In the opening round, held in Camrose: …………………………………………………… The Edmonton Christian Lions clocked the Fort McMurray Composite Miners 100-48. The Miners included Ossama Al-Zabidi, Imad Bazzi, Thomas Brenner, Ahmed Fayad, Ibrahim Hachem, Tyler Lockyer, Khalid Osman, Jacob Simmons and Austin Williams. …………………………………………………… The 9th-seeded Lethbridge Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs dusted the 8th-seeded Wetaskiwin Composite Sabres 78-61. The Sabres included Joel Bishop, Ben Broadbent, Leo Bruno, Carlo Canton, Marcel Durston, Moudy Elwenni, Connor Gusdal, Trent Hebert, Josh Majek, Aaron Rattlesnake, Joel Reitsma and Travis Spurrell. …………………………………………………… The 6th-seeded St. Albert Catholic Skyhawks clubbed the 11th-seeded Beaverlodge Regional Royals 89-49 as Cam Vilcsak scored 36 and Cole Aikens 24. The Royals (coached by Ken Pon) included Talon Fowler, Trevor Greenwell, Chance Herback, Hayden Hollowell, Spencer MacQueen, Damon Romeo, Dion Romeno, Jordan Smith, Jared Sterkenburg, Derek Syme, Reid Toews and Curtis Wainwright. …………………………………………………… The 7th-seeded Spruce Grove St. Thomas Aquinas Thunder edged the 10th-seeded Calgary Ecole de la Rose Sauvage Couguars 48-45. The Couguars included Modibo Bengaly, William Bernier, Nasser Kasigwa, Daniel Mejia, Jonatas Michel, Mwamba Mutanda, Andrew Pabon Nino and Josiah Wilson.
In the quarterfinals, the Edmonton Christian Lions stunned the Medicine Hat Crescent Heights Vikings 73-64. “I think it’s always nice not to be top four, so you do get a game underneath,” Vikings coach Lee Woodward told the Medicine Hat News. “But we came out firing so you can’t blame it on that. “We played a great first half and they beat us in the third quarter 22-9. That was the game.” Tanner Hale led the Vikings with 17, along with 8 steals. Jonah Gilham blocked 5 shots and nabbed 10 boards. The Vikings also included Harrison Stubbs, Scott Hannah. The Vikings also included Tyson Heidebrecht, Austin Hery, Braden Hery, Zach Jensen, John Lloyd and Matt Taylor.
The top-seeded Cochrane Cobras whipped the 9th-seeded Lethbridge Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs 90-48. The Bulldogs included Shelby Atwood, Shane Burdett, Ross Delauw, Johnny Ekubazgi, Keanu Funa, Rylan Greeno, Josh Lozano, Blake Peters, Mike Pierzchala, Nils Reger, Austin Sedgwick, Faris Taha, Josh Toth and Joel Van Pelt.
The 3rd-seeded Camrose Composite Trojans dispatched the 6th-seeded St. Albert Catholic Skyhawks 58-48. The Trojans outscored the Skyhawks 18-12 in the fourth quarter. Down by seven at halftime, the Skyhawks pulled even with Camrose early in the fourth quarter before the game slipped away from them. “The boys battled and played hard,” said Skyhawks coach Evan Holstein. “Our whole goal going into the fourth quarter was just to be in striking distance. We were within four points and then when we tied it up at 40-40, we thought the momentum was swinging our way and then we just kind of got cold. We couldn’t really hit a shot; the ball wasn’t really bouncing for us and we got a couple of questionable calls. … We were our own worst enemies. We knew what we had to do and in the first half we didn’t really execute the game plan. We came out of the half and made adjustments. We kind of switched up our pressure and went into a little bit of a zone. They struggled from the outside so that gave us more possessions and we went on a run. We played some hard defence and got stops but unfortunately we couldn’t finish a couple of things we should have.” The Skyhawks, coached by Evan Holstein, included Cole Aikens, Ryan Beztilny, Levi Constantin, Ben Crothers, Landon Fink, Lane Gauvreau, Scott LaBuick, Greg Lefebvre, Robi Sanchez, Chris Spiwek, Brendon Thera-Plamondon and Cam Vilcsak
In the last quarterfinal, the 2nd-seeded Chestermere Lakers clubbed the 7th-seeded Spruce Grove St. Thomas Aquinas Thunder 85-41. The Thunder included Josh Burnstad, Jayden Chessell, Tyler Dunning, Bryce Hayes, Nick Larocque, Kyle Mahaffey, Graeme Mann, Steven Nkerabahizi, Mitch Opryshko, Omid Poonja, Clinton Richardson, Taylor Secord and Brennan Young.
In the semis, the Cochrane Cobras whipped the Edmonton Christian Lions 82-59.
In the other semi, the Camrose Composite Trojans dumped the Chestermere Lakers 85-78.
In the bronze medal match, the Edmonton Christian Lions nipped the Chestermere Lakers 85-84. The Lakers included Drake Bruney, Keith Davis, Jasdeep Gill, Jherald Gonzales, Chris Hendry, Yuvraj Hundal, Viny Jawanda, Hunter Karl, Riley Lenci, Lance Olson and Colby Williams.
In the final, the Camrose Composite Trojans edged the Cochrane Cobras 60-57 in overtime. “This is only the second time in 49 years that this been accomplished by the boys’ basketball program,” said Trojans coaches James Saby.
“Cochrane started the game shooting very well building a 40-27 lead at half time. (Our team) picked up the defence in the second half holding Cochrane to scoring one point in the third quarter. Going into the fourth the score was now 41-32. The crowd of around 800 (at CCHS) was going crazy and really helped drive the Trojans momentum swing in the fourth quarter. The Trojans tied the score at the buzzer sending the game into overtime.” Saby added that “I couldn’t believe we actually won. It’s my first provincial championship and there was so much emotion with the players. It’s a special group of boys on this team and they very much deserved the win.”
The bronze medalist Edmonton Christian Lions: Sawyer Boyle; Cameron Bush; Tamru Ezezew; Merron Haile; Brent Hofstede; Eric Hofstede; Anton Paszek; Daniel Rozema; Jonathan Schoepp; Brendan Visscher; Matthew Vriend; Levi Wolthius;
The silver medalist Cochrane Cobras: Connor Branch; Corbin Courage; Kellen Forrest; Garrett Godfrey; Cooper Hamaliuk; Eddy Johal; Braedan Mitchell; Jacob Moulton; Chace Nielson; Murray Perrault; Matt Pipa;
The champion Camrose Composite Trojans: Jeremy Bonter; Luke Bramfeld; Jeff Brausen; Michael Byce; Braden Davis; Myles Derry; Caine Erickson; Connor Foreman; Hamilton Fowler; Logan Ottas; Caleb Reed; Nathan Saby; coach James Saby