REGULAR SEASON
| EAST | WEST | ||||||||
| Laurentian | 10-2 | Peter Campbell | McMaster | 12-2 | 26-7 | Joe Raso | |||
| Ryerson | 9-3 | 10-7 | Terry Haggerty | Western | 9-5 | Craig Boydell | |||
| Toronto | 8-4 | 12-14 | Ken Olynyk | Waterloo | 8-6 | 18-17 | Tom Kieswetter | ||
| York | 6-6 | 12-18 | Bob Bain | Brock | 7-6 | 20-15 | Ken Murray | ||
| Ottawa | 4-8 | 19-19 | Jack Eisenmann | Lakehead | 7-6 | 17-13 | Lou Pero | ||
| Queen’s | 3-9 | Barry Smith | Guelph | 7-7 | Tim Darling | ||||
| Carleton | 2-10 | 5-22 | Paul Armstrong | Windsor | 5-9 | 13-17 | Mike Havey | ||
| Wilfrid Laurier | 0-14 | Gary Jeffries | |||||||
Playoff non-qualifiers:
Carleton Ravens: Taffe Charles, James Marquardt, Reagh Vidito, Brian Smith, Luca Diaconescu, Andrew Smith, Glenn Lynch, Jeff Robins, Brian Russell, J
eremy Sims, Shaun Poole, George Kapaklis, Mike Badger, Curtis Houlden, Quinn Osbourne, coach Paul Armstrong
Ottawa Gee-Gees: Clarence Porter, David Reid, Bobby Brown, Greg Maillet, Edward Weltz, Marc Engfield, Shawn Turnau, Royston Hohenkirk, Chris Kurlicki, Ryan Fabricus, Daniel Graf, Eric Stewart, Fred Esford, coach Jack Eisenmann
Queen’s Golden Gaels: Dave Smart, Wyeth Clarkson, Mike Ruscitti, Sean Smith, Roger Wheeler, Les Harold, Mickey Slonowski, Rich Cook, Mark Holland, Darren Dugan, Geoff Budgell, Corwin Cambray, Mike Hale, coach Barry Smith
Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks: Peter Kratz, Shawn Roach, Ricardo Medeiros, Tolly Henderson, Brian Fretz, David Bart, Daniel Pace, Jay Spencer, Michael Wasyliw, Darren Bibby, Philip Stouffer, Dave Chasson, coach Gary Jeffries
Windsor Lancers: Patrick Osborne, Jeff Nekkers, Jamie Pepper, Matt McMillan, Mark Baggio, Krim Lacey, Kurtis McGeachy, Mark Koppeser, Jason Kaul, Steve Carey, Dale Harris, Jody Joyce, Steve Anderson, coach Mike Havey
In the East semis, 2nd-seeded Ryerson defeated 3rd-seeded Toronto 72-52 to win its first ever playoff game. Alex Beason led the Rams with 30. Jason Dressler led Toronto with 10. “We got off to a bad start and things just went from bad to worse,” Blues guard Jason Ciceri told the Varsity. Blues coach Ken Olynyk said “I wasn’t disappointed in our effort and defence, but we didn’t score well.” The Blues shot 19-68 (.280) from the floor and leading scored Carl Swantee notched just 4. Ryerson captain Ainsworth Slowly said “We had to stop Swantee (who’d scored 29 against the Rams in a game during the regular season) because last time he beat us.” The Blues (coached by Ken Olynyk) also included Eddy Meguerian, Lars Dressler, Jason Ciceri, Jason Gopaul, Roland Semprie, Chris Ellison, Amr Elmaraghy, Cargel Stewart, Daryl Gee, David Moore, Christopher Dennis, Giancarlo Fucile and Trent Arendse.
In the other East semi, top-seeded Laurentian defeated 4th-seeded York 79-68. The Lions (coached by Bob Bain) included Wilton Hall, Mike Partridge, Vic Fantin, John Poulimenos, Marc Gardner, Jason Kimens, Wayne Gairy, Andrew Vallejo, Ben Sanders, Lyndon Phillip, Jeffrey Raphael, Drew Green and Dane Lawrence-Prince.
In the East final, top-seeded Laurentian defeated 2nd-seeded Ryerson 85-73. Scott Belasco led the Rams with 21. The Voyageurs held Alex Beason, the Canadian university record holder with a 33.4 point-per-game average, to 16. Beason had three fouls with seven minutes left to play in the first half, which drastically reduced his effectiveness. Indeed, each of Ryerson’s five starters had at least two fouls by the half, while Laurentian had a total of seven. “I don’t want to make that the story, but it was a pretty big disadvantage,” Rams coach Terry Haggerty said. “(Laurentian was) making some pretty tough shots. Normally, you’d hope that you’d make about 50 per cent of them but gimme a break, they were all falling in.”
In the West quarterfinals, 6th-seeded Guelph defeated the 3rd-seeded host Waterloo Warriors 79-71. “The difference between third and sixth in this division is so small, it’s almost of no significance at all,” Warriors coach Tom Kieswetter told the Imprint. “It was a war out there. Both teams were playing with great intensity. We have to be proud about our effort, but Guelph came through large.” The Gryphons rode the post play of Rob Henry and Michael Wilson to an 11-point lead in the second half before the Warriors rallied with a 13-3 run, including 6 from graduate student Sean VanKoughnett, to draw within 72-71. Henry responded with a bucket and then grabbed a defensive board, fell to the floor and called timeout to prevent a jump ball with 41.8 seconds to play. Chris O’Rourke iced the win with four free throws, part of an 8-8 effort from the line. Gryphons coach Tim Darling told the Kitchener-Waterloo Record that “we stopped going inside and that’s where we had our success. They started getting some offensive rebounds on us and we wanted to tighten up defensively.” Keiswetter told the Imprint that “Henry and Wilson were unexpectedly successful,” said Kieswetter. “They came up with the best game of their season.” O’Rourke said “we knew that we could go four or five deep with our big men, while Waterloo could only go two or three deep. We just kept pounding it inside and it seemed to work. … This is probably the sweetest win in my five years at Guelph because we were not as good as we wanted to be this year and we weren’t expected to win this game.” Kieswetter told the Kitchener-Waterloo Record that “when we were down that many points, it would have been easy to rollover but we came back with fire in our eyes and made it a battle.” Warrior Alex Urosevic said “it was close. We missed some foul shots down the stretch and they took advantage of theirs. They were the better team tonight. No excuses. Life goes on.” O’Rourke led the Gryphons with 25. Henry added 18 on 9-13 from the floor and 11 boards, and Shawn Wilson 14 on 7-11 from the floor. Alex Urosevic led the Warriors with 21. Sean Van Koughnett added 17, along with 14 boards, Tom Balfe 13 and Chris Moore 12. Waterloo led 40-35 at the half and hit 3-21 from the arc. The Warriors (coached by Kieswetter) also included B.J. York, Mike Duarte, Mark Hopkins, Ashoak Grewal, Nick Poulimenos, Scott Carroll, Andy Pocrnic, Bryan Boulton, Sean McDonaugh, Lester Jones, Thomas Skrban and Jason Clapp.
In the other quarterfinal, 4th-seeded Brock defeated 5th-seeded Lakehead 83-67 as David Picton scored 27, while dishing 10 assists. Allen MacDougall added 18, Mike Pullar 17, Jamie Huebert 15, Dave McKay 4 and Ryan Fabi 2. The Badgers hit 23-50 from the floor, 8-21 from the arc and 13-18 from the line, while garnering 19 assists, 13 turnovers and 11 fouls. Picton told the St. Catharines Standard that “everything just keeps falling into place. This is a great feeling. We’re playing as a team. We’ve got all kinds of people looking to score. We’re working hard. Everyone is contributing.” Badgers coach Ken Murray said “our guys really looked hungry. … We haven’t been known as a very good rebounding team. But that’s part of what Jamie is giving us.” Ray Foster led the Thunderwolves with 21. Craig Law added 18, David Pineau 14, Paul Andrews 10 and Peter Brown 4. The Thunderwolves hit 23-49 from the floor, 5-14 from the arc and 6-6 from the line, while garnering 14 assists, 16 turnovers and 15 fouls. The Thunderwolves (coached by Lou Pero) also included Kareem Rodriguez, Brian Tees, Mark Moorhouse, Murray Smith, Cory Keeler, Chuck Brown, Eric Shultz and Garrett Thayer.
In the West semis, top-seeded McMaster defeated 4th-seeded Brock 88-73 as rookie guard Titus Channer scored 26, Keegan Johnson 14, Sontrop 14, Francis 13, Jack VanderPol 6, Girolametto 6, Newton 5 and Piccini 4. Johnson contained West division MVP David Picton to 13 and led 43-34 at the half. Johnson told the Hamilton Spectator that “I take it as a personal challenge to come out and play against these guys. We have a great defensive team, which allows me to be aggressive. I don’t worry about getting beat.” McMaster led 43-37 at the half. The Marauders hit 22-56 from the floor, 6-16 from the arc and 26-36 from the line, while garnering 18 assists, 23 turnovers and 17 fouls. Allen MacDougall led Brock with 17. Jamie Huebert added 14, David Picton 13, Mike Pullar 9, Jason Tatti 5, Ryan Fabi 4, Dave McKay 4, Jeff Lucyk (Lycyk?) 3, Pat Palmieri 2 and Jamie Clark 2. The Badgers hit 28-55 from the floor, 7-24 from the arc and 12-17 from the line, while garnering 14 assists, 19 turnovers and 25 fouls. Picton told the St. Catharines Standard that “we tried hard. At certain times, we couldn’t buy a hoop. We were looking good, then all our shots started hitting the rim and bouncing back. There’s not much you can do when that’s happening. Basketball can be a funny game. We couldn’t capitalize at the right time.” Badgers coach Ken Murray said “if you can’t score, you can’t win. … One of the reasons we couldn’t score was we stopped running our offence. We started to get behind and some players tried to do everything on their own. I also think think a few guys felt the pressure, despite they said coming into the game. That was obvious by some of the shooting percentages. … Our big kids were great. That was supposed to be our weakness. It was other guys who didn’t come through like they usually do. That’s what’s disappointing – we shut down Jack (Vander Pol) but we didn’t take advantage of it.” The Badgers (coached by Ken Murray) also included Jason Tatti, Gedis Dzieman, Derek Flindall and Josh Lesco.
In the other West semi, the 6th-seeded Guelph Gryphons stunned the 2nd-seeded Western Mustangs 93-76. The Gryphons led 44-32 at the half. Christian Baldouf paced Guelph with 26. John Vermeeren led the Mustangs with 19. The Mustangs (coached by Craig Boydell, assisted by Jeff Farrugia and Art Sharp, managers Amy McLellan and Alex Rucker, trainers Karen Boehm and Heather Flett, academic advisors William Avison and Carl Grindstaff) also included Michael Lynch, Bradley Campbell, John Vermeren, Jonathan Dingle, Blake Gage, Marty Harris, Mike Milne, Brendan Noonan, Peter Schmidt, Michael Boydell, Reid Beckett, James Young, Jason Meskis and Hugh Bell.
In the West final, top-seeded McMaster thumped 6th-seeded Guelph 91-73 as Jack Vander Pol scored 19, while nabbing 11 boards, Titus Channer 16, Keegan Johnson 15, Tom Newton 13, Shawn Francis 12 and Marc Sontrop 10. Channer told the Hamilton Spectator that “personally, I wanted to prove to some people that I deserved the rookie of the year in our division (rather than Laurier guard Peter Kratz). From a team point, today’s win over Guelph was revenge for last week (a regular season contest which the Gryphons won 87-86). It was embarrassing, them coming into our gym and beating us on television. So today we wanted to bury them.” Vander Pol said “I did a lot of soul searching after (the West semi). After a couple of hours, I regrouped and was able to get focused.” Marauders coach Joe Raso said “we were very focused. We knew what we had to do and everybody picked up the slack.” Paul Eldridge led the Gryphons with 19. Chris O’Rourke added 12, Randy Maloney 10, Chris Baldauf 12 and Rob Henry 11. Henry said “the killed us on the boards (53-30) and we had trouble getting the ball inside. We just couldn’t contain their big man. I think that cost us the game.”
In the Wilson Cup final, McMaster defeated Laurentian 107-74 as centre Jack VanderPol scored 24, while nabbing 10 boards, Shawn Francis 18 and 6-7 forward Tom Newton 13. The Marauders opened with a 20-3 run and coasted to the win. Vanderpol told the Hamilton Spectator that “we played really well. There’s not much they could do.” Marauders coach Joe Raso said “we’ve worked hard for this. We kicked it away and now we got it back. You always have shoot for number one … The key part was our defence. We were in people’s faces every shot.” Voyageur Shawn Swords said “we were really concentrated on Vanderpol down low but may we doubled down on them too much.” Chris Fischer added that “there’s really not much we could do. We should have matched our strength on the perimeter to their strength inside.” Laurentian coach Peter Campbell said “we just got our doors blown off. Things we set out to take away from Mac, we couldn’t take away.”
In August, Doug Aitchison is unveiled as the new coach of the Queen’s Golden Gaels. A part-time assistant at Guelph and Wilfrid Laurier for the previous seven years, Aitchison replaced Barry Smith, who was not rehired after nine years at the helm, in which the Gaels compiled a 54-74 regular season OUA record.
The co-bronze medalist Guelph Gryphons: Chris O’Rourke; Paul Eldridge; Rob Hendry; Christian Baldauf; Steve Krajcarski; Shawn Wilson; Randy Mahoney; Brian Moore; Kris Vander Veer; Chris Kopichanski; Andre Baptiste; James Kritz; Jeff Erskine; Rudy Nelson; Erik Otto; Richard Wesolowski?; coach Tim Darling; assistant Rob Froese; assistant Walter Schlichthorn; assistant Tarry Upshaw; manager Russ Cullinane; manager Mark Grant
The co-bronze medalist Ryerson Rams: Alex Beason; Ainsworth Slowly; Michael Chisholm; Rowan Jones; Marvin Johnson; Lui Cinello; Ricky Gairey; Shane Thurston; Christopher Szarka; Vaheed Sharafbayani; Carl Harper; coach Terry Haggerty
The runner-up Laurentian Voyageurs: Shawn Swords; Chris Fischer; Brad Hann; Jason Hurley; Cory Bailey; Mike Scott; Adam Dusome; Stuart Tait; David Mate; Hendrik Swaneveld; Mike Cassone; coach Peter Campbell
The champion McMaster Marauders: Titus Channer, Jack VanderPol; Marc Sontrop; Shawn Francis; Keegan Johnson; Thomas Newton; Cesare Piccini; Paul Maga; Jamie Girolametto; Andrew Peters; Lance Postma; Andrew Middleton; Jeremy Storry; Ron Kovljenic; coach Joe Raso; assistant Rob Hilson; assistant Ray Kybartas; assistant Jim Thomas; assistant Rupert Wilson