In the quarterfinals, held in Calgary, the Magrath Zeniths eliminated the Edmonton M.E. Lazerte Voyageurs 74-67 after leading 16-12, 36-21 and 53-42 at the quarters. Brad Karren led the Zeniths with 27 on 13-17 from the floor and 17 boards. Ron Rice added 21 and Rob Ripley 10. Each added 7 boards. The Zeniths outrebounded the Voyageurs 52-40. The Voyageurs closed to within 60-56 down the stretch but Karren stemmed the bleeding with a pair of buckets. “We came down to four points with three minutes left, but the kids kept their cool,” said Zeniths coach Ray Stevenson. “We decided to go back to playing offence then, instead of playing defence to protect our lead. Lazerte came off a super series in Edmonton and I thought they were bound to cool off. … And they did. They put up a number of air balls and just couldn’t seem to start shooting until near the end of the game. I thought all the kids played well, but (Brad) Karren and Rice played exceptionally, well. Ripley was also doing a good job, he was watching for the fast break and setting up well against it.” Ken Haak paced the Voyageurs with 21. Terry Danyluk added 18. The Voyageurs (coached by Joe Danyluk) also included Gord Bocock, Corey Workman, Ron Hewitt, Vern Yonkers. Stevenson told the Calgary Herald that the win gave the team “confidence. They felt they could beat anybody.” Voyageurs coach Joe Danyluk told the Edmonton Journal “they did what they had to against us; keep our big men away from the boards … I think our players were looking past this game. I think they looked at it as just another game. … like they have all season.”
The Calgary St. Francis Browns dispatched Sherwood Park Salisbury Sabres 63-57 as Sam Ferrise scored 14, Dave Iozzi 12, Dave DeMan 10 and Jamie Park 8. Browns coach Gary DeMan told the Calgary Herlad that “we didn’t win this game. We survived it. We certainly didn’t play our best. We took a lot of bad shots. Dave Kakoschke paced the Sabres with 17. Gary Roth added 12 and Gerald Weissbach 10. The Sabres also included Phil Baker. The Browns led 15-14, 30-28 and 48-40 at the quarters. DeMan said “we seem to play at the level of our opposition. We don’t have that killer instinct. We had Salisbury down in the third but we didn’t finish them off. We didn’t go for the jugular.”
The Calgary St. Mary’s Saints clipped the Edmonton Bonnie Doon Lancers 59-47 as Jason Gorsalitz scored 17, John Thoutenhoofd 17, Mike Van Rijn 16 and Norm Murray 9. Saints coach Mike Horner told the Calgary Herald that “tight defence and our defensive boards were the key factors. Lancers have a lot of height. But we kept them to the outside shot and had a player positioned by the basketball to grab the rebound. … Lancers tried to pressure us with their full-court press but we have the players to handle it. Our fast break really killed them at times.” Gorsalitz and Murray dominated the defensive boards. Brian Strieloff led the Lancers with 13. Jim Hutchinson added 13, Steve Interman 12 and Brian Strieloff 10. Lancers coach Brent Foster told the Edmonton Journal that “they played a very strong defence and we let the officials get to us early in the game.” Second half foul trouble for 7-0 post Bill Elgert proved the Lancers undoing. The Lancers (coached by Brent Foster) also included Bill Elgert, Greg Stringham, Kevin Pevy, Dennis Penschka. The Lancers led 14-11 after one quarter. The Saints led 25-20 at the half and 45-32 after three quarters.
In the last quarterfinal, the Lethbridge Collegiate Institute Rams dusted the Grande Prairie Tomahawks 67-41. Rams coach Jim Whitelaw said the Tomahawks “shouldn’t be here as far as I am concerned. They should have to play off somewhere along the line after they win their zone. They spoiled the tournament. Every game in the 4A provincials should be tough, not like this one. There are so many other teams in the south, or Calgary, or Edmonton, that should be here ahead of Grande Prairie. The game was a good opportunity to rest our boys and get ready for today. It also gave our second string good experience. I restricted them to the use of one play just to make it tougher. A game like this one tends to make us sloppy, but we tried hard to keep things together.” The Rams led 42-10 at the half and 54-18 after three quarters. Bobby Moore paced the Rams with 12. Murray Low added 10, Wade Steed 8, J.D. Forsyth 8 and Mo Jang 8. The Rams hit 47% from the floor and outrebounded the Tomahawks 42-23. Low nabbed 8 boards, Steed 7 and Moore 6. Kim Zezula led the Tomahawks with 12 points and 9 boards. Ray Strudwick added 10. Tomahawks coach Dale King told the Grande Prairie Herald Tribune “my guys could have played a lot better. My guards blew it; they just choked. My forwards shot 50 percent; they shot good.” The Tomahawks (coached by King) also included Tim Murray, Kevin Warren, Willie DeWit.
In the semis, the Magrath Zeniths defeated the Calgary St. Francis Browns 68-63 as Brad Karren scored 25, Ron Rice 15 and Greg Woodbury 10. The Zeniths nearly squandering a 17-point lead in the final quarter as the Browns rallied to knot the score at 55. The Browns had a 3-on-1 fastbreak but missed and were called for a foul. Browns coach Gary Deman told the Calgary Herald that “if we’d have scored on the play, we might have took the game.” The Zeniths led 37-20 at the half.
In the other semi, the Lethbridge Collegiate Institute Rams defeated the Calgary St. Mary’s Saints 48-45 as Chu Jang scored 17, Wade Steed 9 and Brent Maxwell 8.
In the bronze medal match, the Calgary St. Mary’s Saints clipped the Calgary St. Francis Browns 73-59 after leading 17-14, 31-27 and 53-35 at the quarters. Saints coach Frank Thoutenhoofd told the Calgary Herald that “well, at least it proved our city win wasn’t a fluke. We kept the Browns outside and hit them with our fastbreak, pretty well the same tactic we used last week.” Norm Murray led the Saints with 16. Jim Murphy added 14, Jason Gorsalitz 13, Blaine Haines 12 and Mike Van Rijn 10. Browns coach Gary Deman told the Calgary Herald that “we didn’t have much for St. Mary’s. We played everybody and said goodbye to the graduates. There wasn’t much incentive to win it.” Jamie Park scored 22 to lead the Browns. Ray Corkey added 10, Sam Ferrise 10 and Jeff Gall 10. The Browns (coached by Gary DeMan) also included Dave DeMan, Dave Iozzi, Dave Randall, Jay Campbell, Sam Fernise, Don Todesco, Ray Corkey, Jamie Park.
In the final, the Magrath Zeniths, a 2A school opting to play 4A, with an enrolment of only 160, defeated the Lethbridge Collegiate Institute Rams 48-41 to capture their first provincial title. Ron Rice paced the Zeniths with 22. Magrath’s quick transitions disrupted the Rams and Rice scored 12 in the second quarter to help the Zeniths build a 24-19 lead at the half. The Rams closed the margin to 38-33 in the second half when Rice hit a pair of critical buckets to put the game away. The Zeniths led 38-27 after three quarters. Derrel Taylor added 10 points and 7 boards. Brad Karren scored 8, while Doug Evers nabbed 7 boards. Zeniths coach Ray Stevenson said that “I can’t believe it, it’s just unreal. As a coach there has been nothing as tremendous as this. At the start of the year I knew we had the potential to become the best team Magrath ever had. We had height, speed and shooting. We struggled at the start, but then Ron started to get better and Brad started to rebound tremendously well. The pressure-games we had in the league, and in tournaments, made the difference for us. That pressure helped build our team. Ron played a terrific ball game for us tonight. He is a tremendous guard and has great potential. There’s not a shot he can’t shoot and he jumps well, and can out-rebound a lot of bigger men. He also has great anticipation. Derral played his best ball game of the championship series against the Rams. I was glad to see him taking the feed from Karren and turn around, look for the shot, pivot and make it. He made three in a row like that. I knew going into the game we had to throw a zone at LCI. We can’t handle their speed over all, especially Chu Jang. I thought we’d use a 1-3-1 zone to see what would happen and it seemed to stymie them. We were blocking them out on rebounds. On offence we went to what we call our basic offence, which has many variations. We’ve used that many times in the past against them.” Rice said “it means a lot to me to win this championship. I was awake a lot Friday night thinking about it.” The Rams outrebounded the Zeniths 33-27. Wade Steed led the Rams with 14. Ken Wright added 8 and Chu Jang 8. Rams coach Jim Whitelaw said “Magrath deserved to win. You can’t put our loss down to one person, it was the whole team. We didn’t persist in what we wanted to do and Magrath defenced us very well.” Stevenson told the Calgary Herald “this is simply incredible. I knew the team would be representative but I never really thought we’d go all the way. We could be playing 2A competition. But we decided nine years ago that we’d play 4A and go against the best. We’ve always been strong but this is the first year we put it all together.” Whitelaw told the Herald “our timing was definitely out on our offence. We weren’t moving the ball inside on their zone. By the time we changed to a 2-2 formation, we were playing catch-up ball.”
The bronze medalist Calgary St. Mary’s Saints: Jason Gorsalitz; Norm Murray; Blaine Haines; John Thoutenhoofd, Mike Van Rijn; Mark Ross; Blaine Murray; co-coach Frank Thoutenhoofd, co-coach Mike Horner
The silver medalist Lethbridge Collegiate Institute Rams: Wade Steed; Kim Wright; Chu Jang; J.D. Forsyth; Bobby Moore; Murray Low; Chris Kotkas; Brent Maxwell; coach Jim Whitelaw
The gold medalist Magrath Zeniths: Brad Karren; Ron Rice; Greg Woodbury; Derrel Taylor; Brent Johnson; Terry Shannon; Tom Dudley; Rob Ripley; Doug Evers; Brent Taylor; Cory Michaud; Bart Milner; coach Ray Stevenson; assistant Dave Lowry; manager Mark Lowry