Shane Nicely was chosen most valuable player of the championship game for the second straight year. Nicely said “this national championship is great but it won’t feel real until I get that ring on my finger. This was a team victory and I’m loving it right now. I also want to dedicate this win and the award to my baby girl Kiera.” Lords post Bill Crowdis said “This feels fantastic. I knew everything would work out for us. A national championship is something we were gunning for since the beginning of the year. Today we did it.” Vinson said that “was no doubt” that winning a national title made it his greatest day in coaching. “We overcame some chemistry problems, academic eligibility problems, a stretch of games where we lost three in a row by a combined total of four points to be here today. The college did a great job of supporting us all year.” Assistant Bob Marsh said “they really wanted this title. We wanted it really, really bad. That was the difference. We stepped up big time.” Tournament MVP Delawn Grandison said “we worked so hard for this all year. We deserve this.” Chris Davey said “we did this as a team. Even though guys were named all-stars and all-Canadians, we did this thing together as an all-team. This is a special team. We are an alliance that will never be formed again.” Hawks forward O’Neill Marshall told the Coven that “Augusto (Duquesne) is just so much bigger that he got clean looks all game.” Hawks coach Mike Katz said “we had to dictate the pace of the game. We were a little successful when we did. But we seemed reluctant to go after them and when we did, it was too late or we did not have the energy.” A late 11-3 run gave Durham a 40-28 lead with two minutes to play in the first half. But Stephan Barrie notched a four-point play to cut the margin to 40-32 at the half. “We just didn’t hit our shots. They had too many big guns that hit their shots,” said Hawk guard Revi Williams. Durham’s Shane Nicely blocked three straight shots as the Lords took command to start the second half, holding Humber scoreless for four minutes. A late 13-1 Hawks run proved meaningless. Jason Daley and Al St. Louis each scored 13 to pace the Hawks. “This was a team that knew what it took for them to play at their best,” said Katz. “They followed detailed plays well and practiced hard five to six days in a row at times. Who would have thought, back in September, we’d be in a national final? … These guys bonded well and liked each other. Hey,
sometimes it’s the journey, not the outcome, that is most important.”
The all-tourney team featured: MVP Delawn Grandison (Durham); Jason Daley (Humber); Stephen Barrie (Humber); Augusto Duquesne (Durham); Louis Johnson (Langara); and Rodwins Auriantal (Dawson)
The bronze medalist Langara Falcons: Louis Johnson; Lee Craven; Aaron Mitchell; Brad Berikoff; coach Kevin Hanson
The silver medalist Humber Hawks: Rowan Beckford; Al St. Louis; Jason Daley; Adrian Clarke; O’Neil Marshall; Stephan Barrie; Revi Williams; Patrick Nelson; Jeremy Murray; Churne Nwobosi; Greg Grant; James Ashbaugh; Chris Aim; David Cobrie; Robert Chambers; coach Mike Katz
The gold medalist Durham Lords: Shane Nicely; Delawn Grandison; Bill Crowdis; Augusto Duquesne; Tyrone Smith; Kenrick Hopkinson; Patrick McKoy; Sandy Jeffrey; Lester Jones; Trevor Challenger; Kevin Johnson; Adrian Gray; Thomas Cory; Kevin Tatem; Chris Davey; Kevin Williams; Sidney Zigah; Sean Stewart; Mike Grant; Jason Edmonds; coach Kerry Vinson; assistant Bob Marsh; manager Bill Leron; trainer Don Conant; assistant athletic director Ken Babcock