REGULAR SEASON
| Dalhousie | 15-5 | 19-8 | Tim McGarrigle | |||||
| Acadia | 12-8 | 14-15 | Dave Nutbrown | |||||
| St. FX | 11-9 | 15-16 | Steve Konchalski | |||||
| Cape Breton | 11-9 | 20-12 | Greg Jockims | |||||
| Memorial | 10-10 | 13-14 | Glenn Taylor | |||||
| U.P.E.I. | 9-11 | 13-14 | George Morrison | |||||
| New Brunswick | 8-12 | 14-15 | Clint Hamilton | |||||
| Saint Mary’s | 4-16 | 6-21 | Ross Quackenbush | |||||
Playoff non-qualifiers:
New Brunswick Red Raiders: Stanleigh Mitchell, Gord McNeilly, Dan Graff, Jon Stevenson, Jason Embleton, Marc Aug, Jeff Tegart, Jon Kreiner, Dave Low, Brian Scales, Simon-Orr Ewing, Simon MacDougall, Mark Gomez, Chris Long, Maurice Roche, Andrew Mackay, Clint Simmons, Michael Krause, Joe O’Brien, Bryan Elliott, coach Clint Hamilton
Saint Mary’s Huskies: Jason Medford, Andrew MacKay, Derek Hurdle, Jason James, Wade Doucette, Noah Cantor, Glenn Bonvie, Micah Bourdeau, Jason Brunt, Kevin Keeler, Anton Lorde, Royland Moriah, Jonathon Waye, Jeff Piers, Jeff Baltzer, Cyril Smith, Chris Lawrence, Brian Luinstra, Steve McGilligan, Stephen Ball, coach Ross Quackenbush, assistant Steve McGilligan, manager John Landry
In the quarterfinals, St. FX defeated U.P.E.I. 86-78. “All week we practiced and we said they can beat us one way, by shooting the threes,” said X-guard Brian Lee. “Coach said to tie up on your man. They were hitting the threes (in the first half) but we knew basketball is a second-half game. We knew if we could stop them in the second half that would be crucial and we did that. We came out on the threes.” PEI hit seven treys in the first half but only three in the second. Curtis Robinson led the Panthers with 12, along with 10 boards. The X-Men out-rebounded PEI 40-29. “Curtis Robinson is a great player,” said X forward Blair White. “We just did everything we could and got lots of help off other guys. Our goal was to hold him under 30 and we did.” Lee lead St. FX with 21, including 17 in the second half. Merrick Palmer added 19, White 17 and Michael Clarke 12. Peter Lawlor added 19 for UPEI, while Doug Newson scored 17. The Panthers (coached by George Morrison) also included Greg Lucas, Kevin Mitchell, Michael Moore, Craig Walker, Steve Lawlor, Kevin Hansen, Jason Kielly, Shane Walsh, Pete Richard, Mark Mullaly and David Mullaly. Newson scored 14 as the Panthers took a 46-40 lead at the half. But St. FX rallied to take its first lead with 6:40 to play when White hit a pair from the line and Lee scored a bucket to make it 68-66. Lee converted a three-point play to give St. FX a 75-70 edge with four minutes and iced it by going 6-8 from the line over the final 1:38. The X-men notched three consecutive offensive boards to help them run down the clock. “Merrick Palmer is the quickest guy in Canada, by far,” said Lee. “He showed it out there. They couldn’t even touch him, much less try to foul him. That’s vintage Merrick.”
In the other quarterfinal, Cape Breton defeated Memorial 94-78 as Michael Dailey scored 29 and John Ryan 23. The Capers led 42-35 at the half and quickly extended their margin to double figures in the second half. They led by as many as 18. “Mike Woods is a tough player,” Ryan noted. “He had 28 tonight. It was a tough 28 he had. We let him have his points and tried to stop the rest of them.” Sam Worrell added 12 for the Capers, while Shaun Robinson and Terry Wright each notched 11. Leon Peddle paced Memorial with 15. The Seahawks (coached by Glenn Taylor) also included Peter Benoite, John Coaker, Shane Harte, Glen Squires, John Devereaux, Sean Fryer, Marc Woods, Shane Harte, Scott Noftall, Bernard Leonard, Michael Woods and Darren Payne.
In the semis, Cape Breton defeated Dalhousie 75-69. The Tigers (coached by Tim McGarrigle) included Reginald Oblitey, Shawn Plancke, Christian Currie, Kyle Atkinson, Kevin Bellamy, Ted Dongelmans, Tim Elliott, Dwayne Hopkinson, Peter Hunt, Tim Maloney, Jeffrey Mayo, Kannin Osei-Tutu, Blair Pallopson, Clive Henry and David Reynolds.
In the other semi, Acadia defeated St. FX 80-61. The X-Men (coached by Steve Konchalski, assisted by Kelsey Stewart and Rod MacDonald) included Merrick Palmer, Andrew Tyler, Michael Clarke, Blair White, Sean McLean, Mike Clarke, Brian Lee, Jason Hirtle, Marko Zecevic, Jason Dayman, Marc Mackay, Mark Corrigan, Sean Clarke, Chris Clarke and Tom Madden.
In the final, 4th-seeded Cape Breton upset 2nd-seed Acadia 65-57 as Terry Wright and Michael Dailey each scored 15. The Capers, with rookie coach Greg Jockims, defended their title and “proved a lot of doubters wrong,” said guard John Ryan. “We had a lot of talent last year, an extreme amount of talent with Pat Lahey, Sheldon Shaw and Troy Jones, who aren’t with us this year. A lot of people didn’t think we had what it took this year. But we were on a roll coming in. We knew we had to play our game and get the games up-tempo. If it got close, we had the experience from being here last year. I think that was the different today. They missed a couple of shots. We hit some. All weekend, it’s been foul shooting and we shot well from the foul line.” Tournament MVP Michael Dailey celebrated by calling his mother in Boston. “Last year was so emotional. You’re working four years to get to that point. It’s so hard to get there. This year was a roller-coaster ride as far as the regular season goes. We knew we had the talent and the team to do it. Everybody stepped onto the floor this whole weekend, contributing, doing what they had to do.” Dailey and Ryan set the tone. Ryan converted a three-point play with three minutes to play to give the Capers and five-point lead and then stole the ball to set up Shaun Robinson for a transition layup. The Capers hit 7-8 from the line over the last minute to ice the win. “No other team in the league has a much playoff time as we do,” said Dailey. ‘I would like to see the scores in the last four minutes of all these playoff games. I think we outscore our opponents in every game.” The Capers shot 12-14 from the line, while Acadia was 4-7. Geoff Kott and Adam Gladwin closed out Acadia’s scoring with a pair of treys, including one at the buzzer by Gladwin, to make the margin more respectable. “Their experience showed at the end,” said Kott, who scored 23 and grabbed 11 boards. “They’ve been in this situation before and that’s what it really came down to today.” Ryan noted that he felt ill in the morning. “But once you get in there, two minutes, it’s just adrenalin. If I look around and see four guys working hard, I know I have to work hard too.”
The runner-up Acadia Axemen: Geoff Kott; Adam Gladwin; Keith Johnson; Jerome Carter; Tom Henry; Michael Bishop; Christopher Cain; Derek Cotton; Joel Dart; Mark Headley; Murray McLeod; Jim O’Grady; Jan Trojanowski; Adam Griffin; Kevin Pick; Colin Ring; Jeremy Smyth; Adam Miller; Adam Gladwin; coach Dave Nutbrown; athletic director Don Wells; SID Bruce Cohoon
The champion Cape Breton Capers: Terry Wright; Michael Dailey; Rawle Philadelphia; Troy Jones; John Ryan; Sam Worrell; Shaun Robinson; Ian Thomas; Jude Lamorre; Todd Lewis; Dave Murphy; Wade Hackl; Marvin Murphy; Michael Woods; Gary Kennedy; coach Greg Jockims; assistant Jim Charters