REGULAR SEASON

Dalhousie 17-3 27-7 Tim McGarrigle        
  Acadia 13-7 24-10 Dave Nutbrown        
  U.P.E.I. 12-6 18-14 George Morrison        
  St. FX  8-10 15-17 Steve Konchalski        
  New Brunswick  9-11 15-15 Clint Hamilton        
  Cape Breton  7-13  9-19 Greg Jockims        
  Saint Mary’s  5-13  9-21 Ross Quackenbush        
  Memorial  8-12 10-15 Glenn Taylor        
                 

        Playoff non-qualifiers:

        Cape Breton Capers: Terry Wright; Rawle Philadelphia; Ian MacDonald, Geoff Clyke, Jude Lamorre, Brian Silver, Sam Worrell, Dave Murphy, Gary Kennedy, Marvin Murphy, Mike Wall, Shaun Robinson, Sheldon Shwandt, Terry Wright, Andy McIntyre, coach Greg Jockims

        Memorial Seahawks: Jermaine Bruce, John Devereaux, Peter Benoite, Leon Peddle, Dean Barker, John Coaker, Shane Harte, Loren Kielly, Scott Noftall, David O’Keefe, Darren Payne, Michael Sooley, David Sparkes, Glen Squires, Aaron Sullivan, Marc Woods, Matthew Woods, coach Glenn Taylor

        In the quarterfinals, 5th-seeded St. FX defeated 4th-seeded New Brunswick 78-71. The Varsity Reds led 24-13 when the whistles began to blow. The X-Men led by three at the half and benefited greatly from Varsity Reds foul trouble down the stretch. St. FX made 31 trips to the foul line and the Varsity Reds 15. Michael Clarke led St. FX with 20. Marc McKay added 18 and Merrick Palmer 17. Jason Hirtle notched 10, including a three-point play and a trey in the final seven minutes. “We followed coach’s game plan,” said Hirtle. “UNB committed the most fouls this year. We tried to pound it inside. It took 40 minutes but it started to show. They played half the half without Brian Scale and without Simon Orr-Ewing and those two guys make up a hell of a lot of their team. They weren’t in the ball game.” Hirtle said experience was also a factor. “It works both ways. They had nothing to lose and we had everything to lose. In a sense, for us, it’s the other way around. But Danny Stone stepped up huge for us again and Marc MacKay had a hell of a game. That’s what we needed.” Gord McNeilly led UNB with 24. David Low added 11. The Varsity Reds hi 1-17 from the arc. Marc Aube told The Brunswickan that “this team has more heart, more guts and more pride than any other team I’ve played with here at UNB. Although we dind’t win, we never gave up; and for that effort I am proud to be a part of this team. It feels good to be known as the team that finally made it back to the playoffs (after a 14-year absence).” Brian Scales said “I have to knock the officiating and say we got screwed but it was pretty obvious with Simon (Orr-Ewing) and I getting three quick fouls that they were not going to let us play. It’s unfortunate, especially since they didn’t give us the respect we deserved.” Orr-Ewing said “I expected the playoffs to be a bit more neutral but that was not the case. I felt like we were playing at Dalhousie. X had the homecourt refs and we got screwed.” The Red Raiders (coached by Clint Hamilton, assisted by Don MacNeil) also included Chris Johnson, Dan Graf, Jon Stevenson, Jason Embleton, Marc Aube, Jeff Tegart, Jon Kriener, Brian Scales, Simon Orr-Ewing, Chris Long and Simon MacDougall.

        In the other quarterfinal, the 3rd-seeded UPEI Panthers defeated the 6th-seeded Saint Mary’s Huskies 79-70. The Panthers had led by as many as 16 in the second half but the Huskies rallied to within 73-70 with 1:47 to play. But Peter Lawlor drained a trey with 57 seconds on the clock to quell the rally. “I just came off the screen,” said Lawlor. “My man got buried in the post and I was open. If I’m open, I’m going to shoot that shot. I had a bad game up until that point, probably a real bad game. I just felt I had to do something to try to help us win. The shot was there. I took it and didn’t worry about missing.” Curtis Robinson iced the win with a pair of free throws and point guard Jason MacDonald added another. Saint Mary’s coach Ross Quackenbush said that “as Jason (Medford) suggested, it’s not a real consolation to have played well and lose a basketball game. But Chris and Jason just did not quit. Everyone tried their tail off. I think they all played as hard as they possibly could. We put ourselves in too deep a hole.” MacDonald scored 11 and dished 8 assists for UPEI despite playing with a broken big toe in his left foot. “The freezing didn’t seem to take,” MacDonald said. “I was in a little bit of pain through the second half. Oh well, it’s playoff time. It really doesn’t matter how it feels. You have to get out there and play.” Doug Newson led the Panthers with 18. Curtis Robinson added 17 and 10 boards, while Greg Lucas scored 15 and nabbed 10 boards. Chris Lawrence led the Huskies with 25, including 13 in the second half. Jason Medford added 14, including 12 in the second half. Micah Bourdeau notched 14. The Huskies (coached by Ross Quackenbush, assisted by Richard Sullivan) also included Kraig Tyfting, Derek Hurdle, Jermaine Fletcher, Matt Parent, Jordan McCormack, Leith Somerville, Stephan Madge, John Doherty, Matt Fraser, Lloyd Thomas, Wade Doucette, Andrew Gibb, Scott Hounsome, Kevin Keeler and Patrick Toulouse.

        In the semis, Dalhousie defeated St. FX 73-64. Jeff Mayo and Dallas Shannon rallied the Tigers from a shaky first half. Trailing by five early in the second half, Mayo hit seven unanswered, including a trey, to ignite a 13-1 run that gave Dal a 50-43 lead midway through the second half. “I was looking to be more aggressive,” said Mayo, who scored 12. “I picked up some stupid fouls but I was just looking to get our team more aggressive. I thought we were nervous. We were too laid back. We weren’t forcing the issue enough.” Dalhousie coach Tim McGarrigle said “it looked pretty grim there for a while. But then Jeff Mayo stepped up, as he has done through his whole career, and really gave us a couple of key baskets and something to rally around. Just his will gets infectious.” Brian Parker scored 18 on off shooting night, hitting 5-22 from the field and 2-8 from the arc. Reggie Oblitey notched 15. Dalhousie out-rebounded St. FX 50-41, with Reggie Oblitey grabbing 11 boards, Shannon 8 and Christian Currie 9. Shannon added 12 points and 7 blocks. Currie blocked three. “Down the stretch, Shannon just rebounded the basketball, blocked shots and scored in the low post,” said McGarrigle. “I thought he possibly played his best game of the year, at the most crucial time. And he’s matching up against a pretty tough kid, that Mike Clarke.” X-Men coach Steve Konchalski said “I thought we played pretty good defence throughout the whole game. We just couldn’t score down the last 10 minutes of the game. A lot of that was Dal’s big men blocked a whole bunch of shots. A lot of it might also have been fatigue over the two games. We played the two most physical teams in the league in UNB and Dalhousie back to back. And we played them pretty tough.” Mike Clarke led St. FX with 23 points and 11 boards. Merrick Palmer added 13 and Marc MacKay 10. The X-Men (coached by Steve Konchalski, assisted by Ron MacDonald and Kelsey Stewart, managed by Ross Thompson and trained by Kenny Bryden) also included Jason Hirtle, Isaac King, Andrew Tyler, Kingsley Robinson, Marko Zecevic, Peter Hunt, Jason Dayman, Sean McLean, Danny Stone, Chris Clarke, Andrew Tyler and Marc Chisholm.

        In the other semi, UPEI defeated Acadia 73-71. Curtis Robinson went to the line for a one-and-one with the Panthers leading 72-71 with 12 seconds to play. He missed and Acadia’s Geoff Kott grabbed the rebound but Doug Newson pilfered the ball and was fouled, hitting 1-2 from the line to ice the win for UPEI. “Once I saw Curtis at the line, I figured if he made two, it was over,” said Newson, who scored 17. “Then I saw him miss. Kott was looking towards the other end of the court. I just sort of sneaked around from behind to get the steal. Luckily, I got all ball. They didn’t call a foul.” Acadia had once last shot to win it but Adam Griffin missed on a drive to the bucket. The Panthers had trailed by three at halftime but took a 12-point lead in the second half before Acadia, on a Kott three-point play and a pair of treys by Sheldon Shaw, rallied and then clawed to within 72-71 as Adam Griffin hit back-to-buckets, the last one off a Kott steal. “They are probably the best defensive team in this league and they picked it up when they had to,” said Newson. “That’s two games we’ve squandered big leads.” Curtis Robinson notched 18 for UPEI. Greg Lucas added 11. Adam Griffin scored 18 and dished 10 assists for Acadia. Sheldon Shaw and Mark Headley each added 15. Geoff Kott scored 12 and grabbed 12 boards. The Axemen (coached by Dave Nutbrown, manager Paul Seaborn) also included Jim O’Grady, Chris Cain, Derek Cotton, Marcus Jamieson, Colin Popone, Graham Farner, Adam Gladwin, Sean Smith, Jan Trojanowski, Murray McLeod, Mark Seaborn, Everton Thomas and Joel Dart.

        The final was a double-overtime affair with Dalhousie prevailing over UPEI 98-95 to win an AUAA title for the first time in 37 years. “I’ve been waiting for four years to get here,” Tiger Jeff Mayo, who scored 15, told the Halifax Gazette. “We put in so many line drills in September. We went through so many injuries, I just can’t tell you how great it feels. I never thought we were going to lose it. Even when we were down, I knew that our guys weren’t giving up. We had confidence on the bench, everybody cheering for us. We were not going to lose the game.” It took a 7-2 run down the stretch in overtime for the Tigers to prevail. “It was just an unbelievable game,” said Dalhousie coach Tim McGarrigle. “The clock ran out on UPEI.” Doug Newson hit a pair of free throws with 28.2 seconds to play to give UPEI a three-point lead but Mayo hit a three pointer with 21.6 seconds left in the game to tie game at 80 and force overtime. “That was just vintage Jeff Mayo,” said Tigers guard Clive Henry. “He’s been doing it his whole career.” Newson missed a jumper with three seconds in regulation and Brian Parker heaved a prayer from midcourt at the buzzer which just fell short. In overtime, P.E.I. guard Jason McDonald went coast to coast on a lay-up with 2.1 seconds to go force second overtime. In double overtime, Mayo drove to the hoop and notched a sprawling scoop to give Dalhousie a 94-93 lead. Christian Currie blocked his fifth shot of the game, which led to a Reggie Oblitey bucket that gave the Tigers a three-point lead. Newson hit bucket for UPEI but Parker countered with a pair of free throws before Panther Shane Walsh narrowly missed a trey at the buzzer that would have forced a third session. “We had a couple of tough hoops down the stretch,” McGarrigle said. “Mayo hit one. He was falling down. He was almost out on Brunswick Street when he let it go. Oblitey had a tough hoop, too. Today, I think Reggie really set the tempo. We just wouldn’t be denied.” Oblitey led Dalhousie with 28 points on 11-15 from the field and 8 boards. Clive Henry added 18, while Parker scored 22 and dished 15 assists. Dallas Shannon scored 8, grabbed 22 boards and blocked five shots. Parker stepped it up in the second half. “I was struggling. The first half, I only had two points. I knew coming out in the second half, I had to step up. The guys relied on me all season. This is a big game. I think I was too anxious. I was very excited. I just had to calm down and get into the flow of the game.” Curtis Robinson scored 33 on 17-20 from the line and 10 rebounds for the Panthers before fouling out in the first overtime with 57 seconds on play on a call away from the play. “It was a dive (by Currie). Let’s get that straight right now. It’s ridiculous to call a cheap foul like that in the AUAA final with that much time left. That aside, I went to the bench and the guys picked it up for two overtimes and we just came up a little short.” McGarrigle noted that it was a turning out. “There’s no question that Curtis fouling out was a big thing for us because he was just killing us. He was going to the free throw line and making his free throws.” Greg Lucas added 19 points and 16 boards for the Panthers, while MacDonald scored 12 and dished 9 assists. PEI coach George Morrison called MacDonald’s driving layup to force double-overtime an “extremely gutsy effort on his part. He’s disappointed. WE all are now but we absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.” Dalhousie guard Clive Henry said the Panthers were a tough out. “We got tested and we won. They have a lot of heart. I know they think deep down inside they were the destiny team. But we felt we were the destiny team too. So, we had to go at it and that’s why it took so long to get there — why it took two overtimes. We got tested and we won.”

        The runner-up Prince Edward Island Panthers: Curtis Robinson; Greg Lucas; Jason MacDonald; Doug Newson; Shane Walsh; Peter Lawlor; Steve Lawlor; Michael Moore; David Mullaly; Scott Morrison; Shane Walsh; Craig Emuss; Rob Evans; Jonathan Love; Pete Richard; Mike Sirois; coach George Morrison

        The champion Dalhousie Tigers: Reginald Oblitey; Tim Maloney; Kevin Bellamy; Christian Currie; Brian Parker; Tim Elliott; Clive Henry; Blair Pallopson; Jeff Mayo; Tremayne Howe; Kannin Osei-Tuto; Dwayne Hopkinson; Dallas Shannon; Shawn Plancke; coach Tim McGarrigle; assistant Jim Charters; assistant Mark Parker; manager Gerry Faber