Final regular season standings:
North (7): NAIT (22-2); Concordia (17-7); Grant MacEwan (15-9); Lakeland (13-11); Augustana (10-14); Grande Prairie 95-19); The King’s Univ. College (2-22)
South (7): Red Deer (21-3); SAIT (19-5); Mount Royal (17-7); Lethbridge (9-15); Briercrest (7-17); Medicine Hat (6-18); Prairie Bible (5-19)
Playoff non-qualifiers:
Augustana: Graeme Bollinger, Andrew Ignatiuk, Bruce Carbert, Cam Omoe, Tyrel Herder, Darrell Barclay, Jordan Abel, Kris Augustson, Cody Lowry, Kory Payne, Scott Hamilton, Hamish Boyd, Jordan Clark, Leif Knutson
Briercrest Bible: Gene Wolverton, Jon Thiessen, Taylor Armstrong, Josh Mawhorter, Chad Romanuk, Nick Anderson, Justin Wolverton, Gary Riemer, Craig Jantzen, Adam Robinson, Andrew Hansen, Jared Mayer, Adam Driscoll, Stewart McGregor
Grande Prairie: Keffery Johnson, Zac Morse, Jason Smiechowski, Wil Young, Kyle Saban, Peter Gardner, Steven Wiebe, Carm Restauro, Shaun Kennedy, Kyle Stark, Geoff Brown, Richard Chambers, Kevin Robinson, Ryan Ropean
King’s University College: Shane Smith, Sam Gaugler, Rob deJong, Jay Duke, Dallas Brown, Josh Gutknecht, Jay Barrows, Terry Seinen, Joel Kelly, Sean Briegal, Matt Darroch, Paul Graff, Jeffray Bailey, Jeff Falk, Darren Raymond
Medicine Hat: Tico Iron Shirt, Mike Humphrey, Mike Anderson, Sini Atoa, Derek Graves, Cale Rasmussen, Ryan Algie, Durand Zoonni, Jordan Kluthe, Jared Widmer, Chris Holoien, Michael Rasmussen, Booker Wills
Prairie Bible: Tony Dornbusch, Darryl Babe, Randy Stewart, Matthew Dykstra, Eric Nielsen, Jared Martens, Howie Falk, David Song, Jordan Cavanaugh, Tim Sesink, Brock Groening, Eric Roy
In the quarterfinals, NAIT defeated Lethbridge 115-70; 116-88 (2g-0). …………………………………………………… Lethbridge athletic director Tim Tollestrup told the Endeavour that NAIT is “an excellent ball club. We just weren’t up to their calibre.” The Kodiaks (coached by Murray Hanna) included Ryan Anderson, Liav Peled, Shawn Nelson, Sterling Hamilton, Ryan Mitchell, Courtney Clawson, Jonathan Yuill, Amron Gwilliam, Tim Jones, Brennen Hanna, Christopher Steed, Joshua Kultgen, Jordan Reiter and K Wells.
Concordia defeated Mount Royal 93-87; 74-128; 104-97 (2g-1). The Cougars included Kelly Lundgren, Josh Feist, Kevin Dela Pena, Jamie Brown, Carson Powell, Kevin O’Reilly, Jon Walker, Josh Forster, Chuck Sterling, Mo Abdallah, Mark Lynch, Matt Richards and Isaac Swann.
The Red Deer Kings defeated the Lakeland Rustlers 88-74; 67-63 (2g-0). …………………………………………………… In game one, Red Deer thumped Lakeland 88-74 as Lee Sprunger scored 22, A.K. Kaslauskas 18, Joel Bancroft 13 and Nathan Tratechaud 9, while Josh Bibbs and Mark Salkeld each nabbed 10 boards. The Kings led by as many as 18 in the first half. Kings coach Craig Behan told the Red Deer Advocate that “we always seem to let teams back in. We didn’t do a good job of keeping our composure and the guys were getting a little frustrated. But that’s no excuse. We’ve been in tough games all season. We just have to relax and play … We got a good team effort and I like the way we responded when they made a run at us.” Sprunger said “we knew they could score. You can’t leave them alone. They’re a scrappy team and they’re big, so they’re no easy pushover.” Rustlers coach Phil Allen said “give Red Deer credit. They played tough defence.” …………………………………………………… In game two, Red Deer completed the series sweep by edging Lakeland 67-63 as A.K. Kaslauskas scored 21, Paul Rabel 9 and Franjo Crnkovic 8. Kaslauska iced the win with a pair of free throws with 21.6 seconds to play. Kings coach Craig Behan told the Red Deer Advocate that “we battled, but then, we had to. We had nothing going tonight except our defence. We have let down defensively in each half when we gave them a couple of threes but overall, we played them tough. … They kind of got the game they wanted and it was a battle. But then it’s playoffs and you expect a tough, physical game.” Rabel said “we only played two games in the playoffs last year. But that experience definitely helped tonight. We dind’t play our best but we also didn’t panic. We hung tough down the stretch and made the plays when we needed to.”
Jeff Landers led the Rustlers with 19. Joel Allen added 17. The Rustlers also included Jordan Cossette, Aaron Amann, Chris King, Dan Langdon, Chase Morley, Shane Sebus, Jason Sloychuk, Jonathan Albert, Bradley Moskalyk, Robert Prevost, Dallas Mitchell and Nonzo Arinze.
SAIT defeated Grant MacEwan 71-50; 75-68 (2g-0). The Griffins included Nathan Coughlin, Carlos Martinez, David Brimacombe, Jordan Fownes, Anthony Lange, Jesse Lipscombe, Mike Gardiner, Alexandar Steele, Jeffery Stork, Brendon Bjarnason, Daniel Duke, Mike Danderfer and Andrew Simpson.
In the Final Four semis, held in Red Deer, NAIT nipped SAIT 76-72 as Loren Balon scored 21 and Nat Schaefer 14. SAIT rallied to knot the score at 68 with three minutes to play but was hampered down the stretch when star guard Eddie Richardson, who scored 24, fouled out on a controversial touch foul under the SAIT basket. With 18 seconds remaining and NAIT leading by three, guard Nabil Bushnaq bounced a trey off the rim and was forced to foul, allowing NAIT to ice the win. Ookpiks coach Marc Dobell told Canadian Press “these guys play with a lot of heart.” SAIT assistant Jim Shields said “outr guys worked hard. It was never a question of effort or desire to win. We made some great plays to tie it but they played great. It just didn’t go our way tonight.” Jay Damery also scored 24 for the Trojans.
In the other semi, Red Deer defeated Concordia 78-72 as A.K. Kazlauskas scored 21, Mark Salkeld 17, while nabbing 19 boards, Joel Bancroft 10, and Paul Rabel 9, along with 10 boards. Concordia led 56-47 midway through the second half but Kaslaukas took command by attacking off the dribble and rallied the Kings to a 62-62 tie. Kings coach Craig Behan told the Red Deer Advocate that “we’ve played that way all season. I looked at the clock with six minutes remaining and thought to myself, here we go again. But that’s okay. I like close games and the guys like close games. They thrive on them. … A.K. didn’t start that well but outside of Mark (Salkeld), no one did. I thought we didn’t play all that smart early on but the second half, we started to pick it up. A.K. forced them into mistakes. I knew it was coming.” The Kings built a 75-69 lead but Keith Miller responded with a trey for the Thunder. Kazlauska countered with a driving layup. Mark Salkeld said “that was one of the things we talked about the half. … Driving the ball and getting their defence to move. I don’t think we were worried about being in a close game. That’s the way we play. We knew if we kept coming at them, we had a good chance. … We went 12 deep and they didn’t. I’m not sure they wore down but we were fresh down the stretch.” Daryl Balog paced Concordia with 19. Travis Davison added 13 and Dave Vandervelde 13, while nabbing 12 boards. Vanervelde said “I think that’s how they win. They have a team that stays with in and capitalize on the little mistakes. And we made some mistakes in the final minutes. We missed some free throws and didn’t rotate on defence, giving them easy shots.”
Concordia
In the bronze medal match, SAIT defeated Concordia 80-67 as national player of the year Eddie Richardson scored 28. SAIT led 38-34 at the half and began forcing a raft of Thunder turnovers in the second frame with their traps. “We kept putting pressure on them with our zone defence and controlled the tempo by pushing the ball up the floor really well. We got our open looks like we needed them and put our shots down,” said SAIT coach Craig Anderson. The Thunder (coached by Brian Ross) included Keith Miller, Daryl Balog, Graeme Reid, David Vandervelde, Travis Davson, Jordan Mottl, Paul Kuperus, Spencer Dorward, Sultan Mir, Justin Kelly, Trevor Dreger, David Kavanagh and Alex Scherer.
In the final, NAIT defeated Red Deer 78-72 as Jay Damery scored 20, Slav Kornik 14, Nat Schafer 12 and Loren Balon 12. A.K. Kaslauskas paced the Kings with 17. Mark Salkeld added 14 and Paul Rabel 10. The Kings led 54-44 at the half. Damery told the Red Deer Advocate “this team has so much experience. We weren’t about to panic when we got down by 10. We just kept our composure and got on a roll.” Kings coach Craig Behan said “tonight we showed some of our youth and inexperience. But it’s growing pains. Youth took us a long ways this year and I wouldn’t change this team for the world. … We get up by 10 and then we didn’t put them away. Our defence was okay but our offence became stagnant. … Sometimes, you have to learn how to lose before you win and this is one of those times.”
After the season, Murray Hanna resigns as Lethbridge coach.
The bronze medalist SAIT Trojans: Eddie Richardson III; Darryl Reinhardt; Nabil Bushnaq; Jamie McLeod; Joseph Benjamin; Oliver Sargeant; Fabian Warner; Rob Meidl; Scott Graham; Brian Laythorpe; Ryan McGovern; Richard Spriggs; Alden Spoonhunter; Emmanuel Chiek; Mike Stevens; coach Craig Anderson; assistant Jim Shields; assistant Sharon Anderson; manager John McIsaac; therapist Adam Davies
The silver medalist Red Deer Kings: A.K. Kazlauskas; Lee Sprunger; Nathan Tratechaud; Paul Rabel; Mark Salkeld; Joel Bancroft; Josh Bibbs; Franjo Crnkovic; Jordan Brown; Chris Girvan; Brock McMillan; Jesse Osterman; Kalem Edlund; Jeremy Smith
The gold medalist NAIT Ooks: Mark Dorado; Nathaniel Schaefer; Slav Kornik; Kyle Morrison; Cody Vermeulen; Jay Damery; Loren Balon; Sean Wragg; Jim Huffman; Steven Voogd; Shane Leman; John Pilz; Barett Hunter; Kyle Morrison; Steven Voogd; coach Marc Dobell; assistant Jason Harke; assistant Chuma Nwobosi; manager Colleen Penman