Final regular season standings:
North (7): Grant MacEwan (22-2), NAIT (18-6), Augustana (17-7), King’s Univ. (10-14), Concordia (8-16); Grande Prairie (8-16), Red Deer (1-23).
South (6): SAIT (17-3), Lethbridge (13-7), Medicine Hat (13-7), Mount Royal (11-9), Prairie Bible (6-14) and Briercrest (0-20).
Playoff non-qualifiers:
Briercrest Bible: James Beer, Kirk Buist, Jonathon Hau, Kellen Dick, Russell Schwartz, Brad Reimer, Dean Dueck, Andrew Bracewell, Neil Graham, Kreston Ferris, Jeremy Greening, David Osborne
Concordia: Darren Graham, Scott Frost, Dave Brown, Dukie Tugwell, Nicholas Phelan, Jeff Huffman, Chris Wilson, Kerry Cooper, Matt Hamilton, John Whitmore, Tilton Reed, Kevin Kyle, Rob Nayowski, Brendan Despins, coach Chris Nicol
Grande Prairie: Andrew Boone, Collin Yates, Trevor Kerschbaumer, Nathan Sales, Cam Smith, Jeff Serle, Dean Yakimchuk, Derrick Sheane, Christian Desierto, Andy Ralston, Jacques Franke, Kent Ruether, David Stehelin, Chris Gow
Prairie Bible: Matt See, Marcus Schmaling, Joseph Ness, Terrance Visser, Jon McFadyen, Carl Friesen, Jeff Gossen, Steve Klinger, Dan Carlson, Aaron Oevering, Jason Dunbar
Red Deer: Darryl Hemstreet, Kurt Van Hollen, Tim Laudrom, Bob Schurman, Sean Wiens, Chris Copicio, Ian Thomson, Matt Anderson, Chris Unrau, Ray Blackmore, Aaron Falk, Brent Hamilton, Damien Vanderberg, Dean Whitford, Josh Nugent, Sam Foon
In the quarterfinals, Grant MacEwan defeated Mount Royal 81-71; 89-64 (2g-0). The Cougars included Eddie Richardson, Tom Hudel, Rich Dela Pena, Kelly Lundgren, Dylan Surina, Rick Van Winkle, Cameron Hall, Kevin Stephens, Kevin O’Reilly, Neil McFarlane, Luke Henry and Vasily Douros.
Medicine Hat defeated NAIT 68-80; 74-70, 73-69 (2g-1). …………………………………………………… In game one, NAIT prevailed 80-68 as Jason Damery scored 24. “Of our five starters, four played terrible,” Rattlers coach Mike Connolly told the Medicine Hat News. “The good news is, we could never play that badly again.” The Rattlers trailed by 12 early, fell behind by 22 but rallied within five before the Ooks iced it at the line. Rich Humphrey paced the Rattlers with 24. “We did not play well at all,” Connolly said. “We had a lot of jitters. We were too emotional, and we made too many mistakes because of it. Our inexperience showed. Offensively, we didn’t play well — we just didn’t make the simple passes. We tried too hard. We had to play them to know what their weaknesses are. Defensively, we didn’t know what to do against them — now, we do.”
…………………………………………………… In game two, the Rattlers evened the series with a 74-70 win. “Now, we’re even-up, and all the pressure’s on them,” Rattlers coach Mike Connolly told the Medicine Hat News. “We were down 10 points with three minutes left.” But Mike Anderson came off the bench to ignite the Rattlers. “We put Mike in because he’s a bigger guy who can score,” Connolly said. “He started to score, and it opened things up for the other guys. Our offence wasn’t playing bad up until that point, we were just missing shots. We were going six minutes at a time out there not scoring at all.” Scott Coulthard shut down Ooks star point guard Slav Kornak while earning player of the game honours. “We wanted to come out and maintain good defence,” said Connolly. “Nothing special—just take away the individuals. We really did need to see them first to make the adjustments. They’re a very athletic and quick team.” Coulthard and Kenny Wells each scored 13 to lead the Rattlers. “We’ve had a problem scoring — it’s nerves and being on the road,” Connolly said. “The first night we were tentative. But (Friday), we were assertive.” …………………………………………………… In game three, the Rattlers took the series with a 73-69 win. “We started shooting the ball down the stretch, and we took the lead with about 25 or 30 seconds left and
never relinquished it,” coach Mike Connolly told the Medicine Hat News. Mike Anderson came off the bench and scored 10 consecutive points in the final two minutes of play for the Rattlers. Rich Humphrey said “we went up there thinking they were the superior team, but once we got the shots going, confidence came pouring back and we played like we have all year.” The Ooks (coached by Marc Dobell) included Jason Damery, Slav Kornik, Mike Lecavalier, Jason Leslie, Bryn Porter, David Rough, Shaun Plesuk, Sam Hachem, Ahmed Majed, John Varga, John Warren, Kees Rutten and Kyle Woolley.
SAIT defeated the King’s College Eagles 86-88 in overtime; 85-65; 84-68 (2g-1). …………………………………………………… In game one, the Eagles led 38-29 at the half but the Trojans rallied to force overtime on a Dwayne Burkett bucket that knotted the score at 79 with 1.1 seconds to play. The teams traded the lead in the overtime session but SAIT’s Sam Salter missed a desperation trey at the buzzer to win it. Salter led the Trojans with 30. …………………………………………………… In game three, Dwayne Burkett scored 34, including five from beyond the arc, to lead the Trojans. “We dropped the first game and that was a reality check. We wanted to show that we’re not joking around. We want the national championship this year.” Burkett nailed a trey to give the Trojans the lead for good at 5-4. Sam Salter added a two-handed dunk as they extended their lead to 14-6. SAIT led 43-28 at the half and romped as Burkett and 6-8 forward Rod Barnett repeated forced Eagle turnovers. Salter added 15. “We noticed they like sitting in a zone defence and run about six to seven deep on their bench,” said Burkett. “We tried to utilize our bench eight or nine deep and they were tired by the end.” Steve Smit paced the Eagles with 17. Russell Devries added 15. The Eagles also included Michael Wagner, Mark Vince, Brad Grotkowski, David McKinnon, Travis Wagner, Jonathan Van Huis, Brandon Condratow, Joel Mohammed and Greg Sneep.
In the last quarterfinal, Lethbridge defeated Augustana 73-77 in overtime; 83-63; 86-68 (2g-1). The Vikings included Tom West, Mike Wedman, Andy Johnston, Leo West, Darcy Lindberg, Chris Fischer, Layne Anderson, Ken Cockshott, Barnaby Provost, Andrew Ignatiuk and Greg Luchak.
In the Final Four semis, SAIT defeated Medicine Hat 89-75. “They were shooting unbelievable,” Rattlers forward Chad Watson told the Medicine Hat News. “We couldn’t explain what was going on. Everyone was hitting, and I can’t explain why we weren’t. We couldn’t find it, and when we did, it was too late.” The Rattlers were also hurt by three quick fouls to 6-8 forward Rod Barnett. The Trojans led 42-28 at the half. “I thought they made some tough shots, and we could never get going,” said Rattlers’ coach Mike Connolly. “We never ran the motion offence like we wanted to, got the ball moving or had people cutting. We seemed to be hesitant, and that’s a sign of an inexperienced team. I thought we played very hard until the end. I thought we played very well defensively and made them take some very tough shots, which they made.” With Barnett back on the floor in the second half, the perimeter opened up for guards Sam Salter and Dwayne Birkett. Trojans coach Peter Sambu said “we knew we were going up against a very tough Medicine Hat team—a well-coached team — and
I knew we had to have contributions from some of our big guys and fortunately, they came through. They couldn’t stop Rod — he’s a great player He’s six-foot-eight with long arms, and they had problems stopping him. That’s how we prepared
— we knew they didn’t have the inside presence to stop him.” Connolly said “we were supposed to front him (Barnett) and not let him get the ball. When we front him, he’s in trouble. When we play behind him, we’re in trouble. Matt Gottselig is six-foot-three, and that guy is six-eight, and you can’t play behind him when you are shorter. That was a mental mistake, and perhaps Matt was concerned that he had three or four fouls.” Salter paced the Rattlers with 27. Birkett added 24, Rich Humphrey 18, Barnett 14 and Scott Coulthard 9.
In the other semi, host Grant MacEwan defeated Lethbridge 81-69.
In the bronze medal match, Medicine Hat defeated Lethbridge 90-85. “I think it was important to come back and win after the letdown the night before — it shows a lot of character,” Rattlers coach Mike Connolly told the Medicine Hat News. “Another thing we did is we made a conscience effort to play as many guys as we could. I think we played nine guys and nine guys scored, and that was important for our development.” The Rattlers were in command from the start, leading by nine at the half. “We made a couple of mistakes,” said Connolly. “They hit some long shots — there were a couple of long threes that were super-long, and I didn’t ever think they would hit those — but that’s what happens when you get a game like (Saturday). People are more relaxed, and they’re just going to shoot it. But I didn’t really feel that the game was out of control. I felt we had control when it was coming down to the end, and I knew our guys wanted to win. They wanted to win badly, and we haven’t lost back-to-back since the beginning of the year.” Rich Humphrey, who scored 12, said “obviously, our goal was to win the tournament, but under the circumstances, I think we did the best we could. We have a little bit of a rivalry with LCC, and I think it’s going to carry over into next year. If you are not ready to get up for that game, then you shouldn’t be playing basketball.” Alex Shaw added 16 for the Rattlers, Kyle Gilchrist 13 and Chad Watson 11. Ryan Mitchell led the Kodiaks with 27. Kodiaks coach Craig Anderson told the Lethbridge Herald “the bronze medal game doesn’t mean a lot.” The Kodiaks also included Kevin French, Dustin Miller, Dave Mulholland, Michael Nieboer, Rob Stirling, Parker Peterson, A.J. Jeannotte, Julien de Brito, Jonathan Hamilton, Kevin Monson and Wes Gurney.
In the final, Grant MacEwan defeated SAIT 86-77. The Griffins led by one with for minutes to play when a missed free throw by Trojan guard Dwayne Burkett seemed to ignite Grant MacEwan as they powered to the win down the stretch. Theo Parks led Grant MacEwan with 15 points and 6 boards. Rod Barnett was chosen player of the game after scoring 15 and nabbing 9 boards for SAIT.
The bronze medalist Medicine Hat Rattlers: Chad Watson; Rich Humphrey; Alex Shaw; Matt Gottselig; Kris Harris; Michael Anderson; Kenny Wells; Scott Coulthard; Lane Heggie; Rick Shaw; Kyle Gilchrist; Mike Humphrey; Jamie Newman; Raphael John Pierre; Keble Shaw;
The silver medalist SAIT Trojans: Sam Salter; Dwayne Burkett; Rod Barnett; Jay Van Tornhout; Jeff Wright; Ryan Martin; Kris Wiggins; T.C. Franklin; Ian Spriggs; Darryl Reinhardt; Tristan Blackwood; Ian Richard; Tony Fitz; A. Graystone; coach Peter Sambu; assistant Errol Nelson; assistant Craig Price; manager John McIsaac; therapist Melanie Somers;
The gold medalist Grant MacEwan Griffins: Tom Coyne, Robbie Valpreda, Greg Bourne, John Hull, Theo Parks, Graeme Reid, J.J. Russell, Rob Killen, Brandon Horton, Jarom Scott, Sean Barford, Jared Kilkenny, Nathan Deklerk, Sean Wragg, Shaughnessy Gialet; Nathan DeKlerk; Ashraf Sherif; coach Phil Allen