Final regular season standings: Medicine Hat (13-1); Camrose Lutheran (10-4); Mount Royal (9-5); Lethbridge (7-7); Red Deer (6-8); Grant McEwan (6-8); NAIT (3-11); SAIT (2-12)
Playoff non-qualifiers:
Grande Prairie (ACAC non-participant):
Grant MacEwan: Rhonda Wolfram, Judy Roper, Yolanda Kryver (Kruger?)
NAIT Ookchicks: Marcy Hurlburt, Jami Bergin, Janet Weech, Jeven Pannu, Laverne Holt, Robyn Lee, Jody Herbert, Leanne Undershute, Suzanne Lidgrin, coach Gregg Meropoulis, assistant Lloyd Ramsey,
Red Deer Queens: Dawn Schooler, Deanna Wood, Charlene Gulder, Susan Woitt, Danita Mills, Ronda Salomons, Wendy Anderson, coach Pat Rawlusyk
SAIT: Lori McNally, Shelley Shimak, Tracy Tarras, Mia Djurovich, Cindy Libby, Kristin Goodman, Tobey Sloof, Roxanne Mayan, Brenda Logelin, Tracy Pannett, Janice Behrens, Lori Alexander, coach Sandy Sexsmith, assistant Tracy Lemans, manager Cheryl Becker
In the semis, the Medicine Hat Kudus defeated the Lethbridge Kodiettes 54-51; 68-51 (2g-0). …………………………………………………… In game one, the Kudus prevailed 54-51. The Kudus built an early 16-4 lead and then withstood a rally to take a 23-19 lead into the lockers. Lethbridge led by as much as five points during the second half, but Medicine Hat took the lead with 17 seconds left when Debbie Weedmark sank a pair of free throws, giving the Kudus a 52-51 lead. A steal and basket by Medicine Hat’s Karen Bongaards in the closing seconds sealed the win. Bongaards paced the Kudus with 20. Margot Petruic added 14 and Debbie Weedmark 12 …………………………………………………… In game two, Medicine Hat completed the sweep with a 68-51 win after leading 25-23 at the half and 45-41 after three quarters, icing the win with an 11-2 run down the stretch. Karen Bongaards paced the Kudus with 26. Margot Petruic added 12, Debbie Weedmark 12 and Sharon Kubian 8. Malinda Hamilton led the Kodiettes with 18. Margot Dzuren added 8. “I’m much happier with this effort,” Kudus’ coach Marg Sihvon told the Medicine Hat News. “We haven’t been sharp in our last three games and I was beginning to worry. But tonight, we played our game; we ran and we had good defensive pressure. I think we wore them down. I’ve told the girls all year that the pressure and the running don’t have an immediate effect. You have to wait and be patient but sooner or later it’s going to be effective. It’s hard because sometimes you think: ‘why am I working so hard?’ But it pays off. I also have a luxury that most coaches don’t have in the depth we have off our bench. I can play any five players and we don’t lose a thing defensively. That way we can keep the pressure up all game.” Lethbridge coach Darrell said “we played very well in Lethbridge Tuesday and played well for the first three-quarters of the game tonight. But we never got our inside stuff going effectively and we didn’t control the offensive boards the way I wanted to. The Kudus shut us down and then they got their running game going. We couldn’t handle it, especially towards the end of the game.” The Kudus hit 28-66 (.450) from the floor and 12-14 from the line. The Kodiettes hit 24-58 from the floor and 3-6 from the line. The Kodiettes (coached by Darrell Wall) also included Sandy Scott, Wendy Marsden, Allison Manning, Cheryl Hesse, Barb Abe, Cathy Bergen-Henengouwen.
In the other semi, the Camrose Lutheran Vikettes defeated the Mount Royal Cougars 52-53; x-x; x-x. …………………………………………………… In game one, Mount Royal nipped Camrose Lutheran 53-52 as Heather Wright scored 16, while nabbing 13 boards, and Val Hampton 11. Kathy Prochnau paced the Vikettes with 16. …………………………………………………… The Cougars included Heather Wright, Colleen Flanagan, Val Hampton,
In the final, the Medicine Hat Kwahommies defeated the Camrose Lutheran Vikettes 75-63; 58-52.
As the Kudus were the regular season champs, they were able to elect to have all the finals games played at home as a conference rule prohibited road trips of longer than 200 miles for playoff games.
In game one, the Kudus prevailed 75-63 as Karen Bongaards scored 30. “She played her usual outstanding game. She turns it on when we need it,” Kudus coach Marg Sihvon told the Medicine Hat News. Margot Petruic added 24 and Kim Gapka 10. Kathy Prochnau led the Vikettes with 23. Janet Galenza added 14. Sihvon added that “when we lost to Camrose
in our last league game, we were not running the ball. That was different today. Right now, we are running better than any team in the ACAC. It showed later in the game when their bigger girls began to slow down and could not keep up with us.” The Kudus led 36-29 at the half. “We didn’t expect it to be that close in the first half,” said Sihvon. Bongaards took command in the second frame. When Prochnau rallied the Vikettes, Bongaards twice pilfered the ball to set up runout layups as the Kudus rebuilt their lead to 15. When Camrose trimmed it to 9, she nailed a pair of jumpers. “Our pressure defence and our running game were the key to our building and maintaining leads in the game,” said Bongaards.
In game two, the Kudus completed the series sweep with a 58-52 win as Sharon Kubian scored 13 and dominated the defensive glass. “Marg (Sihvon) had a long talk with us after the first game about rebounding,” Kubian told the Medicine Hat News. “We knew what we had to do to improve our rebounding.” Rookie guard Margot Petruic noted that “the guards were told to keep their checks off of the boards. And we had the forwards move farther from the basket so the long rebounds
would not go over their heads as they did on Friday night.” Petruic scored 11 and Karen Bongaards 10 despite spending most of the game in foul trouble. Jo-Ann Schroeder paced the Vikettes with 13. Kathy Prochnau added 12. The Kudus led 14-8 early and by 43-37 midway through the second half, primarily off transition buckets. The Vikettes rallied to within two with nine minutes to play but Bongaards returned to the floor, hit a pair of buckets, pilfered a ball and dished for an assist to give Medicine Hat an 8-point lead with 7:16 on the clock. Camrose rallied no closer than four.
The silver medalist Camrose Lutheran Vikettes: Kathy Prochnau; Janet Galenza; Chris Parker; Jo-Ann Schroeder;
The gold medalist Medicine Hat Kwahommies: Karen Bongaards; Debbie Weedmark; Jan Tessier; Sharon Kubian; Kim Gapka; Margot Petruic; Cathy Ferguson; Marina Schapansky; coach Marg Sihvon