Final regular season standings: Red Deer (14-0); Mount Royal (11-3); Medicine Hat (x-x); Lethbridge (x-x); NAIT (5-9); Grande Prairie (0-14)
Playoff non-qualifiers:
Camrose Lutheran: Barb Paton, Jeannette McMillan, Judy Brausen, Irene Kufeld
Grande Prairie: Millie Campbell, Sue Wright,
Grant MacEwan:
NAIT Ookpikettes: Brenda Brown, Grace Twitchell, Marie Engels, Joan Bohatczuk, Pat Vos, Janet Bunney, Marnie Henne, Karen Lickacz, Dianne Erickson, coach Monique Collister
Olds:
SAIT:
In the semis, the Medicine Hat Kudus stunned second-place Mount Royal 39-38 as Donna Mastel hit the winning free throw with 1:44 to play. Sonja Smeland paced the Kudus with 15. Wendy Lien added 8, Wendy Strain 7 and Nora Way 6. Gayle Bain led the Kittens with 12. Debbie Yanota added 10 and Frieda Mennes 6. The Kittens led 21-19 at the half.
In the other semi, the regular season champ Red Deer Queens dispatched the Lethbridge Kodiaks 55-50 as Chris Graves scored 18, Val Kallis 13, Ann Wynia 8, Charlotte Shmyr 6 and Debbie Williams 4. The Queens led 29-27 at the half and took command as Williams hit two buckets to ignite a run that gave Red Deer a 10-point lead. Queens coach Barry Dunkley told the Red Deer Advocate that his troops were “up tight” early. Shirley Yuill led the Kodiaks with 14. Debbie Ransom added 13, Joanne MacDonald (McDonnell?) 10, Judy McNab 4 and Nancy Kinnear 4.
In the bronze medal match, the Mount Royal Kittens dusted the Lethbridge Kodiaks 57-33 as Gayle Bain scored 15, Fried Mennes 10, Gloria Townsend 10, Kathy Peacock 9 and Deb Yonata 9. Shirley Yuill paced the Kodiaks with 10. Deb Ransom added 7. The Kodiaks (coached by Buster Burke) also included Nancy Kinnear, Laverne Saunders, Judy McNab, Sharon Garber; Janice Paterson, Judy McNab, Joanne Mcdonald, Carmen Mazerolle, Rita McClain, Jan Patton, Barb Liss.
In the final, the Medicine Hat Kudus handed the host Red Deer Queens their first loss of the season by a 40-39 count as Sonja Smeland scored 12, Nora Way 10, Donna Mastel 6 and Lauren Moyer 6. Officials called a foul on Medicine Hat at the buzzer that would have sent Charlotte Shmyr to the line. But after conferring, they said the foul occurred after the buzzer. Sonja Smeland and Nora Way hit field goals to give the Kudus a five-point lead with 56 seconds to play. Ann Wynia and Chris Graves (with 13 seconds to play) answered for the Queens to draw within one. “We had Red Deer down by five points going into the final minutes of the game and we let up a bit enabling them to move close to us by the end of the game,” coach Pat Rawluysk told the Medicine Hat News. “I think the key to our success in both tourney games was that we ran the opposition hard for forty minutes. We have concentrated on conditioning for most of the year and it paid off for us with the tourney championship. Along with our superior conditioning we concentrated on stopping Red Deer’s top scorer and did so with great effectiveness. She only managed to get four points from the floor against our defence.” Chris Graves paced the Queens with 15. Val Kallis added 10, Charlotte Shmy 7 and Ann Wynia 6. The Queens led 20-19 at the half. Queens coach Barry Dunkley told the Red Deer Advocate that “of course, I’m very disappointed with our showing but the girls put everything they had into it all season and had the misfortune of coming up cold this once. I can’t and won’t agree with that decision of the officials but we shouldn’t have needed that final point anyway.”
The all-tournament team featured MVP Sonja Smeeland (Medicine Hat); Nora Way (Medicine Hat); Chris Graves (Red Deer); Val Kallis (Red Deer); Donna Mastel (Medicine Hat); and Gayle Bain (Mount Royal)
The bronze medalist Mount Royal Kittens: Gayle Bain; Frieda Mennes; Gloria Townsend; Kathy Peacock; Deb Yonata; Culp; Olynyk Webber; Craig
The silver medalist Red Deer Queens: Val Kallis; Chris Graves; Ann Wynia; Charlotte Shmyr; Debbie Williams; Brenda Dickson; Marie Bonnell; Leona Newton; Dawn Simkin; Colette Savarie; Mary Joosten; coach Barry Dunkley
The gold medalist Medicine Hat Kudus: Nora Way; Sonja Smeland; Wendy Lein; Lauren Moyer; Wendy Strain; Donna Mastel; Peggy Park; Gail Strain; Nadine Hehr; Norma Peterson; coach Pat Rawlusyk