In the opening round, held in Hinton, the 8th-seeded Wetaskiwin Sabres stuffed the 9th-seeded Barrhead Lorne Jenken Gryphons 63-42. The Gryphons included Glen Anderson, Wayne DeBoer, Joey Degner, Richard Ellens, Trevor Hassett, Trevor Hemmerling, Andrew Kuschminder, Matthew Neumann, Andrew Rentz, Craig Schatz and Eugene Unrau. …………………………………………………… The 5th-seeded Airdrie George McDougall Mustangs clipped the 12th-seeded Fort McMurray Miners 83-75. “We missed a lot of wide-open lay-ups and were actually down by 15 with 23 minutes left in the game,” said Mustangs coach Ryan Haggarty. “Then we went on a 23-3 run to come back and win by eight points. It was a good team effort.” The Miners included Zak Abdi, Hussein Ali, Chad Bean, Wyatt Brennais, Mitch Burry, Travis Chaulk, Aaron Daniels, John Dilney, Paul MacNeil, Tyler Matthews, Patrick O’Connell, Moe Sleiman and Seth Stuve. …………………………………………………… The 6th-seeded Medicine Hat Crescent Heights Vikings defeated the Hinton Harry Collinge Rockies 67-62. “We knew it was going to be a tough game coming in,” said Vikings coach Lee Woodward. “That team is a lot better than their eleventh ranking. They have a good balance in their team with size and quickness.” Rockies coach Grant Kammermayer said “Lindsey [Hobson] played great, Johnny [Cassagrande] played wonderful and our Grade 10s came off the bench to have great games.” The Rockies included Landon Anderson, Dylan Beiker, Giovanni Casagrande, Danny Hall, Kolton Hattebuhr, Lindsey Hobson, Brady Kammermayer, Dylan Mellott, Marco Ortega and Warren Whiskeychan. …………………………………………………… The 7th-seeded Edmonton Christian Lions whipped the Grande Prairie St. Joseph’s Celtics 80-69. The Celtics included Mack Bain, Jess Demish, Michael Donaldson, Zach Duinker, Dylan Kramps, Cam Leibel, Doug Morris, Kyle Pura, John Tetu and Nick Thibault.
In the quarterfinals, the 4th-seeded Lethbridge Winston Churchill Bulldogs dusted the 5th-seeded Airdrie George McDougall Mustangs 94-82. Mustangs coach Ryan Haggarty said his troops got off to a great start and led by 15 points heading into the second quarter but foul trouble hurt them in the second. “Fouls were 25-11 in favour of Winston Churchill. They were on the foul line for pretty much the entire game. It was a 12-point loss but it was very close right down to the end. … We had a great start. We were up 11-2 and up 15 points in the second quarter. We got into some foul trouble and that really changed the game. A couple calls gave them the momentum to get back into that game. Right at the end we just missed a couple shots and they made some shots. The game could have gone either way.” The Mustangs included Hayden Benoit, Jesse Dow, Dylan Gavel, A.J. Kolankowski, Alex Louder, Mark MacEachen, Tyler Nygren, Brett Payne, Dan Vogelaar and Patrick Walker.
The top-seeded Calgary Chestermere Cowboys stomped the 8th-seeded Wetaskiwin Sabres 100-39. The Sabres (coached by Chuck Hebert) included Dylan Bentson, Jeff Encomienda, Andrew Greenidge, Matt Greenidge, Mark Hobden, Matt Kushak, Garret Luebke, Jaman Moussa, Mark Reyes and David Shantz.
The 6th-seeded Medicine Hat Crescent Heights Vikings stunned the 3rd-seeded Edmonton Louis St. Laurent Barons 72-55. The Barons included Arsene Di N’Zau Mbudi, Chris Gaertner, Igor Kabanda, Serge Kasinyabo, Roland Labrech, Sechaba Modise, Uchenna Obuekwe, Dang Paul, Joel Rosery, Mark Ryan, Bretton Whervin and Denver Whervin.
In the last quarterfinal, the 2nd-seeded Calgary Springbank Phoenix dumped the 7th-seeded Edmonton Christian Lions 79-62. The Lions included Dini Arkangelo, Mike Brandsma, David Luth, Eugen Ndhlovu, Brad Quartel, Mack Stobart, Clayton Stol, Josiah Thigpen, Lucas VanBerkel, Jesse VanderMueulen, Ellis VanGinhoven, Phil Vriend and Robert Ward
In the semis, the top-seeded Calgary Chestermere Cowboys defeated the 4th-seeded Lethbridge Winston Churchill Bulldogs 107-97. “They shot the lights out on us,” said Chestermere coach Rob Wilson. “But we shot the ball better than we’ve ever shot all season. It was one of the very few games this year where our offence carried the team where I think we are more defensive-minded.” The group was perfect off the free-throw line making all 21 attempts and hit 14 three-pointers, nine of which were sunk by Lance Wesolowski. “I had the hot hand that game, I guess,” said the six-foot-four, 17-year-old. “The guys all knew that, so they just tried to get the ball to me when I was in good position.”
In the other semi, the 2nd-seeded Calgary Springbank Phoenix stomped the 6th-seeded Medicine Hat Crescent Heights Vikings 87-54.
In the bronze medal match, the 5th-seeded Lethbridge Winston Churchill Bulldogs crushed the 6th-seeded Medicine Hat Crescent Heights Vikings 84-56. The Vikings (coached by Lee Woodward, assisted by Jason Martin and Adam Troitsky)
included Gregg Hannah, Derek Leentvaar, Corbin Lightfoot, Logan Lindsay, Tim McKinnon, Mark Scheffelmair, Garrett Stubbs, Shlomo Swan-Azmon, Bryan Walker, Kelly Wester and Ashton Buhler.
In the final, the top-seeded Calgary Chestermere Cowboys edged the 2nd-seeded Calgary Springbank Phoenix 93-88 to capture their second consecutive provincial title. It was also the fifth consecutive year that the South Central Zone had won gold and silver at the provincials, demonstrating that it was easily the toughest zone in the province. “Honestly, between Springbank and us, we were the best two 3A teams in the province — no question about it,” said Chestermere head coach Rob Wilson. “It was a bigger feat a year ago because we weren’t the best team in Alberta at that time, so to win last year was pretty special. I think there was more pressure this year because it felt like we should win and we accomplished that goal.” Although Springbank tried to key in on Chestermere’s top point-scorers, its defence was no match for the Lakers 6-5 Sean McCormick, who scored 33 and 6-6 Kyle Wilson, who drained 31. Meanwhile, Grade 12 point guard Lance Wesolowski knocked down five three-pointers for another 15. “We scored plenty of points,” noted Wilson. “But I thought when kids like Lance shoot the ball that well, it messes up what they’re trying to do.” At halftime, Chestermere led Springbank by 10 and was up by 15 after the third quarter. But Springbank came out and scored 37 in the final frame. “That is probably more than anyone’s ever scored on us, but they got very, very hot,” said Wilson. “Everything they shot seemed to go in. Last year, it was hard for us. When it came down to the provincial final, (we) gave it our all. We were kind of the underdogs. “Really, it was a toss-up (this year) which team was going to win (between Springbank and Chestermere). It was a really, really close game the whole entire time. We had to give it our all.” Springbank coach Danny Eveleigh said “I didn’t think that they could play as well as they did in the zone championship, and they did. The zone championship, they played phenomenal and they go into provincials and do the same thing. They are just a very, very good team,” Springbank coach Danny Eveleigh said. Eveleigh added that his troops did admirably in the absence of starting guard Jarret Sami, who suffered a sprained ankle early in the first game of the tournament. “Those other players had to elevate their game to make up for [his being] missing, and they totally did.”
The bronze medalist Lethbridge Winston Churchill Bulldogs: Seth Burdett; Min Jun Jang; Ken Otieno; Thomas Ekubazgi; Hyo Jun Jang; Dan Dragland; Chris Hatton; Jordan Dyck; Dayton Tratch; Jeff Blondeau; Keaton Bosch; Evan Brown; coach Kevin McBeath; assistant Jace Forsyth; assistant Dan Court
The silver medalist Calgary Springbank Phoenix: Jarret Sami; Andrew Wolf; Ethan Henkelman; Garrett Turner; Garrett Vermey; Jesse Youmans; Josh Angle; Lee Erisman; Luke Curry; Mitch Hanen; Nathanael Carrigan; Tarek Ebrahim; coach Danny Eveleigh
The gold medalist Calgary Chestermere Cowboys: Kyle Wilson; Sean McCormick; Lance Wesolowski; Mitch Bec; Greg Rideout; Dale Christensen; Mike Neufeld; Mitch Enders; Ben Vitale; Steve Eidsness; Tyler Carlson; Carson Jones; coach Rob Wilson