REGULAR SEASON
| U.B.C. | 16-4 | 25-5 | Bruce Enns | |||||
| Alberta | 14-6 | 24-13 | Don Horwood | |||||
| Victoria | 12-8 | 17-11 | Guy Vetrie | |||||
| Calgary | 9-11 | 15-14 | Cory Russell | |||||
| Lethbridge | 8-12 | 10-15 | Dave Crook | |||||
| Saskatchewan | 1-19 | 2-26 | Steve Roth | |||||
Playoff non-qualifiers:
Lethbridge Pronghorns: Barnaby Craddock, Tadius Lisowski, Christopher Orr, Tim Rollingson, Ryan Leier, Anthony Pomonis, David Erickson, Jared Heidinger, Curtis Bullock, John Tschritter, Joel Mueller, Robert Kain, J.R. Manson, coach Dave Crook
Saskatchewan Huskies: Robert Harris, Kevin Grandberg, Scott Ferguson, Ryan Leier, Ryan Hindmarsh, Scott Moore, Tyler Stuart, Dan Block, Stefan DaSilva, Nathan Schellenberg, Shaun Nechvatal, Jamie Charlton, Whitney Harris, coach Steve Roth
In the semis, Alberta defeated Victoria 96-68; 78-65 (2g-0). …………………………………………………… In game one, Alberta thrashed the Vikings 96-68 despite Murray Cunningham only playing 17 minutes before fouling out. “No question it was our best game of the year,” said coach Don Horwood. “Nobody in their right mind would have predicted we would beat Victoria by 28 points. It was not even in the realm of possibility.” Swingman Greg Sale helped the Bears to a quick start scoring 10 of his team’s first 14 points as Alberta jumped out to an early 18-10 lead. “Sale was outstanding tonight,” said Horwood. “When he’s playing like that we are almost unbeatable. It allows so much more room for DeVries and Knechtel.” Alberta’s defensive half court pressure was outstanding. It forced numerous turnovers that were capitalized on with easy fast break baskets. Point guard Tally Sweiss “put good pressure on the ball, made good decisions and hit the right man at the right time,” said Horwood. Sweiss was the fastest man on the court and gave Victoria rookie Allister Wilmott fits at both ends of the court. Victoria fell behind early, and never managed to get momentum on their side. Their shooting was off and the inside game, normally their strength, never got on track. Sale, a fifth-year forward from Prince George, B.C. hit 17 in the first half as Alberta raced to a 49-32 lead. He finished with 25 points, including five treys. Greg Devries led the Bears with 31. Victoria guard Andy Wilmott noted that “when we come in here we key on two or three guys ahead of him. So when he (Sale) shoots the lights out like that, you know you’re not going to beat them. That guy was key to their team tonight.” Sale nailed five threes. Victoria’s Jeff Bevington, who scored 14, noted that “we just didn’t execute our stuff and we just got outplayed outworked.” Alberta coach Don Horwood said Sale was critical. “We know that Greg Devries is going to be there. The surprise was that we didn’t get Murray to play more than he did. (Mark) Humphrey played fabulous coming in off the bench and did an outstanding job for us. But when Sale plays like that, we’re almost unbeatable because we’ve got so many weapons.” Alberta hit 10-17 from the arc, while Victoria was 2.10. Peter Knechtel also scored 15, while nabbing 12 boards. Tally Sweiss dished 15 assists. Patrick Cannon added 14 for the Vikes.
…………………………………………………… In game two, ‘Bam’ Cunningham tossed in 29 points and grabbed 8 boards to annihilate the Vikings. “Murray just wanted the chance to play,” said Alberta coach Don Horwood. “He’s tough when he gets a chance to play.” The game was a physical affair as Victoria’s Greg Meldrum, Jeff Bevington and Eric Hinrichsen battled Cunningham for position inside the paint. Cunningham put his off-season football training to good use in creating openings for himself that led to easy baskets. Alberta went on a quiet run at the eight-minute mark of the second half with Greg Sale and Greg DeVries hitting outside jumpers to extend their lead to 58-42. Cunningham, from Mannville, Alberta, said “I’m not thinking of Halifax just yet. I’d sure love to have a league championship back and those guys from UBC are not my favorite people.” With Alberta leading 19-16, Cunningham hit his fourth bucket on a great feed from Marc Semeniuk. He then blocked Vic’s Greg Meldrum on the other end of the floor to ignite 1,785 fans at Varsity gym. Came down the floor and hit another bucket. Alberta stretched its lead to 45-36 at the half with Cunningham scoring 18. “He was a horse tonight,” said Victoria coach Guy Vetrie. “There’s no doubt he was the difference. Horwood noted “how could you believe we beat them by 28 (on Saturday) without Murray? You can see what he does out there. He’s a horse.” Semeniuk nailed three threes in the first half. Peter Knechtel finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Shots simply wouldn’t drop for UVic when they needed them most. The Vikes trailed 45-36 at the half and were within seven, at 66-59, with the ball and four minutes left in the game but could get no closer. UVic was forced to foul in the dying minutes in an attempt to catch the Bears which increased the final margin as Alberta iced the game at the free-throw line. “We didn’t have a great effort [in Saturday’s opener] but we had a really good effort tonight,” assistant coach Thom Gillespie said. “We were getting open looks [at the basket] but the ball just wouldn’t drop.” Guard Greg DeVries scored 16 for the Bears. Peter Knechtel added 12. Chris McClean led UVic with 18 points in the loss while Greg Meldrum added 15. Sophomore forward Eric Hinrichsen had a 10-point, 10-rebound effort.
In the other semi, U.B.C. defeated Calgary 143-133; 102-96 (2g-0). …………………………………………………… In game one, U.B.C. prevailed 143-133 in double overtime as Ken Morris scored 36, including nine in overtime. John Dumont added 37, including eight in overtime. Calgary’s Jeff Johnson had drilled a trey at the buzzer to force the extra session. Richard Bohne led Calgary with 46 and 11 assists. Craig Newman added 23. “We were lucky to win,” said the Birds all-star guard Ken Morris – – nursing a dislocated pinkie finger on his shooting hand – in what both was and was not an exaggeration. With CIAU shooting champion Richard Bohne firing the scoreboard with his three-point bombs after the interval, the Dinos overcame a 10-point, late-first-half deficit. The Dinos trailed 111-108 with 18 seconds to go and the Birds’ defence sticking to Bohne like a magnet as he hovered in three-point land. He finally dished off to late-game sub Jeff Johnson, who calmly canned a 20-foot jumper with five seconds to play. The Birds, led by Morris and John Dumont from outside and Brady Ibbetson and Curtis Mepham inside, were up by as much as four points in the first extra period, but Bohne was unstoppable from downtown. He tied the game 124-124 with a massive 25-footer with 30 seconds remaining, then, with time running out, the Dinos’ Sandor Kiss, under defensive pressure, followed his own miss and banked a two-footer that hit the rim, rolled to the front and somehow didn’t drop. With Bohne in foul trouble, the Birds kept attacking and forced his fifth with 50 seconds to play and the score 137-133 for UBC. The Birds patiently ran out the clock. “Bohne just causes so many defensive problems,” said U.B.C. coach Bruce Enns, “because you forget to guard the other people. It’s disastrous.” Curtis Mepham and Brady Ibbetson tallied 18 points and eight rebounds each. …………………………………………………… In game two, U.B.C. outgunned Calgary 102-96 as Ken Morris scored 22. Brady Ibbetson added 17. Richard Bohne led Calgary with 42. Craig Newman added 17. Morris and CIAU scoring champ Richard Bohne put on offensive clinics. With six other Birds scoring in double figures, Saturday’s game should not have been so close once UBC rallied behind Morris’s take-it-to-the hoop assault, mainly because Bohne did not get the shooting support he received on Friday. But a brutal display of free throw shooting in the clutch – 10 missed Bird shots in the last 2:56 – kept the crowd on the edges of its seats. “We’ll probably have a practice tomorrow to shoot free throws,” said Morris, the Saskatoon native. “We’ve been playing a little tense, maybe it’s because of the No. 1 ranking.”
In the finals, U.B.C. defeated Alberta 79-78; 84-66 (2g-0).
In game one, the Thunderbirds prevailed 79-78 as John Dumont hit a field goal with 9.3 seconds to go. The Golden Bears had been ahead 46-32 at the half and were up by as many as 20 when U.B.C. rallied late in the second half. Ken Morris paced the Thunderbirds with 19, while 6-7 Curtis Mepham added 15. The Bears were led by Greg Devries’ 33. The final margin was only U.B.C.’s second lead of the game. It was the Bird’s lowest scoring output of the season. “That’s incredible,” said T-Bird John Dumont, a 6-5 guard, who scored 14. “I knew we needed a big score and I could see them double-teaming Ken (Morris). I didn’t really think about what I was doing, I was just in a zone.” Alberta would have one last-gasp effort as Greg DeVries, the top scorer on the night with 33 points, tried a 15-footer from the right corner. But the ball slid off the rim and a mad scramble on the floor ran down the last two seconds, setting off pandemonium in the 2,000-strong crowd. “The team showed a lot of character, added Dumont. “It shows people across the country that UBC will never give up.” Morris led the T-Birds with 19. UBC trailed 61-41 with 13:12 to play. But some tenacious defence, two three-point bombs from quicksilver guard Gerald Cole and two key turnovers turned it around. “It was a tremendous way to win a ball game,” said UBC head coach Bruce Enns.
In game two, U.B.C. completed the sweep with a 84-66 victory as Ken Morris scored 29, including 21 in the second half, while Gerald Cole scored two clutch three pointers to put the game out of Alberta’s reach; “I think we just wore them out,” said U.B.C.’s Bruce Enns. The T’Birds led 39-33 at the half. Murray Cunningham and Peter Knechtel paced the Bears with 16 apiece.
The co-bronze medalist Victoria Vikes: Eric Hinrichsen; Chris McClean; Andy Wilmott; Jeff Bevington; Patrick Cannon; Allister Wilmott; Shawn King; Matthew Loveless; Colin Cunningham; Dan McMillan; Joel Neilson; coach Guy Vetrie; assistant Thom Gillespie
The co-bronze medalist Calgary Dinos: Richard Bohne; Craig Newman; Sandor Kiss; Errol Jarrett; Josh Goertzen; Kieron Warren; Kevin Bryan; Mark Wiebe; Steve Winkelmann; Jeff Johnson; Matt Rogers; Colin Inman; Russell Marquart; Greg Montgomery; coach Cory Russell
The runner-up Alberta Golden Bears: Greg Devries; Murray Cunningham; Peter Knechtel; Greg Sale; Darren Semeniuk; Marc Semeniuk; Mikel Schmidt; Tally Sweiss; Jeff Collier; Mark Humphrey; Stephen Curran; Vern Gerhardt; coach Don Horwood
The champion University of British Columbia Thunderbirds: Mark Tinholt; Curtis Mepham; John Dumont; Ken Morris; David Buchanan; Gerald Cole; Brady Ibbetson; Joel Nickel; Darcy Deutscher; Jeff Sharma; Vital Peeters; Paul Unruh; Eric Butler; coach Bruce Enns