(3) Briercrest Bible  80            
(6) Seneca  67 Briercrest Bible 52        
(2) Douglas  77 Douglas 72 Douglas 53    
(7) Mt. St. Vincent  61            
              —–HUMBER  
(4) Grande Prairie 100            
(5) Montmorency  87 Grande Prairie 67 Humber 60    
(1) Humber 113 Humber 82        
(8) Canadian Bible  77            

       

        In the quarterfinals, held at Regina’s Canadian Bible College, the 3rd-seeded Prairie Conference champ Briercrest Bible Clippers, coached by Stan Peters, defeated the 6th-seeded Ontario runner-up Seneca Braves, coached by Jim Flack, 80-67, as Jeremy Adrian scored 26. Cedric Asgar led the Braves with 19.

        The 2nd-seeded BC champ Douglas Royals, coached by Steve Beauchamp, defeated the Nova Scotia champ Mount St. Vincent Mystics, coached by Rick Plato, 77-61. The Royals survived a shaky first half to pull out the win. All-Canadian Vern Knopp led Douglas with 16. Onkar Hayre added 13, Chad Caldwell 12 and Tyler Runquist 11. Jesse Diepenveen led the Mystics with 14. Tony Ross, Andrew McNeil and Dyrick McDermott each added 11. Douglas led 40-38 at the half. The Blues opened the second half with an 8-0 run and soon extended their margin to 71-50. “We’ve been a second half team all year,” said guard Onkar Hayre told The Province.

        The 4th-seeded Alberta champ Grande Prairie Wolves, coached by Kelly Ohlhauser, clipped the 5th-seeded Quebec champ Montmorency Nomades, coached by Guy Pariseau, 100-87. Player of the game Greg Sale paced the Wolves with 31. Evan Mueller added 17, Curtis Levasseur 13 and Henry Schellenburg 11. The Wolves, who took an early 23 point lead, hit 31-36 from the line. Wolves coach Kelly Ohlhauser told the Grande Prairie Herald Tribune that “we surprised a lot of people out there today. Nobody here thinks we’re going to do anything. … We came out real well. We didn’t score our first time down the court but Joel Mueller hit a three-point the second time down and that got us going.” Bobby Miller led the Nomades with 23.

        In the last quarterfinal, the top-seeded Ontario champ Humber Hawks stomped the 8th-seeded host Canadian Bible Crusaders, coached by John Thoutenhoofd, 113-77 as Everton Webb scored 20. O’Neil Henry added 9 and dished 3 assists. Devonne Friesen led the Crusaders with 24. Hawks coach Mike Katz told the Reginal Leader-Post that the score was very deceiving.” Crusaders coach John Thoutenhoofd said “although the score was lopsided, I really believe our guys were not outclassed. I was totally impressed.” The Crusaders led 20-15 early but the Hawks exploeded to a 62-43 lead at the half. “So much for Christian conscience,” Katz said. There was none. They kept arching down three-pointers on us.” Thoutenhoofd said “we couldn’t stop their size. Not only that, but they’re deeper than us. My guys were tired. It’s hard to be in your prime when you’ve played 100% for 40 minutes.”

        In the bronze quarterfinals, the 7th-seeded Mount St. Vincent Mystics nipped the 6th-seeded Seneca Braves 67-65 as Jessie Diepenveen scored 24. George Frempong led the Braves with 17.

        In the other bronze quarterfinal, the 5th-seeded Montmorency Nomades dusted the 8th-seeded Canadian Bible Crusaders 122-54 as Bobby Miller scored 27. Paul Bergmann led the Crusadiers with 9.

        In the semis, the Douglas Royals pounded the Briercrest Bible Clippers 72-52 as Tony Pomonis scored 13, Chris Vandermark 13 and Vern Knopp 10. Jeremy Adrian led the Clippers with 19. Royals coach Steve Beauchamp told the Regina Leader-Post “we saw that some of their players are good driving to the basket. We wanted to take away their drives and their second shots. Rebounding really was the difference. We wanted to make sure if they were going outside shots that it was one shot and one shot only. We were very successful at that.” Adrian said “it’s pretty much our bread and butter, getting rebounds and second shot. But that’s the other thing – nothing dropped. The rims definitely weren’t on our side. We were looking to break down their lead too early. Our shot selection wasn’t good.” The Royals led 38-16 at the half. An 11-0 Briercrest run trimmed the margin to 51-40. Vandermark said “when you get up by a large spread, it’s tough to keep that mental edge for a whole 40 minutes. We had some mental breakdowns and they started to capitalize. But they’re keep it up for the whole 20 minutes either.” Clippers coach Stan Peters said “when you’re down and playing against a very disciplined team, you’ve got to work hard for every basket unless they start making glaring mistakes that give you the easy hoops. They’re a team that’s not going to make those mistakes. We just ran out of energy.”

        In the other semi, the top-seeded Humber Hawks clipped the 4th-seeded Grande Prairie Wolves 82-67 as Dwayne Newman scored 18. O’Neil Henry added 11, along with 5 assists and 3 steals. Greg Sale led the Wolves with 21. Wolves coach Kelly Ohlhauser told the Grande Prairie Herald Tribune “there was no shame in losing to Humber. They’re deep and they’re talent and pretty skilled.”

        In the bronze semis, the Mount St. Vincent Mystics defeated the Grande Prairie Wolves 75-66 as Ross Anthony scored 24. Evan Mueller led the Wolves with 15. The Mystics led by as many as 19 in the first half. Wolves coach Kelly Ohlhauser told the Grande Prairie Herald Tribune that “we were just awful. Our defence was completely non-existent.” The Wolves (coached by Ohlhauser) also included Joel Mueller, Curtis Levasseur, Henry Schellenberg, Greg Sale.

        In the other bronze semi, the Briercrest Bible Cliipers edged the Montmorency Nomades 93-91 in double overtime as Curt Jesperson scored 28. Maxime Bouchard the Nomades with 41.

        In the bronze medal match, the 7th-seeded Mount St. Vincent Mystics nipped the Briercrest Bible Clippers 59-57 as Ross Anthony scored 20, Jesse Diepenveen 14 and Wayne Keddy 13. Jeremy Adrian led the Clippers with 17.

        In the final, the Humber Hawks captured their third straight national title by defeating the Douglas Royals 60-53. The Hawks led by as many as 18 in the first half and took a 40-28 lead into the lockers. But the Royals rallied, outscoring Humber 21-7 to take a 49-47 lead by pounding the ball inside to Vern Knopp and Chris Vandermark. Humber answered with a 9-0 run to regain control and never relinquished the lead, outscoring the Royals 11-4 in the final minutes. “We were playing some pretty good defence but they were just on fire in the first half,” the Royals’ Vern Knopp told The Province. Knopp led the Royals with 29, while tournament MVP O’Neil Henry (who stepped in for starter Fitzroy Lightbody in the Hawks quarterfinal after he broke a bone in his hand) paced Humber with 15. Everton Webb added 12. Roberto Feig said “it’s a dynasty happening here. That’s two in a row for me, three for the rest of the guys and one for the rookies. It was an awesome game, and it was close. In the second half we got a little nervous but we hung in there. It’s the best.” Hawks coach Mike Katz said “I’m very pleased with the way we played in terms of points and offensive execution, because it broke down (the execution) in the second half mostly because of their excellent defense.” Craig Wayles said “we’ve been up 20 in games and we win by two. We’ve done it so many times this year. I think we get that big lead and teams sneak up on us.” O’Neil said that “as a rookie, I was nervous coming in — he (Lightbody) is a creative guy (and hard to replace).” Katz said he thought Henry “was a great player when I first saw him five years ago playing in his first game. … His jump shot over two days was excellent, look at the way he played — unbelievable. (He is) a special kind of player — his size, his quickness and his ability are excellent. … He’s (Henry) a special kind of kid. I was surprised but not shocked by any means. He’s got great talent and he put it all together this weekend.” Patrick Rhodd said “we kept our composure (down the stretch), we knew what we had to do. We had some calls go our way in the last couple of minutes in the second half (combined) with good shooting and defense. Katz said that without Rhodd, “we don’t win it. Patrick has stepped up as a senior as he always has for us when the game is on the line. What incredible pressure, everybody expects him to do it and he does.” Katz added that the Hawks depth of the bench was also critical. “These freshman are interesting, Henry, Steve McGregor and Mark Croft — I can’t say enough about them. They got us here and they kept us here. These guys are like Michigan kids (The Fab Five), they did so much for us this year.”

        The all-tourney team featured: MVP O’Neil Henry (Humber); Greg Sale (Grand Prairie RC); Anthony Ross (Mt. St. Vincent); Jeremy Adrian (Briercrest Bible); Patrick Rhodd (Humber); and Vern Knopp (Douglas)

        The bronze medalist Mount St. Vincent Mystics: Ross Anthony; Jesse Diepenveen; Wayne Keddy; Derek Johnston; Andrew McNeil; Dyrick McDermott; Steve Sampson; Jonathan Phillips; Lorenzo Juan; Andrew Stanley; Anthony McNeil; Ed Haliburton; coach Rick Plato.

        The silver medalist Douglas Royals: Vern Knopp; Chad Caldwell; Onkar Hayre; Tyler Runquist; Justin Padvaiskis; Chris Vandermark; coach Steve Beauchamp

        The gold medalist Humber Hawks: O’Neil Henry; Patrick Rhodd; Fitzroy Lightbody; Everton Weeb; Dwayne Newman; Steve McGregor; Mark Croft; Nelson Amaya; Craig Wyles; Gareth Broad; Richard Saunders; Roberto Feig; coach Mike Katz; assistant Rick Dilena; assistant Zito Baccarani; athletic director Doug Fox; therapist Mark Karges; manager David Adams; manager Maurice Robinson