In the opening round, held in Calgary: …………………………………………………… The top-seeded Lethbridge Collegiate Rams clocked the 16th-seeded Fort McMurray Westwood Community Trojans 104-41. “We just ran into a good team,” said Westwood coach James Harline. “We just didn’t show up to play as a team today and they brought it to us pretty good.” The Trojans included Idris Ahmed, Abdul Ali, Ola Dada, Daniel Day, Akash Gupta, Marcus Pickett, Ahmad Rana, Harsh Shah, Vishal Sharma, Cody Steeves, Kegan Van NieKerk and Daniel Wiley. …………………………………………………… The 8th-seeded Edmonton Archbishop O’Leary Spartans whipped the 9th-seeded Calgary Notre Dame Pride 91-65. The Pride (coached by Mike McFarland) included Kingsley Addai, William Anifowose, Ryan Boyes, Miguel Jacinto, Binyam Mengsteab, John Penny, Kingsley Robert-Ezenta, Nicholas Smith, Abel Tekle, Kirubel Tesfagiorgis, Joseph Tesfai and Griffin Zerr. …………………………………………………… The 12th-seeded Calgary St Mary’s Saints stunned the 5th-seeded Edmonton Harry Ainlay Titans 97-79. The Titans (coached by George Hoyt) included Sabre Abduraheman, Omer Ahmad, Xavier Aleba, Xan Cowen, Jordan Glover, Andriy Halushko, Devon Healey, Dylan Larocque, Barento Mohammed, William Pittman and Robin Wei. …………………………………………………… The 4th-seeded Calgary Bishop Grandin Ghosts clipped the 13th-seeded Okotoks Foothills Composite Falcons 77-65. The Falcons (coached by Amron Gwilliam) included Taylor Armsworthy, Morgan Burbank, Anthony Cayetano, Jamie Derochie, Hunter Karl, Seichi Kyle, Matt Loyd, Austin Orr, Taner Parrington, Austin Smutko, Noah Wilkie and Garrett Young. …………………………………………………… The 3rd-seeded Calgary Bishop O’Byrne Bobcats nipped the 14th-seeded Red Deer Hunting Hills Lightning 83-80. The Lightning (coached by Scott Doan) included Luke Beasley, Sean Campbell, Jarret Gouw, Dallas Hancox, Danny Henry, Matt Mackie, Joel Peterson, Dan Ripley, Jesse Ross, Kevin Stevens, Mike Ward and Mackenzie Wright. …………………………………………………… The 6th-seeded Edmonton St. Francis Xavier Rams whipped the 11th-seeded Lethbridge Winston Churchill Bulldogs 73-47. The Bulldogs (coached by Kevin McBeath) included Shane Burdett, Johnathan Ekubazgi, Keanu Funa, Rylan Greeno, Bariyaa Ipaa, Blake Peters, Mike Pierzchala, Nils Reger, Jesse Stern, Josh Toth, Alex Toyoshima, Joel Van Pelt, George Waterfield and Jake Wilson. …………………………………………………… The 7th-seeded Calgary Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs clipped the 10th-seeded Edmonton Jasper Place Rebels 76-65. The Rebels (coached by Matt Burrows, assisted by Mike Wilkie, Donovan Wright, Carson M and Doug Wilde) included Jerrid Archutick, Greg Buffie, Cole Burkart, Arran Chambers, Zac Hayashi, Aldrin Hjelmeland, Gregoire Lufunzi, Jacob Rumball, Darian Smigorowsky, Clark Spencer, Rashawn Sutherland, Josiah Thomas, Tyler Wilde, Spencer Wilkie and Sahid Yussuf. …………………………………………………… The 2nd-seeded Cardston Cougars smacked the 15th-seeded Grande Prairie Tomahawks 102-53. The Tomahawks (coached by Troy Sandboe) included Sam Afram, Colton Armstrong-Ashley, Ethan Barkman, Jordan Carlson, Jarrod Caufield, Iyman Eltayeb, Jordan Holloway, Bogdan Knesevic, Chase McCarthy, Matt Seidler, Jeff Tunke and Joel Zimmerman.
In the quarterfinals, the top-seeded Lethbridge Collegiate Rams stuffed the 8th-seeded Edmonton Archbishop O’Leary Spartans 82-64. The Spartans (coached by Ray Felice, assisted by Frank Filice, Jay Tomlinson and Chad Carleton) included Lemuel Baui, Wyatt Beaver, Mark Breitkruetz, Jordan Brown, Kuir Bulgak, Solomon Davies, Aesop Francisco, Dylan Hersche, Julien McFadden, Anton Ramos, Mitch Rando, Phillip Vu, Jacob Waschuk and Lukas Waschuk.
The 4th-seeded Calgary Bishop Grandin Ghosts edged the 12th-seeded Calgary St. Mary’s Saints 69-65. The Saints (coached by Vince Marra) included George Bol, Robert Bzdziuch, Stephen Classen, Cameron Driscoll, Colin Lahey, Vaan Louwowo, Nicholas Nolina, Henock Mukwandwa, Sheldon Pittman, Zach Skoko and Aaron Tel.
The 6th-seeded Edmonton St. Francis Xavier Rams dumped the 3rd-seeded Calgary Bishop O’Byrne Bobcats 71-56. The Bobcats (coached by Kurt Luttmerding) included Steffan Bote, Liam Burke, Mike Calimlim, Dylan Cline, Alex Dusza, Riley Friesen, Paolo Garvez, Garret Ladell, Emmer Mangawang, Josh Matear, Femi Morawo, Kacper Skora, Cole Van Esch and Brandon Van Hal.
In the last quarterfinal, the 2nd-seeded Cardston Cougars dispatched the 7th-seeded Calgary Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs 87-74. The Bulldogs (coached by Mike Fullerton) included Emmett Cook, Rawdon dePaiva, Amrit Gill, Matthew Guinto, Sam Kerber, Scott Lamb, Dallan McCarthy, Adonis Montfort-Palomino, Zaire Sealy, Iman Shergill, Jesse Trofin, Derian Valdes and Glen Yang.
In the semis, the 4th-seeded Calgary Bishop Grandin Ghosts stunned the top-seeded Lethbridge Collegiate Rams 78-71. The Ghosts kept draining in response to every Ram threat.
In the other semi, the 2nd-seeded Cardston Cougars nipped the 6th-seeded Edmonton St. Francis Xavier Rams 77-76 in overtime. Rams coach Jeremy Posteraro called “one of the best high school games in the history of Alberta basketball.” Trailing Cardston by as many as 18 points late in the third quarter, the Rams stormed back to force overtime. St. FX took its first lead of the game, 77-76, on a three-pointer by Chris McCormick with 3.4 seconds left, only to have the Cougars win it with a buzzer-beater. “Unfortunately, in that type of game one team’s got to lose,” Posteraro told the Edmonton Examiner. “The last shot went to them and they made a great play. That was a special game and a special comeback and our kids should get credit for not quitting, competing and almost winning.”
In the bronze medal match, the top-seeded Lethbridge Collegiate Rams defeated the 6th-seeded Edmonton St. Francis Xavier Rams 81-72. The Rams broke open the game in the fourth quarter. “It was a pretty tough game to play … it’s so tough to come back and focus for those bronze medals,” said St. FX coach Jeremy Posteraro. “I’m proud of the way we competed … that wasn’t one of our best defensive performances, but we fought and stayed close and came out to win that game. There was definitely no quit but at the same time we looked a little bit fatigued.” The Rams (coached by Jeremy Posteraro, assisted by Fergal Peters and Gaby Ferzli) included Caleb Diiwu, Joey Galan, Nolan Gray, Nikko Guce, Rafael Guce, Alex Kozicki, David Labreche, Zach Marchak, Chris McCormick, Mikko Molas, Euriah Pemberton, Joey Schwartz, Nelson Wani, Konrad Wiezcorek, John Yuag and Revin Zabala.
In the final, the 2nd-seeded Cardston Cougars dumped the 4th-seeded Calgary Bishop Grandin Ghosts 81-66. It marked the third time that a school had completed the boys-girls double but the first that it was accomplished with both head coaches being brothers. Kevin Quinton coached the boys, and Steve Quinton the girls. The Cougars also repeated as provincial champs. The squad knew everyone would be gunning for them but set high goals, said Quinton. “If you don’t set goals in your life, you’re not going to gradually climb that ladder to where you want to be. Same thing in school, try and be the best you can be. All these kids, they might not have a career in basketball, but their education is going to take them somewhere.” Assistant coach Doug Sheen said Quinton “tells it how it is and some of the time I think ‘gee whiz Kevin, you’re pretty tough on these kids.’ But I bet they all love and respect him if you asked them, because I know I do.” Watching the girls win their final was an inspiration, said Kevin Quinton. “It actually gave us a lot of help. Them winning it for the first time is great for us too, gave us some inspiration to do the same thing.” The Cougars up-tempo game forced the Ghosts into turnovers and rushed shots and often led to run-out layups. The Ghosts tried to pound the ball inside to Grant Peters but often couldn’t get it to him in the blocks. “We wanted to push the ball as much as we could,” said Quinton. “We knew if we pushed the ball, we had a better chance of winning and that’s what we did as a team. It took the whole team to do that.” Peters finished with 22 points and 12 boards. Justin Folsom led the Cougars with 17. Lincoln Anderson added 17. The Cougars led by as many as 19 points in the third quarter but the Ghosts rallied late to trim the margin to 13. They rallied within 59-50 with minute minutes to play but the Cougars invariably had the answers down the stretch. “It’s tough to come back,” sighed Ghosts head coach Mike Henry. “They’re a great team and they play extremely well. It wasn’t our day today. We had a great season so we’re not holding our heads down.” Quinton said “we didn’t see Grandin all year, we got some tape on them and watched a couple of their games, we knew they were tough inside and could shoot the ball from the outside, we just had to play tough defense. My kids play with a lot of heart all the time, we’ve been through this before. We’ve won a lot of games by one or two points, and that’s all I ask of my kids, to work hard. … It was a hard-fought game by both sides,” said Quinton. “Both teams played really hard and you couldn’t ask for a better final.” The Ghosts played without injured point guard Austen Hartley, which hurt, Henry said. “We did our best without him but to climb back from 20, it’s hard to get that last five is tough. He really helps us defensively, he’s capable of scoring 20 points but he’s also the guy that locks down the other team’s best point guard.”
The bronze medalist Lethbridge Collegiate Rams: Colton Gibb; Mason Gibb; Arjan Gill; Brandon Karl; Nick Keith; McKay Lepard; Samson Mandefro; Jack McDonald; Taylor Norquay; Zac Overwater; Brock Ramias; Jared Thomsen; Konner Valgardson; Saren Westrop; coach Cale Rasmussen
The silver medalist Calgary Bishop Grandin Ghosts: Steven Bennett; Brayden Daniel; Ronald Deschamp; Justav Flores; Darren Fuentes; Austen Hartley; George Jackson; Trent Joseph; Wiande Kher; Cole Mclellan; Grant Peters; Bobby Stewart; coach Mike Henry
The gold medalist Cardston Cougars: Lincoln Anderson; Zack Carter; Jordan Creason; Justin Folsom; Grayden Klain; Clayton Leavitt; Joel Lutz; Morgan Merrill; Rylan Quinton; Tanner Quinton; Quinn Romeril; Riley Sheen; Ted Varley; coach Kevin Quinton; assistant Doug Sheen