REGULAR SEASON
| Alberta | 18-2 | 33-8 | Don Horwood | |||||
| Victoria | 13-7 | 15-9 | Guy Vetrie | |||||
| U.B.C. | 10-10 | 14-12 | Bruce Enns | |||||
| Calgary | 7-13 | 12-15 | Gary Howard | |||||
| Lethbridge | 6-14 | Dave Crook | ||||||
| Saskatchewan | 6-14 | 9-19 | Steve Roth | |||||
Playoff non-qualifiers:
Lethbridge Pronghorns: Danny Balderson, Harpal Manhas, Brad Krizan, Jack McMurray, Darren Miller, Jason Czarny, Brian Kannekens, Tad Lisowski, Mike Pajic, Joey deWit, Michael Mulholland, Mike Hansen, coach Dave Crook
Saskatchewan Huskies: Brad Schoenfeld, Scot Moore, Dan Block, Ryan Hindmarsh, Shaun Nechvatal, Scott Ferguson, John Lewis, Whitney Harris, Kevin Grandberg, Dean Wiebe, Nathan Peter, Jamie Dickson, Barclay Patterson, coach Steve Roth
In the semis, Alberta defeated Calgary 74-81; 96-83; 84-80 (2g-1). …………………………………………………… In game one, Calgary prevailed 81-74 as Richard Bohne scored 20, including 6-17 from the floor and 8-8 from the line. Centre Jeff Smith added 19, Jamie Mulholland 13, Brad Gallup 9, McKenzie 2, Craig Newman 12 and Dibb 6. Greg Badger scored 3 for Alberta, Tally Swiess 4, Scott Karaim 9, Jay Johnstone 5, Scott Martell 14, Greg Devries 18, Clayton Pottinger 7, Greg Sale 3 and Murray Cunningham 11. “Somebody wrote on the blackboard in our dressing room, ‘they were hungrier’. That was probably true. They were full marks for the win,” said Alberta coach Don Horwood. “They went after the ball harder. They worked a little harder at times and they just beat us.” The second-ranked Bears had beaten the (7-13) Dinnies four times during the regular season by an average of 20 points. “It’s a crazy league,” said Calgary coach Gary Howard. “For my money, we just beat the best basketball team in the country. We don’t worry about what people say. But let’s face it. They have reason to be confident. Our first focus was to stay in the game with them. We didn’t want to get like we did up here earlier this season. If you stay close, playoffs are a funny thing and you never know.” Said centre Jeff Smith: “No team goes 18-2 in this conference without being very good. We stole one. They’re expected to win and we’re not. I think that helped us. We’re pretty loose. The pressure is on them.” The Bears were ahead 41-37 at the half. Calgary took the lead in the second but the Bears never recovered. “It’s not time to wave pom-poms yet,” said Howard. “We’re on a business trip. Now, we close the deal.” Howard said the Dinosaurs balanced attack and defensive box-outs proved the difference. Horwood said “Jeff Smith dominated us. … He probably missed a lot of shots but the problem was as soon as he missed the shot, he would just go and get it and put it back in.” …………………………………………………… In game two, the Bears came out snarling and won easily 96-83. “We had the intensity that we didn’t have yesterday,” said coach Don Horwood. “Obviously, to use all the clichés, when your backs are against the wall and you’re trapped, you either do it or you don’t. There wasn’t a lot of chit-chat. It was fairly quiet in the dressing room, no joking around. When I went in, somebody had written on the board: ‘we are hungrier’. I don’t know how.” Calgary coach Gary Howard said the Bears intensity was greater. “They took it to us pretty well but we expected that.” Murray Cunningham paced Alberta with 20 while shutting down Jeff Smith in the paint. Alberta forced 24 Calgary turnovers. Richard Bohne led Calgary with 36. Horwood said “I just told them that we had to come out harder. We have to play a lot more aggressively.” …………………………………………………… In game three, Alberta prevailed 84-80. “The character of our guys has never been in doubt,” said coach Don Horwood after watching his Bears win two straight, having dropped the series opener. “We’ve maybe been tentative at times. But we’re not lazy and we don’t have swollen heads like was said. We’re a tight group and we feel very positive about each other. There’s a very strong bond there.” Bear center Murray Cunningham credited the Dinosaurs with playing hard. “They pushed us. Physically, we’re a little beat up. But mentally, this is a big boost. They showed how good a team they are and we had to be our very best or we just weren’t going to win.” Cunningham finished with 20. The Bears let 51-34 at the half and appeared to be in total command. But the Dinos got hot in the second half. “I was absolutely amazed, shocked actually that they came back in the second half,” said Horwood. “I did not think it was possible for a team to come back from 17 on us after the way we have played all year.” Horwood took a timeout with eight minutes to play. “Basically, I said ‘okay guys, there is a lot of time left. There is no reason to panic. Just relax the do the things we did in the first half, have a little more patience on offence and pick up the defensive intensity’.” Down the stretch, Jeff Smith was about to dunk to rally within two but Clayton Pottinger rotated over and blocked the shot, ripping the ball out of Smith’s hands. “That definitely may have been the game saver for us,” said Horwood.
In the other semi, UBC stunned Victoria 82-81; 89-87 (2g-0). …………………………………………………… In game one, the Birds lined up Derek Christiansen and Bob Heighton at forward, along with Randy Ellis and Brian Tait at the guards while pulling out an 82-81 win in overtime. UVic led by as many as 12 points before letting the tough T-Birds battle back. A pair of free throws by guard Jason Wubs with 16.8 seconds left in the five-minute overtime session gave UBC what proved to be the winning edge, putting the Birds up 82-79. A baseline three-point attempt by Colin Brousson with just two seconds remaining that would have tied the game rimmed out. Vikes forward Pat Cannon tipped in the rebound as time expired but it wasn’t enough for the disappointed UVic bench. UBC forward Derek Christiansen had earlier forced overtime by scoring on a twisting, leaning jumper with 24 seconds left in regulation. Christiansen led UBC with 24 points while fellow forward Bob Heighton had 23 including a couple of monster dunks. Greg Meldrum paced UVic with 21 points while Todd Langley added 19, 16 of them in the first half. …………………………………………………… In game two, U.B.C. eked out an 89-87 win over the host Vikings at McKinnon Gymnasium. Greg Meldrum missed a trey at the buzzer that rimmed in and out. “It felt great,” said Meldrum. “I thought it was going in, but I guess that kind of sums up the end of the season for us. Close, but we just came up shy. It’s a hard thing to accept when all your training and effort for the whole year comes down to one last- second shot. It was probably the closest game that I have ever been associated with. Obviously, anybody who watched it knows that both teams were as intense as could be. To say that UBC had more jam [than us], I think, is unfair.” UBC forward Bob Heighton converted a three-point play with 8.3 seconds remaining to give the Thunderbirds the decision. Heighton’s twisting, underhanded shot hung on the rim for a micro-second before eventually falling in. A subsequent foul by UVic’s Pat Cannon on the play gave Heighton a free-throw, which he potted to put his team up by two in the see-saw playoff thriller. UVic got the ball upcourt and called a timeout with 5.1 seconds left. The Vikes got off a decent shot, too, but their playoff dreams ended when Meldrum’s running jumper spun teasingly around the rim twice before bouncing harmlessly away. Heighton was elated. “We knew when we came in here that it would be a tough series and we knew that we had the potential to win. We just battled hard and things fell our way.” Fifth-year forward Derek Christiansen led UBC with a terrific 19-point, 14-rebound effort. Heighton chipped in with 12, including the game-clincher, which appeared to be tossed up with his left hand. “I can’t even remember, to be honest,” said the UBC forward. “As soon as I got the ball, I was just going to the basket and hoping something good would happen. It did.” The result was tough to swallow for the Vikes were led by the 22-point performance of Brian Livingston and Todd Langley’s 16-point, seven-assist night.
In the finals, Alberta defeated U.B.C. 95-89; 94-89 (2g-0).
In game one, first place Alberta defeated (10-10) U.B.C. 95-89 after trailing late in the game by an 87-86 count. Greg Devries and Greg Sale promptly hit three-pointers to give Alberta the lead and the victory. Scott Martell, from Edmonton Eastglen, scored 21 for the Bears. Sale added 16 and Murray Cunningham 15. U.B.C. was paced by Derek Christiansen 18, Ken Morris 14 and Brian Tait 13. “It’s more fun when you win,” noted Scott Martell. “This is what it’s all about, right down to the wire. Whew!” Alberta coach Don Horwood said the T-Birds “forced us to play very well. If we didn’t there was no way were going to win the ball game. I thought UBC played extremely well. It was a great ball game. Every time we thought we might get a little spurt on them, bang, they’d come back at us. If we weren’t at our best, we had to be pretty close to it.” Alberta trailed 44-41 at the half. They pulled ahead 56-55 after five minutes in the second half. The score was knotted at 62 midway through the half and the Bears led 80-77 with five minutes on the clock. “Our guys have really pulled together,” said UBC coach Bruce Enns. “We’re a very worthy bunch but the Bears are tough to stop. They were just a little better when it counted and that was the difference in the game.” Greg Sale hit two treys in the final five minutes, including one with two minutes to play to give Alberta a 92-87 lead. “Sale saved our butts,” said Horwood. “We can’t relax now because that’s a good team over there and they’re going to come back after us the same way again. I know those guys and they’ve got a lot of heart.” UBC guard Ken Morris said “for whatever reason, we had a defensive lapse at the end and it cost us.” Alberta guard Greg Devries said “the difference in the game was DeVries and (Greg) Sale knocking down the big shots.
In game two, freshman Greg Sale came off the bench to score 23 points, hit four treys and nab 11 boards as Alberta defeated U.B.C. 94-89. Scott Martell added 14 and Edmonton Ross Shepherd product Greg Badger 13. Derek Christiansen led the T’Birds with 25 and 9 boards. Brian Tait added 21. Going into the finals, Alberta was hoping to contain fifth-year guard Ken Morris, the most despised player in the league. “Nobody likes him that much, not even from other teams,” said Bears post Murray Cunningham. Bears guard Greg Devries added “put it this way. Because of his attitude, you don’t want to see him do well. But he is a talented player. I just really don’t appreciate his attitude on the court.” Added Alberta guard Greg Sale: “he’s just not a classy guy.” Morris countered that “I don’t take anything personally on the court. If I get under their skin, that’s their problem.” Forecasted Sale: “we’ll probably deny him the ball a lot, double team him maybe, and rough him up a little bit.” The Bears also featured Jay Johnstone, a Kelowna product who played two years at Cariboo College in Kamloops before joining the bears. Referees noted blood on T-Bird guard Brian Tait’s shorts in the final minutes, the product of an abrasion on his wrist. They stopped the game as it’s against CIAU rules to play with an open wound or blood on your uniform. UBC coach Bruce Enns went to work. Instead of taking Tait out, Enns ran on to the floor, yanked Tait’s shorts off on the spot, then threw him a clean pair from the bench as a crowd of more than 2,200 howled. Said Tait: “It didn’t bother me, really. I knew about the open wound rule, but I didn’t expect to lose my shorts. … It wasn’t planned, I guarantee that.” Enns said the Bears deserved the win. “We played very well, but they earned it. They were the best team all year. … So many guys were playing well but tonight, Badger was the difference.” Alberta coach Don Horwood said Sale’s effort of the bench was exceptional. “All year long we’ve had guys come off the bench and get the job done. Game after game, it’s been different guys. … I can’t say enough about our guys. … I mean, both games were perfect examples of what our guys have been able to do. When it’s been tough, they’ve been able to do what they’d had to win the game.” Jay Johnston drilled a trey with two seconds on the clock to give Alberta a seven-point lead at the half.
The co-bronze medalist Calgary Dinos: Richard Bohne; Brad Gallup; Kieron Warren; Jeff Smith; Jamie Mulholland; Sandor Kiss; Colin Inman; Hugh McKenzie; Craig Newman; Stephane Rochet; James Verway; Richard Dibb; coach Gary Howard
The co-bronze medalist Victoria Vikings: Brian Livingston; Todd Langley; Colin Brousson; Jeremy Harris; Pat Cannon; Casey Olynyk; Jeff Bevington; Mike Parkins; Shawn King; Greg Meldrum; Colin Martin; Drew Hyndman; coach Guy Vetrie
The runner-up University of British Columbia Thunderbirds: Randy Ellis; Eric Butler; Jason Gordon; Michael Oord; Mark Tinholt; Ken Morris; Pat Inglis; Derek Christiansen; Jason Wubs; Jeremy Morrow; Bob Heighton; Brian Tait; Trevor McLeod; coach Bruce Enns
The champion Alberta Golden Bears: Greg DeVries; Scott Martell; Greg Sale; Murray Cunningham; Greg Badger; Tally Sweiss; Marc Semeniuk; Scott Karaim; Clayton Pottinger; Jay Johnstone; Peter Knechtel; Jeff Collier; coach Don Horwood