REGULAR SEASON
| Victoria | 17-3 | 27-11 | Guy Vetrie | |||||
| Alberta | 14-6 | 33-11 | Don Horwood | |||||
| Lethbridge | 13-7 | 20-11 | Dave Crook | |||||
| U.B.C. | 11-9 | 16-12 | Bruce Enns | |||||
| Calgary | 4-16 | 4-16 | Cory Russell | |||||
| Saskatchewan | 1-19 | 3-28 | Greg Jockims | |||||
Playoff non-qualifiers:
Calgary Dinosaurs: Donny Marchuk, Shawn Stetson, Wes Jickling, Troy Gedlaman, Brad Gallup, Chris Harris, Eli Quintana, Josh Goertzen, Guy Da Silva, Bryan Place, Richie Gill, Richard Wiebach, Adam Begley, Derry O’Connor, Jared Bly, coach Cory Russell
Saskatchewan Huskies: Ryan Leier, Darcy Bergrren, Wade Bourassa, Paul Seipp, Jamie Dickson, Devin Reeve, Paul Kazakoff, Seth Lang, Steve Berschaminski, Vance Verhoeven, Scott Gordon, Brett Czarnota, Luke Syme, Mohammed Wilson, coach Steve Jockims
In the semis, Alberta defeated Lethbridge 80-60; 77-82; 73-66 (2g-1). …………………………………………………… In game one, Alberta prevailed 80-60 as Nick Maglisceau scored 19 and nabbed 14 boards. Point guard Jason Maher dominated off the bench. “I’ve been waiting for an opportunity and I took advantage of it. I finally had a good game.” Alberta coach Don Horwood said “Jay came on and really played well for us. For a team to be successful, you have to use the team and I thought tonight the guys coming off the bench played very well.” …………………………………………………… In game two, Lethbridge eked out an 82-77 win. Alberta led 40-37 at half. Nick Maglisceau scored 30 points and nabbed 8 boards for Alberta. Spencer Holt notched 22 for the Pronghorns. With the score knotted at 66 with 5:36 to play, Lethbridge ripped eight unanswered points, including five by Chris Wile, to pull out the win. “The difference is we worked the ball around a lot better,” said Horns guard Spencer Holt. “Yesterday, we were kind of stagnant. That’s why we were so cold. Today we had a lot better movement. We were a little more intense. I guess when it’s on the line, you don’t have a choice.” Alberta’s Chris Horwood drilled a trey and then stole the ball to notch a layup to bring Alberta within 76-74. But Wilde hit another pair of free throws to ice it. Pronghorns coach Dave Crook said “we were pretty confident coming in. We had an upbeat (morning shootaround). We weren’t down at all.” Nick Maglisceau scored 30 and nabbed 8 boards for Alberta. Pronghorn guard said “when it’s do or die, you have to let everything out on the line and no one wants their season to end early.” …………………………………………………… In game three, Alberta prevails 73-66. Both teams nationally ranked but expectation was that only winner would get national tourney invitations. Alberta took 29-28 lead at half in tight, defensive affair. Pronghorns held Alberta to .217 from floor in first half, 20 lead changes in game Alta took 55-50 lead with seven minutes to play. Stretched lead to 66-55. But Lethbridge rallied to within 68-66 with a minute to play off an 11-2 run. Danny Balderson stole ball with 20.4 seconds to play. Spencer Holt drove for layup but no foul called. Ryan Dunkley, who’d missed his first five shots in a frigid first half, was fouled with 19 seconds to play and iced the win by draining both free throws. “I’m not a great free throw shooter by any means. But for some reason, when I went up there, I had no doubt in my mind that I would make them. I just thought: I have to make these.” Dunkley said his frigid first half was a function of thinking each game might be his last. “I’ve been having butterflies for the last week. Coach Don Horwood tells you not to think about it, but it’s hard not to think that your career could be over. I couldn’t imagine it being over. It would have too disappointing. Just thinking about it, I got freaked out.” Golden Bear guard Max Darrah noted that it was time to “put up or shut up. You could see the intensity out there. Guys were pushing and shoving. It was great win. Both teams back were to the wall. Everybody was giving everything they had out there.” Lethbridge coach Dave Crook called it “disappointing. We wanted to win, to go to Vic and the CIAUs. We gave ourselves a good opportunity to win the game. We controlled the play and had a good game. Basically, we came up two points short.” Nick Maglisceau led Alberta with 20 points 17 rebounds, 3 steals and 5 blocks. Ryan Baldry added 18 points and 10 boards. Stephen Parker 9 points and 3 steals. “It feels fantastic,” said graduating captain Ryan Dunkley. “We had to win it. It was my last game in this gym and I was winning no matter what.” Bears coach Don Horwood said “I was before the game, ‘hey guys, you’ve watched for years, the seventh game of the Stanley Cup, the seventh game of the NBA. This is our seventh game.” Ryan Baldry iced it with a two-handed dunk. “Actually, I didn’t know it was that close to running out of time. I thought I had enough time for sure.” The Bears had shot a dismal .210 in the sloppy first half. “Our guys wouldn’t quit,” Horwood said. “I respect (Lethbridge) because they don’t quit and our guys showed exactly the same kind of character. …. Nick’s a tower of strength. He’s getting beat up in there. They were all over them.” Spencer Holt led Lethbridge with 21 points and 6 rebounds. Danny Balderson added 15 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals, while Ryan Hall had 9 points, 4 assists and 3 steals. The Bears hit 34 free throws, while Lethbridge notched 20.
In the other semi, Victoria defeats UBC 78-68; 72-65 (2g-0). …………………………………………………… In game one, Victoria prevailed 78-68. Dominic Zimmerman paced U.B.C. with 14. …………………………………………………… In game two, Victoria defeated U.B.C. 72-65 as Raphael Chillious-Carter iced it at the free throw line in the final minute. With UVic leading 68-65 before another packed crowd of about 2,500 at McKinnon Gymnasium, UBC’s three-point attempt to tie clanged off the iron with 25 seconds remaining. Chillious-Carter, a conference second team all- star, got to the ensuing loose ball and was fouled. “They used to call me Tasmanian Devil as a kid because of my tenacity when I played,” the Maryland native said. “They said I was like a water bug all over the floor.” Chillious-Carter coolly canned both free throws. “I didn’t even think about the pressure,” said the guard, who had 16 points. “It’s just me and the basket. I take a breath and clear my mind.” Conference MVP Eric Hinrichsen led UVic with 22 points.
In the finals, Alberta defeated Victoria 67-66; 52-69; 56-51 (2g-1).
In game one, Alberta edged host Victoria 67-66 in a match between the top two ranked teams in the country. Trailing by two but with the ball after a Victoria turnover, the second-ranked Bears got a clutch three from Ryan Mulholland with 4.9 seconds to play. Vikes rookie Robbie Green tried to answer with a buzzer beater but caught back of iron. Alberta went on a 10-run to take a 20-10 lead in first half. But top-ranked Victoria ripped off 10 unanswered points on a three by Keith Bustard, who’d led Vancouver Kitsilano to Triple AAA provincial in 1996 and 1997, as well as 10 straight points by reserve guard Steve MacDonald to take the lead. Colin Martin tipped in an offensive rebound to put Victoria ahead by two with 4.5 seconds on clock in the first half but then Stephen Parker hit a buzzer beating, off balance, eight foot behind the arc trey to give Alberta a 37-36 lead at the break. Parker exploded for 13 points in second half as the teams traded the lead. Alberta coach Don Horwood had drawn up a play for son Chris during a timeout in the final seconds but he found Mulholland on the win for the winning trey. Alberta hit 10-12 from line, Vic 3-11. Parker led the Bears with 16 points and 5 boards, Ryan Mulholland added 12 and 3 boards, Nick Maglisceau 15 points and 6 rebounds, Brad Berikoff came off bench to score 9 points in 10 minutes. Alberta shot 21-29 from floor, 5-15 from arc, had 28 rebounds and 14 turnovers. Vic shot 21-29, 7-14 from arc, 25 rebounds and 16 turnovers. Colin Martin scored 15 and 5 boards, Hinrichsen 11 points on 5-9 from floor, 13 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals but hit only 1-7 from line. Steve MacDonald added 10 points, Raphael Chillious-Carter 9 points and 6 assists, Keith Bustard 9 and Robbie Green 8.
In game two, Victoria defeated Alberta 69-52 as Eric Hinrichsen scored 17 and grabbed 14 boards. Ryan Baldry hit 16 and 2 boards for Alberta.
In game three, Alberta defeated Victoria 56-51 as Stephen Parker scored 16 and grabbed 4 rebs. Eric Hinrichsen led Vic with 21 points and 9 rebounds. “Outstanding. We held Victoria to 19 points in the second half,” said Alberta coach Don Horwood. “I mean to go into their gym and bat them twice was a major accomplishment. They had not lost a conference game at home all year. It’s a major accomplishment. It’s what I told my players after the game. The national tournament is not going to be any more stressful than the weekend against Lethbridge and the weekend against Victoria. If these guys were chokers, they’ve had lots of opportunity to do it. We might lose in Halifax, but it won’t be because of choking. All year long, our team has shown they can play when the chips are on the line.” The Bears overcame Hinrichsen’s 19-point first half and overcame a 32-26 deficit at the half. “I mean what can you say? Beating Vic in their gym by five points says it all as far as I’m concerned.” The Bears defence owned the second half, after a halftime “chat” from Horwood. “That got us to suck it up, stop playing tentatively and go after them,” said Parker. Hinrichsen was held to two second-half points, and the rest of the Vikes struggled to find the range. “(Eric) did not let us down. He played a hell of a weekend, he played a hell of a five years here,” said Vikes head coach Guy Vetrie. “We need to complement Eric’s inside game, and if we don’t they can collapse on him and that makes it very difficult to get the ball inside to him.” The Vikings hit 3-14 from the arc, which allowed the Bears to concentrate on Hinrichsen in the paint. “Eric killed us in the first half, but we buckled down in the second,” said fifth-year forward Ryan Dunkley. “You pretty much just have to work your ass off, hope he misses and beat him to the glass.” Dunkley and his teammates did just that in the second half. Horwood says stopping Hinrichsen really came down to one thing: fouling. “We tried to make it harder for them to get the ball inside to him, and to be honest whenever he touched it we’d foul him. We said we’d rather have him beat us from the line than score inside,” he said. Hinrichsen was 1-8 from the line, while the Vikes missed the bunnies. “What was a huge disappointment was the way we executed down the stretch,” said guard Raphael Chillious-Carter, who scored 20. “We didn’t handle the pressure well . . . and it was not a good day for threes.” Hinrichsen called a disappointing end to his five-year Canada West career. “It’s frustrating. It’s not a good feeling. But I’ve had a good five years here. I wish I was going out on a positive note, but that’s not the way it went. We lost. We’ve got to just let it go. We’ve got to focus on Halifax now.” Dunkley did an excellent job denying Hinrichsen the ball in the second half, forcing further out on the perimeter. The Vikes were 4-14 from the line. “I have no idea what’s going on,” said Hinrichsen of his free- throw woes. “I can hit them at practice. I’ve been trying to work my way out of it.” Hinrichsen added 9 boards, 7 assists, 1 block and 2 steals. Horwood called it a special win because the Bears starting guard was son Chris. “Sometimes it feels to me that he’s being a little more critical of what I’m doing,” Chris said before the start of the series. “I don’t know if that’s just the pressure he puts on all his point guards or if he is overcompensating. “But he’s usually pretty good about treating me like any other player. His assistant coaches help him out. And they help me out, too.” Father Don said that “when Chris was coming out of high school, we talked about him going elsewhere,” Don says. “And one of the scenarios was actually UVic. But he indicated to me that he wanted to go to Alberta, that he wanted to play for me. I told him I love him as a son, but that this was my job and my decisions had to be based on his ability to contribute to this team. His response was: `Dad, I wouldn’t have it any other way’.” Horwood said “we probably outworked them. Our guys showed tremendous character.”
The co-bronze medalist Lethbridge Pronghorns: Spencer Holt; Danny Balderson; Ryan Hall; John Tschritter; Jared Heidinger; Tim Rollingson; Dennis Bekkering; Nick Noronha; Rob Kain; Jim Speiss; Chris Wilde; Renny Wannop; Darryl Mimmick; coach Dave Crook
The co-bronze medalist British Columbia Thunderbirds: Courtney Kolla; Beau Mitchell; Stanleigh Mitchell; Dominic Zimmerman; Benj Sansburn; Kevin Keeler; Jon Fast; Jamie Wilmott; Sherlan John; Michael Burak; Greg Sandstrom; Jason Bristow; coach Bruce Enns
The runner-up Victoria Vikings: Keith Bustard; Neil Cranna; Ole Schmidt; Robbie Green; Raphael Chillious-Carter; Aaron Buckham; Eric Hinrichsen; Joel Neilson; Tyler Bates; Colin Martin; Stephen MacDonald; Jason Crawford; Josh Eldon; coach Guy Vetrie; assistant Chris Oliver
The champion Alberta Golden Bears: Nick Maglisceau; Stephen Parker; Ryan Mulholland; Ryan Baldry; Ryan Dunkley; Chris Horwood; Max Darrah; Brad Berikoff; Jason Maher; Pat Crevolin; Adrian Neale; Alex Michalas; Andrew Melnychuk; coach Don Horwood