Final regular season standings: Thompson Rivers (17-1); Capilano (11-7); Northern British Columbia (11-7); Fraser Valley (11-7); Langara (10-8); Malaspina (10-8); Camosun (9-9); Douglas (8-10); Okanagan (2-16); Kwantlen (1-17)
Playoff non-qualifiers:
Camosun Chargers: Jay Gorman, Chris Owen, Jon Craig-de Boer, Nolan Holmes, Greg Wallis, Dave Partridge, James Dergousoff, Jacob Lamb, Luke Letham, Chris Spoor, Jordan Brown, Grant Fedorak, Andrew Turgeon, Logan Smythe, coach Gord Thatcher, assistant Gord Hoshal, assistant Shokei Kizu
Douglas Royals: Andre Grant, Mats Ericsson, Cody Berg, R. Jon Thomson, Darcy Coss, Craig Green, coach Stephen McGilligan
Kwantlen Eagles: Matt Senges, Zach Burns,
Okanagan Heat: Henry Sarikas, Kris English, Chad Pratch, Matt Gowing,
In the postseason quarterfinals, the 6th-seeded Malaspina Mariners nipped the 3rd-seeded Northern British Columbia Timberwolves 71-68 as Graham Giske scored 24, Jason Hubbs 21, Henry Bui 11, Jordan Kinakin 9. Mariners coach Todd Warnick told the Nanaimo Daily News “we’re getting very good at coming from behind. We’re the never-quit team. That’s the way it should be.” Hubbs hit two free throws to give the Mariners a one-point lead. Richard Boyland then stole the ball for a runout with two seconds to play to ice it for Malaspina. Graham Giske was chosen player of the game for the Mariners, while Alex Nadrazsky earned the laurels for the Timberwolves. The Timberwolves also included Andrew Sturgeon, Brett Stewart, Raju Korotana, Jari Deutsch.
In the other quarterfinal, the Fraser Valley Cascades whipped the Langara Falcons 62-42. Kyle Graves was chosen player of the game for the Cascades, while Mirza Havic earned the laurels for the Falcons. The Falcons also included Vlad Ruzic, Anthony Lao, Denholm Smith, Paul Naka, Ken Kuo.
In the semis, the 6th-seeded Malaspina Mariners dumped the 2nd-seeded Capilano Blues 74-70 as Jordan Kinakin scored 23, Henry Bui 18, Jason Hubbs 17 and Graham Giske 10. The Mariners hit 17-21 from the line but committed 29 turnovers. Mariners coach Todd Warnick told the Nanaimo Daily News “we got the ball inside to Jordan in the second half. We pounded the ball down low and they really didn’t have an answer for that. He had big two-hand putback tthat was the big momentum boost for us to tie it up.” Jordan Kinakin was chosen player of the game for the Mariners, while Greg Jackson earned the laurels for the Blues. Jackson paced the Blues with 21. The Blues hit 7-10 from the line, committed 17 turnovers and had 17 steals. Capilano led 33-31 at the half.
In the other semi, the top-seeded Thompson Rivers Sun Demons thrashed the 4th-seeded Fraser Valley Cascades 78-65. Bran Van Dolah was chosen player of the game for the Sun Demons, while Danny Horner earned the laurels for the Cascades. The Sun Demons saw posts Jeff Friesen, Rob Haugland and Brent Traxel in foul trouble in the second half but Brian Smith, Greg Stewart and Rob Bergen stepped in and did an “outstanding” job, Cariboo coach Nevin Gleddie told the Abbotsford Daily News.
In the bronze medal match, the 2nd-seeded Capilano Blues topped the 4th-seeded Fraser Valley Cascades 98-85 in overtime. Neb Aleksic was chosen player of the game for the Blues, while Jeff O’Brien earned the laurels for the Cascades. The Cascades also included Kyle Graves, Danny Horner, Paul Morris, Matt Francisco, Bob Fehr, Adrian Hughes.
In the final, the top-seeded Thompson Rivers Sun Demons defeated the 6th-seeded Malaspina Mariners 71-63. The Sun Demons put the game away five minutes into the second half when they tightened their halfcourt defence and ripped off a 16-1 run. “For us it always comes from the defence, and if we get that we’re a very good transition team,” said Sun Demons coach Nevin Gleddie. “If you can put up 10 or 15 easy ones it really puts a dagger in the back of your opponents. And we knew we had to do a good job of pounding it inside and I thought we did that.” Forward Jeff Friesen was almost unstoppable for Cariboo, shooting 9-for-11 from the field and finishing with 21 points. Josh Lovestone added 21, Brent Traxel 17 and Sean Garvey 15. BCCAA regular season scoring champ Jason Hubbs scored a game-high 24 points for the Mariners. Henry Bui added 15 and Jordan Kinakin 11. Jeff Friesen was chosen player of the game for the Sun Demons, while Jason Hubbs earned the laurels for the Mariners. Sean Garvey told the Abbotsford Daily News that “relief would be the first word. We didn’t celebrate like it was the most important thing for us, which it wasn’t. The national championship is the most important. We threw out the high-fives and things like that but it was a total relief. To go 17-1 and not win, it would just be almost embarrassing.” Gleddie said “when you go in expected to win, anything else would be a severe disappointment.” Gleddie noted of Traxel’s tournament MVP award that “I don’t know if Traxel set himself apart from the other players. I think that all-star committee had a really tough choice. I’m not taking anything away from him. I’m saying there were a lot of guys who played really well. You could have had (Brad) Van Dolah on that all-star team, you could have had Jon Turner on that all-star team, you could have had Rob Haugland on that all-star team. Here were seven guys — in my opinion — on our team that could have been on that all-star team.” Traxel said “I just think they didn’t have anybody else to give it to, so they just gave it to me. Everybody played well. I don’t think there’s anything I did in particular.” Van Dolah said “it is the best we’ve played all year. But I still don’t think we’ve reached our potential, we haven’t peaked yet.” Gleddie told Kamloops This Week that “it wasn’t easy for us to be focused [on the provincial tournament. We just saw this as another step toward the national championship. … I think the feeling used to be that we were just a small town from B.C. and couldn’t compete with the bigger schools from the Torontos and Montreals. Now, we don’t feel that way anymore.” The Sun Demons, who were in their final year in the CCAA ranks, did indeed go on to win the national college title. Mariners coach Todd Warnick told the Nanaimo Daily News that “we had a five-minute spurt in the second half where we didn’t take care of the glass and it hurt us.”
The bronze medalist Capilano Blues: Chris Porteous; Jean-Paul Kamand; Greg Jackson; Brent McLaren; Saad Fadl-Alla; Chris Ufford; Adam Rosenthal; Jeff Knoblauch; Nebojsa Aleksic; Harvir Puni; Alex Smith; Nathan Nowak; coach Paul Eberhardt; assistant Rob McClelland; assistant Steve Anderson
The silver medalist Malaspina Mariners: Richard Boyland; Graham Giske; Jason Hubbs; Jordan Kinakin; Henry Bui; Kalvin Buerlein; Colin Novak; Mark Darbyshire; Carson Williams; Sean McMann; coach Todd Warnick
The gold medalist Thompson Rivers (Cariboo) Sun Demons: Brad Van Dolah; Brent Traxel; Jeff Friesen; Sean Garvey; Robert Haugland; Brian Smith; Jon Turner; Gregory Stewart; Josh Lovestone; Rob Bergen; Steven Waring; Braeden Jones; Lee Johnson; Anthony Gauer; coach Nevin Gleddie; assistant Ryan Porter; assistant Will Blair; assistant Scott Marr; trainer Kristy Menzel; student trainer Bree-Ann Mailloux