Final regular season standings:
North (7): NAIT (20-4); Augustana (18-6); Grant MacEwan (14-10); Concordia (14-10); Red Deer (13-11); King’s U. College (3-21); Grande Prairie (2-22).
South (6); SAIT (17-3); Medicine Hat (15-5); Lethbridge (10-10); Mount Royal (10-10); Briercrest Bible (5-15); Prairie Bible (3-17)
Playoff non-qualifiers:
Briercrest Bible: Zach Kaiser, Gene Wolverton, Jerry Wolverton, Chris Ostrander, Jon Thiessen, Gareth Nakagee, Brad Reimer, Will Bergman, Brad Wilton, Brad Hoogendoorn, Jason Zult, Bryce Kaiser, coach Galen Plett
Grande Prairie: Jeff Serle, Pipon Moose, Eric Cable, Dan Kinvig, Christian Desierto, Jacques Franke, Jonathan Yuill, Emmanuel Idonije, Che Williams, Michael Ansah, Simon Wiederkehr, Stacey Kelsh, Matt Roucek, coach Kelly Ohlhauser
Prairie Bible: Joseph Ness, Chauncey Evans, Marcus Schmaling, Jared French, Kevin Meis, Kevin Davidson, Ryan Siemans, Sheldon Rempel, Jeff Gossen, Cam Klassen, Jeremy Koleba, Peter Siemens, coach Craig Wilsman
Red Deer: Troy Arnett, Sean Weins, Kurtis Von Hollen, Jason Nicolay, Rob Luymes, Brian Hemstreet, Jesse Oysterman, Jeremy Smith, Rick Feser, Dallas Dementigny, Aaron Falk, Jordan Stewart, Josh Nugent, Shelby Sawatzky, Danial Davis, Ryan Jackson, coach John Johnston
King’s University College: David McKinnon, Brandon Condratow, Tyler Steinbrenner, Sam Gaugler, Shane Smith, Jeremy Horlings, Jay Duke, Dallas Brown, Jon Van Huis, Jason Reedyk, Paul Graff, Brendon Despins, coach Robert Day
In the quarterfinals, SAIT defeated Concordia 112-63; 85-86; 68-53 (2g-1). …………………………………………………… In the decisive third game, Eddie Richardson scored 19 to lead the Trojans. The Thunder (coached by Chris Nicol) included Hugh Foster, Jim Huffman, Andrew Parker, Nick Phelan, Chris Wilson, Matt Hamilton, Carlos Morales, Rob Nayowski, John Whitmore, Jody Cardinal, Chris King, Kerry Cooper, Graham Lettner and Jared Majeski.
NAIT defeated Mount Royal 110-87; 100-89 (2g-0). The Cougars (coached by Stephen Price) included Kelly Lundgren, Neil Collier, Kevin O’Reilly, Rich Dela Pena, Rohan Edwards, Jamie Brown, Carson Powell, Adam Fleming, Cam Hall, Jordan Raugust, Chris James, Dylan Surina, Kevin Stephens, Mark Wilson, Jaime Angove and Colin MacKay.
Medicine Hat defeated Grant MacEwan 73-71; 94-74 (2g-0). …………………………………………………… In game one, the Rattlers edged the Griffins 73-71. “We won the first game. We were lucky, we snuck away with it and now we have to win one more,” Rattlers coach Mike Connolly told the Medicine Hat News. “That’s what matters and now it puts us in a little bit of the driver’s seat.” Griffins coach Chuma Nwobosi said “I’m happy that we had an opportunity to win the game, but you never come into a game thinking that if we only lose by two, we’re going to be happy. We come here to win. We have to rebound the ball better. They had too many second chances. If we rebound the ball better, I think we’re going to be okay.” The Rattlers led 42-32 at the half and by as many as 12. “They played a helluva game,” Connolly said. “They battled hard, they worked hard. I thought we worked hard, I just think both teams had too many turnovers down the stretch. At playoff time you can’t do that. We need to take care of the ball better. We had way too many turnovers and in the playoffs that can really cost you.” Leading by two with nine seconds to play, Rattler guard Scott Coulthard threw away an inbounds pass but Tim Whitehead blocked a final Griffins shot with four seconds remaining. An ensuing tie-up gave the final possession to the Rattlers but Coulthard was called for an inbound violation, giving the ball back to the Griffins. “The first one was a lack of execution,” Connolly said. “The guy is not concentrating and we draw up a play and they don’t run it. On the second one, I don’t even think he traveled, I think that was a terrible call for a playoff game. I’m going to send that tape into the referees, because he didn’t move. He’s allowed to move three feet, he may have taken three steps, but he didn’t move three feet and that’s something that could have really hurt us.” On the ensuing play, Griffin guard Graham Michaels had a good look at the basket from three-point distance, only to have Rattier forward Mike Anderson stumble into him as the clock expired. No foul was called. Whitehead led the Rattlers with 17. Chad Watson added 16. Tim Coyne and Daryl Baloy each scored 11 to lead the Griffins. “We’re deep and we’re talented and that’s what you need to have a good basketball program,” said Connolly, who saw his All-Star Rich Humphrey go down with an ankle injury in the first half. “Tim did a good job stepping in for us.” …………………………………………………… In game two, Medicine Hat completed the series sweep by dusting Grant MacEwan 94-74 as Darcy Day Chief lit up the nets for 21. “Yesterday, Darcy was O-for-10 and we knew that wasn’t going to happen again,” said Griffins’ coach Chuma Nwoliosi. “That was the difference. We worked hard. We just got beat by a team that shot the ball extremely well — uncharacteristically well at this level.” Chad Watson also notched 21 for the Rattlers, while Sarain Soonais scored 14. Andrew James led the Griffins with 22. Graeme Reid added 11. Rattlers coach Mike Connolly told the News that “we had one of our better defensive efforts all year. They had series when they couldn’t get shots off. They were averaging 21 attempted threes a game. Yesterday we held them to 13 and I don’t know what we held them to today, but I know we held them down to when they did shoot it, they were chucking it.” The Griffins were 0-10 from the arc. “The other thing we did is we played our pace. We didn’t allow their zone to slow us down,” Connolly added. Day Chief said “we were just hungry tonight. We should have beaten them this bad yesterday, too. We were
just hungry and we wanted to win and get it over with.” The Griffins (coached by Chuma Nwobosi) included Tom Coyne, Graeme Reid, Andrew James, Daryl Balog, Travis Dawson, Graham Michaels, Keith Miller, Neuville Wright, Ryan Hareuther, Jordan Mottl, Jeremy Mills, Reid Baker, Josh McJannet, Ian Mobach, Jake Maslowski, Jordan Mador and Steve Miller.
In the last quarterfinal, Augustana defeated Lethbridge 93-77; 80-68 (2g-0). The Kodiaks (coached by Craig Anderson) included Mike Nieboer, Liav Peled, Juliano DeBrito, Colin Sheen, Troy Hansen, Aaron Gwilliam, Jon Hamilton, Jon Walker, Ezra Gwilliam, Mitch Watson, Wes Gurney, Mike Duncombe and Ryan Darroch.
In the Final Four semis, hosted by SAIT in Calgary, the NAIT Ooks defeated the Medicine Hat Rattlers 99-80. Medicine Hat led 38-31 at the half but wilted under NAIT’s defensive pressure as the Ooks scored a season high 68 second-half points.
In the other semi, the SAIT Trojans nipped the Augustana Vikings 70-67 despite shooting only 40 per cent. Augustana led 33-26 at the half but the Trojans rallied, telling each other at the half that they couldn’t play any worse. ‘It was awful in that first half,” said Ryan Martin was named SAIT’s player of the game after scoring 11 and dishing 7 assists. “But we sucked it up and turned it around.” SAIT took their first lead midway through the second half at 52-47. With the Griffins struggling from the floor, the Trojans took command by controlling the defensive boards. “In the second half, I put in a small lineup that I had been experimenting with,” said Trojans coach Peter Sambu. “They started buzzing around. Once we got the momentum, it was very tough for them to get back in it.”
In the bronze medal match, Medicine Hat edged Augustana 70-68. The Vikings (coached by Stacy Lorenz) included Tom West, Mike Wedman, Cameron Kusiek, Barnaby Provost, Leo West, Andrew Ignatiuk, Zen Wiebe, Layne Anderson, Cody Lowry, Truman Soop, Greg Luchak, Zac Swann and Darcy Lindberg.
In the final, NAIT defeated SAIT 113-79. The Ooks led by 10 at the half and extended their lead to as many as 24 in the romp. “We played probably two of our best games of the year at the ACAC championships, so we felt like we’re hitting our stride right now,” said coach Marc Dobell. SAIT star Eddie Richardson, who scored 28, said the Trojans “weren’t even playing defence in the first half. In the second half, we self-destructed. They hit everything and we couldn’t hit anything.” Jason Damery led NAIT with 36. Loren Balon added 22. “I don’t know who could’ve beaten my guys tonight,” said Dobell. “We ran and ran and I think we wore them out. They couldn’t keep up.” Damery said the win was “the most incredible feeling I’ve ever had. Our team doesn’t quit. We fight to the end.”
The bronze medalist Medicine Hat Rattlers: Darcy Day Chief; Richard Humphrey; Scott Coulthard; Tim Whitehead; Sorain Soonias; Mike Anderson; Matthew Gottselig; Chad Watson; Kenny Wells; Kyle Gilchrist; Mike Humphrey; Tico Iron Shirt; Cole Rasmussen; Steve Christie; coach Mike Connolly
The silver medalist SAIT Trojans: Eddie Richardson III; Mike Raimbault; Ryan Martin; Rod Barnett; Jeff Hudson; Darryl Reinhardt; Anthony Fitz; Dan Reid; Jeff Knoblauch; Joseph Palmer; Adam Lukomski; Richard ‘Ian’ Spriggs; Clayton Peterson; Keffrey Johnson; Bol Deng-Gai; Peter James; Tony Fita; coach Peter Sambu; assistant Jeff Wright; assistant Brian LaBelle; therapist Terri Chaffey
The gold medalist NAIT Ooks: Jason Damery; Loren Balon; Leif Puffer; Matt Burton; Andrew Melnychuk; Mark Dorado; Nathaniel Scheaffer; Ahmed Majed; Shawn Parsons; Bryn Porter; Shaun Plesuk; Jarret Gravelle; Kyle Woolley; Andrae Thomas; coach Marc Dobell