Final regular season standings (8): Holland (18-3); St. Thomas (17-4); Crandall (14-7); Mount St. Vincent (14-7); Mount Allison (12-9); King’s (6-15); New Brunswick-Saint John (3-18) Dalhousie-Agricultural (0-21)
Playoff non-qualifiers:
Dalhousie Agricultural College Rams: Josh Borgal, Joseph Gushue, Jay Ji, Ian Kamp, Cody Locke, Tyler MacDonald, Craig Perry, Derek Profit, coach Bill Findlay, assistant Jeff Kay
New Brunswick-St. John Seawolves: Corey Armstrong, Jarred Crawford, Zac Galbraith, Aryan Hashemi, Adam Hebert, John Kearley, Cedric Mwambi, Ryan Ramier, Kayden Roy, Malcolm Secord, Tom Waggott, coach Peter Vincent, assistant Andrew Naismith, assistant Alan Rivers-Bowerman
In the quarterfinals, the 4th-seeded Mount St. Vincent Mystics edged the 5th-seeded Mount Allison Mounties 66-62. The Mystics broke to an early 10-7 lead and maintained a slim 20-16 margin after one quarter. Although Mountie Ben Chisholm controlled the boards, Mount Allison struggled to finish and fell behind 30-24 at the half. The Mystics extended their lead to 10 in the third quarter with solid three-point shooting. But the Mounties began forcing turnovers and rallied to within 58-54 with a minute to play. The Mystics with two free throws but Mountie Jordan Bedard drained a trey. The Mystic added two more free throws but the Mounties countered with a layup with 20 seconds on the clock to draw within 62-59. Kenny Reardon responded with four free throws to ice the win for the Mystics. Reardon was chosen player of the game for the Mystics after scoring 24 and nabbing 7 boards, while Ben Chisholm earned the laurels for the Mounties after scoring 14 and nabbing 15 boards. Reardon said “the younger guys picked it up in the first half and the veterans finally picked it up in the second” after a half-time chat from coach Rick Plato. “He told us to get up on guys, we were getting beat to the middle and they were getting to the hoop way to easy and the help side has got to be there.” The Mounties (coached by Duane Starratt, assisted by Craig Miller and Andrew Stanley) included Nolan Hanson, MacKenzie Brown, Jordan Bedard, Kaleefah Henry, Akil Smith, Brandon Petitpas, Chris Haley, Rourke Dawson, Jared Klaus, Brandon Malally, Neal Beckett, Patrick Rhodes, and Tyrell Laurent.
In the other quarterfinal, the 3rd-seeded Crandall University Chargers dumped the 6th-seeded University of King’s College Blue Devils 90-75. “I think the team put out a 110 per cent,” said Brandon Macinnis, who notched a double-double with 17 points and 14 boards. “We played really well and fought hard with them.” Alex McLeod was chosen player of the game for the Chargers after scoring 21 and nabbing 5 boards. “Our guards did an excellent job of getting opened today,” said Chargers head coach Greg Maillet. The Chargers led 27-21 after one quarter and 49-37 at the half. Colin Bebbington paced the Blue Devils with 25 points and 5 boards. “I’m happy in one sense that he had one of his better games in the season,” said Blue Devils coach Chad Wadden. “He’s been a really good team leader for us all year and I feel bad that we couldn’t continue on for him. … The effort was definitely there. The ball kind of bounced different ways, we had opportunities to score, but we just lost momentum and weren’t able to battle back.” Crandall shot 52% from the floor and 41% from the arc. Kings shot 44% from the floor and 33% from the arc. The Blue Devils (coached by Chad Wadden, assisted by Tim Flinn and Peter McLaughlin) also included Thomas Maier, J.J. Wilson, Thomas Watson, Riley Chisholm, Eyoab Begashaw, Nathan Rowarth, Jeff Inglis, Kris Works, Stephen Traynor, Mohamed Ibrahin, Brad Inglis and Keegan Meyer.
In the semis, the top-seeded Holland Hurricanes nipped the 4th-seeded Mount St. Vincent Mystics 58-57. Holland took a quick 4-3 lead and extended the margin to 16-5 primarily on the boardwork and nine points of 6-6 rookie centre Chase Bowden. Mike Hardy added a trey to give the Hurricanes a 21-7 lead after one quarter. Holland led 30-15 when the Mystics regained their rhythm, ripped off an 8-0 run, including six points by Brandon Doyle, and rallied within 32-25 at the half. The Mystics opened the second half with a 7-0 run to knot the score and then took a 38-37 lead after three quarters. Mount St. Vincent led 50-45 with five minutes to play and appeared to be in control with 28 seconds on the clock but Alvin Parker banked in a long three for the Hurricanes, who then stole the ball on the inbounds pass and found Steve Hardy in the corner for a bank 3-pointer to give Holland the win. The Hurricanes hadn’t hit a trey since the second quarter and hit just 4-25 from the arc but drained the ones that mattered. “We were struggling all game. I’m not sure what the numbers were, I’m sure they were ugly, but when it counted, we made sure they went in,” said Bowden. “Coach told us they were gonna come out strong. We knew they were going to, but we just couldn’t contain it for a minute. They took the lead for a while, but we came through in the end.” Bowden was chosen player of the game for the Hurricanes after notching a double-double of 20 points and 18 boards, along with 3 blocks and 2 steals, while Todd Williams earned the laurels for the Mystics after scoring 12 and nabbing 11 boards. Alvin Parker added 14 points, 11 boards and 8 assists for the Hurricanes. Steve Hardy scored 6. Rookie Emad Khalek led the Mystics with 15. Todd Williams added 12 points and 11 rebounds. Bowden said “it was the best game of my life. We knew it was going to be tough, they’re one of the best teams in the country so we had to come together.” The Mystics (coached by Rick Plato, assisted by David Brien and Ken Reardon) also included Andrew MacKinnon, Brandon Dyle, Alex LeBlanc, Kenneth Reardon, Duan Fournier, Mac Ellis, Jeremy Skidmore, Ryan MacPhee, Alex Harding, Nathan Dunn, Bryson MacDonald, David Boulay, Sagar Sahota and Austin Dewar.
In the other semi, the 2nd-seeded St. Thomas Tommies defeated the 3rd-seeded Crandall University Chargers 79-70. The game began with big block by Tommie Calvin LeBlanc before Crandall open the scoring after a minute. The Tommies took a 10-6 lead on pair of treys by Corey Delong and buckets by Nathan Mazurkiewicz and Lonzel Lowe. Delong scored 12 as St. Thomas built a 22-15 lead after one quarter. The Tommies extended their lead to 43-23 on a 12-0 run late in the second quarter before a Charger rally trimmed the margin to 45-31 at the half. The Chargers closed knotted the score at 58
After three quarters and took a 63-61 lead with six minutes left to play. But Brad Hovey hit a trey to give the Tommies a 68-67 lead with two minutes to go. After Charger Kemoy Shaw fouled out with 1.4 minutes to play, the Tommies took command Lowe hit a free throw and a bucket and then Hovey drained another trey to give St. Thomas a 74-67 lead with 30 seconds on the clock. Mazurkiewicz and Hovey sealed the game from the line. Hovey was chosen player of the game for his clutch three-point shooting down the stretch, while Brandon Macinnis earned the laurels for the Chargers after scoring 17 and nabbing 10 boards. Hovey said “we’ve been down plenty of times before so we just knew what we had to do and buckle down on defence. We’ve got to shut down their penetration. Watching them earlier today they had a lot of passes inside to the bigs so if we can shut that down and get our rotations going, we’ll be okay.” Nathan Mazurkiewicz paced the Tommies with 18 on 6-15 from the floor, 1-7 from the arc, 5-8 from the line, 7 boards, 8 assists and 2 steals. Corey Delong added 14 on 4-14 from the floor, 2-10 from the arc, 4-4 from the line, 5 boards and 5 assists. Brad Hovey added 13 on 4-8 from the floor, 3-5 from the arc, 2-2 from the line and 3 boards. Lyndon Lowe notched 12 on 5-8 from the floor, 2-7 from the line, 9 boards, 3 assists and 4 steals. Jason Daniels scored 11 on 5-13 from the floor, 1-5 from the arc, 0-1 from the line, 5 boards and 3 steals. Calvin LeBlanc added 6 on 3-14 from the floor, 0-4 from the arc and 6 boards. David Dolan added 3, along with 7 boards, and Dylan Gallant 2, while Jordan Maxwell was scoreless. The Tommies hit 28-74 (.378) from the floor, 7-31 (.226) from the arc and 16-26 (.615) from the line, while garnering 45 boards, including 14 on the offensive glass, 18 assists, 17 turnovers, 2 blocks, 10 steals and 14 fouls. The Chargers hit 26-68 (.382) from the floor, 7-24 (.292) from the arc and 11-18 (.611) from the line, while garnering 44 boards, including 11 on the offensive glass, 12 assists, 15 turnovers, 1 block, 9 steals and 20 fouls. The Chargers (coached by Greg Maillet, assisted by Jonathan Spirritts and Mark Naylor) included Jerry Jesseau, Kemoy Shaw, David Parker, Alex Macleod, Brandon Macinnis, Michael Vickruck, Shane Fletcher, Keith Nickerson, Tyler Montrose, Craig Macleod, Taylor Norum, Nathaniel Fells, Alex Murphy and Frederick Agbozo.
In the final,
the top-seeded Holland Hurricanes handled the 2nd-seeded St. Thomas
Tommies 70-61 to earn their first ACAA crown. Hurricane Steve Hardy said “we
knew it was going to be a tough game. We got off to a good start, but we knew
they were going to come back. We were just waiting for it, and sure enough,
they started hitting big shots. We just didn’t let it get to us.” Leo Morris
scored the first six points of the game as the Hurricanes took a 24-13 lead
after one quarter. They extended their margin to 37-22 at the half but the
Tommies the lead to single digits in the third quarter. But Holland hit the shots
when they needed them, including a key trey from Hardy that extended the margin
to 53-40 after three quarters. “I knew I would get them going after missing 10
yesterday,” Hardy quipped. Nathan Mazurkiewicz and Jason Daniels put the
Tommies on their backs in the fourth frame as St. Thomas clawed to within three
with 1:51 to play. But the Hurricanes had the answers from the line, hitting 8
free throws, including 5 by Jake Kendrick. “That’s been our Achilles heel all
season, but we made them when it counted,” Hardy said. “Mazurkiewicz, what can
you say about him? Him and Daniels, they’re both great shooters. We knew they
were going to come and bring it right to the last buzzer.” Mazurkiewicz was
chosen player of the game for Tommies. Mazurkiewicz said “we tried to play
physical all game. We couldn’t play physical enough for the refs to give us a
call.” Tommies coach Dwight Dickinson said “our guys did a great job to fight
back and grind it out all game. The level of the physical play by Holland
College we had trouble getting shots off and in the first half we had four or
five bunnies that we missed inside. I still thought we came back and gave it a hell
of a shot. The slow start was from the fact that we had a hard time moving. We
battled back hard, but it wasn’t meant to be.” Chase Bowden told the New
Glasgow News that “we’ve been through so much this year it is truly amazing
that we were able to stick together and get the job done when it counted. Our
number-one goal this year was to win this title and go on to Quebec, and even
though things weren’t looking good the last little while, we all knew that in
the end we would come together and do what needed to be done. This is the best
and closest team I have been a part of by far. It also is a great feeling to get
coach (George) Morrison another banner.” Chase Bowden paced the Hurricanes with
16 points and 15 boards. Leo Morris and Steve Hardy each added 15. Hardy nabbed
5 boards. The Hurricanes hit 24-52 (.462) from the floor, 6-19 (.316) from the
arc and 16-31 (.516) from the line, while garnering 37 boards, including 10 on
the offensive glass, 14 assists, 21 turnovers, 1 block, 11 steals and 13 fouls.
Nathan Mazurkiewicz led the Tommies with 20 on 7-17 from the floor, 3-10 from
the arc, 3-3 from the line, 4 boards, 3 assists and 3 steals. Jason Daniels
added 14 on 4-13 from the floor, 2-8 from the arc, 4-5 from the line, 8 boards
and 5 assists. Lyndon Lowe notched 10 on 4-10 from the floor, 2-5 from the
line, 9 boards and 2 steals. Calvin LeBlanc added 6 on 2-9 from the floor, 0-3
from the arc, 2-3 from the line, 7 boards and 2 steals. David Dolan scored 6 on
2-4 from the floor, 2-2 from the line and 3 boards. Brad Hovey added 3 and
Corey Delong 2, along with2 boards and 3 assists. The Tommies hit 21-65 (.323) from
the floor, 6-28 (.214) from the arc and 13-18 (.722) from the line, while
garnering 35 boards, including 13 on the offensive glass, 13 assists, 17
turnovers, 1 block, 11 steals and 18 fouls.
The silver medalist St. Thomas
Tommies: Blaine Reid; Judah Jackshaw; Corey DeLong; Nathan Mazurkiewicz; Bradley
Hovey; Jacob Tozer; Calvin LeBlanc; Matt Veno; Dylan Gallant; Jason Daniels;
Alex MacLeod; David Dolan; Jordan Maxwell; Lyndon Lowe; coach Dwight Dickinson;
assistant Brad LeBritton; assistant Scott MacLeod; trainer Caleigh Robertson;
trainer Patrick Carmichael; athletic director Mike Eagles
The gold medalist Holland Hurricanes: Alvin Parker; Chris Farrow; Leo Morris; Randez Simmons; Jake Kendrick; Kyle Gillis; Mike Hardy; Luke Nickerson; Brandon Jean; Kyle Welton; Jonathan Hovingh; Steve Ethelson; Steve Hardy; Chase Bowden; coach George Morrison; assistant Josh Whitty; manager Grayson MacDonald