Final regular season standings: Grande Prairie (13-3); Lethbridge (12-4); SAIT (11-5); Medicine Hat (10-6); Grant MacEwan (9-7); Mount Royal (9-7); Red Deer (6-10); Augustana (2-14); NAIT (0-16)
Playoff non-qualifiers:
Augustana: Rob Page, Kerry Unger, J Watson, D Houston, R Campbell, M Croteau, B Johnson, S Hollingsworth, S Buban, B Aalhus, J Nelson, D Higgins, R Grenier, N Ashworth, N Hoose
Grant MacEwan: Darren Ross, D Jensen, Mikel Schmidt, J Gobeil, C Harker, R Steff, D Buss, J Beatty, R Popplestone, L Borschowa, H Quach, T Rumpel, S Wrobel
Mount Royal: Greg Pierce, E Furnell, Peter Knechtel, D Fry, S Yellowhorn, C Look, M Murphy, T McAdam, B Hunter, L McMaster, T Baehr, T McVicar, M Watts
NAIT: Richard Jory, Garrett Gray, Mark Kennedy, Pasha Caraher, Dale Taslo, E Serwadda, Ben Arguello, Peter So, Kevin Tidball, J Yarmuch, G Huber, D Kreller, coach Dave Hoy
Red Deer: Pat Keogh, Joel Chalifoux, Justin Holton, Shane Dezutter, Andre Richard, Craig Ericksen, Kevin O’Brien, Jody Gross, J Roshau, Jeremy Spelsberg, L Schultz, Pat Lutz, Danny Casavant, Darren Williams, coach John Johnstone
In the semis, the SAIT Trojans defeated the Lethbridge Kodiaks 54-84; 94-90; 69-67 (2g-1). …………………………………………………… In game one, Lethbridge prevailed 84-54 as Carlos Maffia scored 29, including 21 in the second half. Rob Kruger added 15. “We’re a better team,” said Maffia. “Whether it’s one point better or 30 points better, I can’t say. But I know we’ll do anything possible to advance. The Kodiaks shot 47% from the floor. Tony Poole led Trojans with 13. James Clark added 11. SAIT coach Phil Allen said “you have to give our kids credit. But (LCC) is a better team. They’re 10 or 12 deep on the bench, and that’s a lot of firepower. We were brutal. We took the same number of shots, we went to the line the same number of times, but their shots went in and ours didn’t. That allowed for it to be a blowout.” SAIT missed 18 foul shots and hit 33% from the line. “We don’t have the stars to go to,” added Allen. “We have guys who work hard, but when you count on one or two players for scoring, and they have an off night, then the whole team is off.” Kodiak coach Jason Valgardson noted that “if someone is hot, you go to him. Carlos was taking good shots, and be was open. Kruger had 15 in the second half. Our scoring can come from a lot of places.” Allen said “we haven’t given up. We’ll be there Saturday. (LCC) did their hoop and hollering. They rubbed our faces in it pretty good. But our guys have long memories. We have a lot of young players who are going to be around for a long time in this conference. One thing I remembered a long time ago. When you win, win classy. If you lose, lose classy. They did their thing. They did things I wouldn’t allow as a coach. But maybe that’s what we need for next year is a little incentive with our young guys.” …………………………………………………… In game two, SAIT evened the series with a 94-90 win as Tony Poole scored 31. Carlos Maffia led Lethbridge with 26. Bruce Babiuk added 21. Kodiak coach Jason Valgardson said his troops couldn’t defence anyone. “Ninety-four points says it all. We gave up only 54 points on Thursday, so it’s a 40-point difference. Our defence wasn’t as intense as it needs to be and we take a lot of pride in our defence. SA1T also shot a high percentage and hit a lot of key baskets.” …………………………………………………… In game three, SAIT nipped host Lethbridge 69-67. “It’s been a long time,” said SAIT coach Phil Allen. “But, I’m really proud of these guys. Not a lot of people gave us much of a chance against Lethbridge. They did it with guts and effort.” The Kodiaks led 32-17 early and 43-34 at the half. The Trojans took their first lead, 67-66 on a trey with 42 seconds to play. The Kodiaks missed on their next attempt and fouled SAIT’s Chris Tchir with 18 seconds left. Tchir made both for a 69-66 lead. LCC had a final chance at a three-point basket, but Claudio Maffia and Robert Kruger passed up attempts, instead leaving Carlos Maffia to try a desperation shot which fell short. James Clark led the Trojans with 20. Tony Poole added 14. Carlos Maffia led the Kodiaks with 24. Dalton Rowland added 12. “We didn’t adjust at all,” said Kodiaks coach Jason Valgardson. “They switched defences and confused us a bit. I felt we had to reverse the ball a little more to look for the open men, but I guess that’s hindsight now.” The Kodiaks (coached by Jason Valgardson) included Carlos Maffia, Dalton Rowland, M Hitsch, Rob Kruger, Pat Hicks, Tyson Lybbert, Cl. Maffia, K Caldwell, Bruce Babiuk, M Roemmele, D Vigilance, D Oczkowski.
In the other semi, the Grande Prairie Wolves defeated the Medicine Hat Rattlers 69-50; 75-55 (2g-0). …………………………………………………… In game one, Grande Prairie prevailed 69-50 as Joel Mueller scored 16. Rabo Nijenhuis led the Rattlers with 15. Dan Ibister added 15 and Cory Harrison 10. …………………………………………………… In game two, Grande Prairie completed the sweep with a 75-55 win as Joel Mueller scored 17 and Len Schultz 17. The Wolves led 30-28 at the half. Wolve Henry Schellenburg told the Grande Prairie Herald Tribune that “game one was a brutal game for us. We just couldn’t put it together, even though we did win. But today, we started working as a team more and pulled it off. I was getting a little worried there towards the half. (Coach Kelly Ohlhauser) just talked about picking it up, playing some defence and showing more determination.” Ohlhauser said “offensively, we certainly functioned a lot better the entire second half. We’ve done that sort of thing before. We’ve had sort of iffy first halves and then been able to put the hammer down when necessary. That’s the kind of clutch performance we need.” The Rattlers shot .320 from the floor and .500 from the line. Len Schultz led the Rattlers with 17. Cory Harrison added 12 and Rabo Nijenhuis 10. The Rattlers (coached by Jim Bonin) also included Andrew Lawson, Matt Deutscher, M McLeod, Jason Adams, Wade Hackl, S Thomas, Dan Ibister, Greg Pierce, David Fry, Shay Yellowhorn, Eric Furnell.
In the finals, the Grande Prairie Wolves defeated the SAIT Trojans 69-71; 82-74; 93-69 (2g-1).
In game one, SAIT nipped host Grande Prairie 71-69 as James Clark scored 22. Evan Mueller led Grande Prairie with 18.
In game two, Grande Prairie prevailed 82-74 as Greg Sales scored 36.
In game three, Grande Prairie took the title with a 93-69 win as Greg Sale scored 19. Sale told the Grande Prairie Herald Tribune that “we came out fired up, played well and worked hard and won. We earned it. We stayed poised for 40 minutes and never let up. They never had a chance to get back in it.” Wolve Jamie Fitzpatrick added that “it just show what our team can do. We’ve never worked so hard these last two games and it just feels really good. I don’t know what to say.” Wolves coach Kelly Ohlhauser said “the guys played totally unselfish basketball, taking themselves off when they were getting tired. Everybody went in and contributed. It was just a real team effort. … They have consistently come through under pressure. I think we’re a little bit more talented overall but I think the difference was our depth and our work ethic. We got tough on the boards. We hit the big shots and just kept our poise.”
The silver medalist SAIT Trojans: James Clark; Tony Poole; Chris Tchir; Peter Sambu; Rob Loewen; Sascha Bouzaara; Keith Christenson; Kore Jana; S. Nelson; Greg Jamieson; David Haughton; Kent Courtice; Richard Hilchie; L. Bruno; Bern Ettinger; Jeff Allen; Evan Schriver; Ray Robinson; coach Phil Allen; assistant Winston Turpin; assistant Rae Fehr; assistant Kurt MacNeil; manager Chuck Kerr
The gold medalist Grande Prairie Regional College Wolves: Greg Sale; Evan Mueller; Henry Schellenburg; C. Lavasseur; Joel Mueller; C. Outhet; Jamie Fitzpatrick; Wayne Savoury; W. Baker; G. Parmar; R. Henderson; D. Christensen; R. Sampson; coach Kelly Ohlhauser