In the opening round, held in Spruce Grove: …………………………………………………… The Taber W.R. Myers Rebels clocked the 12th-seeded Barrhead Composite Gryphons 71-52. The Gryphons (coached by David Mueller, assisted by Leahan Schaffrick) included Sytse Akkerman, Thijs De Wildt, Coltin Demuth, Liam Holman, Cole Knudsen, Justin Koch, Thomas Koekkoek, Nate Neinema, Koletyn Mueller, Sam Nanninga, Isaiah Raju, Jacob Ree and Jett Sigouin. …………………………………………………… The 8th-seeded Fort McMurray Composite Miners dumped the 9th-seeded Spruce Grove St. Peter the Apostle Spartans 79-65. “They were a tough team, they were really fast but we kept up, made the adjustments and got the win,” said Miners assistant coach Clarence Smith. “The guys just figured out how to play at this level and not get worried or stressed out about the little things. They just need to settle down, play their own game and be themselves.” Miners post Ibrahim Hachem dominated the paint. The Spartans (coached by Chris Delano) included Jayden Chessall, Chad Chessell, Ben Dewling, Tyler Dunning, Evan Grise, Bryce Hayes, Liam Lindsay, Eddy Nkerabahizi, Steven Nkerabahizi, Omid Poonja, Clinton Richardson, Taylor Secord and Brennan Young. …………………………………………………… The 11th-seeded Grande Prairie Peace Wapiti Academy Titans stunned the 6th-seeded Wetaskiwin Composite Sabres 71-65. The Sabres (coached by Rob Cross) included Aaron Abrahamson, Joel Bishop, Leo Bruno, Josh Cunningham, Kevlin Cutknife, Moudy Elwenni, Lerence Estorninos, Connor Gusdal, Trent Hebert, Art Limbaga and Travis Spurrel. …………………………………………………… The 7th-seeded Medicine Hat Crescent Heights Vikings clipped the 10th-seeded Calgary Webber Academy Wildcats 76-66. The Wildcats (coached by Joel Chalifoux, assisted by Drew Hyndman) included Zaman Ahmed, Ahmed Al-Saidi, Carl Botha, Justin Butler, Ali Charanek, Garret Metcalfe, Osman Molumo, Vedad Mursel, Rod Niera, Balaji Sankaranarayanan, Michael Wahba, Nathan Wallace and Lukas Wilgosh.
In the quarterfinals, the top-seeded Cochrane Cobras whacked the 8th-seeded Fort McMurray Composite Miners 74-54. The Miners (coached by Jonathan Lambert, assisted by Clarence Smith) included Imad Bazzi, Ahmed Fayad, Ibrahim Hachem, Alak Hamayed, Faisal Issa, Tyler Lockler, Brandon MacLennan, Hussien Omairi, Khalid Osman, Kamal Rahime and Jacob Simmons.
The 5th-seeded Taber W.R. Myers Rebels stunned the 4th-seeded Leduc Composite Tigers 65-57. The Tigers (coached by Vince May) included Brody Bernier-Lawson, Austin Brulotte, Kole Eichelt, Ryan Grams, Zac Halushka, Trey Klak, Eathan Knutson, Josh Kramers, Nash Meaver, Jagger Ponto, Mychsl Ruptash, Daniel Van Bruinessen, Brett Van Doesburg, Zack Vernon and Reuban Vlieg.
The 3rd-seeded Edmonton Christian Lions clocked the 11th-seeded Grande Prairie Peace Wapiti Academy Titans 88-51. The Titans (coached by Evan Lloyd) included Brandon Berg, Colby Fournier, Lucas Gorgichuk, William Grossett, Matt Keddy, Darrel Leggatt, Riley Matlock, Reece Monnette, Liam O’Hallahan, Ryan Pelster and Cashton Wilson.
In the last quarterfinal, the 2nd-seeded Chestermere Lakers defeated the 7th-seeded Medicine Hat Crescent Heights Vikings 82-70. Lakers head coach Mitch Turgeon said nerves led to a slow start but the team’s shooting carried it through. The Vikings (coached by Lee Woodward) included Logan Baumann, Scott Bowlen, Lachlan Duncan, Tanner Hale, Scott Hannah, Austin Hery, John Lloyd, Kevin Onoferychuk, Justin Vann, Raymond Weich and Zack Wilson.
In the semis, the top-seeded Cochrane Cobras dispatched the 5th-seeded Taber W.R. Myers Rebels 72-57.
In the other semi, the 3rd-seeded Edmonton Christian Lions whipped the 2nd-seeded Chestermere Lakers 86-61. “We’d never seen them before and they definitely had a varying style than us,” said Lakers coach Mitch Turgeon said. “They were a lot bigger than us. I was expecting our shooting to carry us and we were up by four at the half, but then at the worst possible time of the season we had our worst shooting game. They hit everything they shot.”
In the bronze medal match, the 2nd-seeded Chestermere Lakers handled the 5th-seeded Taber W.R. Myers Rebels 84-72. Rookie Lakers coach Mitch Turgeon said “no one ever wants to play for bronze, but someone has to. We were extremely disappointed for losing the semi-final game, but we learned from our mistakes. We played in the same game last year and we struggled to find any motivation, but this year our Grade 12s learned from that. Only two teams win a medal at the end of the year and they wanted it to be them for their last game. … It’s definitely something to be proud of. You go there thinking you have a chance to win it all and I’m happy for the seniors especially that their last memory is a win and a medal around their neck. It was definitely a personal goal for me to get the team to Provincials and it was huge learning experience being the once who made the decisions and watched the game film. The provincial experience was a great cap on an excellent year and I had 11 of the best kids I could’ve had on the team. I’m really proud of the way they worked all year.” The Rebels (coached by Greg Bowes) included Wyatt Adams, Tom Anderson, Nathan Bennett, Dennis Campbell, Ryan Hansen, Brody Jensen, Tommy Johnson, Kurtis Krizsan, Connor Layton, Jordan Olsen and Ethan Robbins.
In the final, the 3rd-seeded Edmonton Christian Lions defeated the top-seeded Cochrane Cobras 73-65. “It’s fantastic, you can’t beat that,” said Lions coach Rob Hofstede. Lion big men 6-4 Brent Hofstede and 6-7 Levi Wothuis dominated the paint, while point guard Daniel Rozema dictated the tempo. “He’s kind of our go-to guy,” Hofstede said. “Where he goes, we go.” The Lions led 25-15 two minutes into the second quarter, but the Cobras shot their way back into the game by capitalizing on Edmonton Christian turnovers and knotted the score at 27 at the half. Cobras forward Jake Moulton and guard Chace Nielson ignited a 15-2 Cochrane run in the third quarter to build a 55-50 lead after three quarters and appeared in control. “I thought so too,” Cobras coach Kris Nielson said. “I thought we still executed very well and we lost a little bit on our rebounding in the fourth quarter. I felt like we were doing a lot of good things offensively and (shots) just weren’t dropping for us.” But Rozema took control. “I thought we did a really good job on him,” Nielson said of Rozema. “We saw the game before where he was penetrating whenever he wanted to and I thought we limited that reasonably well.” Rozema stole a long inbound pass at halfcourt and dished the ball off to put his team up 57-54; pulled down a defensive board and nailed a trey to break a 60-all tie. He then found Hofstede, who was fouled and put the game out of reach with a free throw. The Lions held the Cobras to 10 points in the fourth quarter. “We just wanted it bad,” Rozema said. “We stepped up our defence and rebounded the basketball really well and that’s what did it, I think.” Neilson noted that “the competition was excellent. The whole year was excellent as far as the competition goes. … Very pleased. It was a hard year, and a very rewarding year, though. Nothing worthwhile is easy, and that’s definitely the case here.” Hofstede noted that the title was an enormous accomplishment for one of Edmonton’s smallest schools. “Our first year in, we didn’t make it to the 3A (Provincials). The next year we made it and ended up eight overall, then last year we came in as the fifth seed and upset Chestermere, who was the first seed, in the bronze medal game. That was pretty fantastic in itself, and that experience and confidence and set us up well this year. … We (were able) to draw on the experience of the pressure games we’ve been in all year, and say ‘No need to panic, let’s do what we need to do, let’s wear them out’,” because I thought we were the deeper team. They had some fantastic players but not as deep a bench, so we could go a little deeper and put some pressure on them and I think we wore them out by the end. Our seniors have been together for such a long time and this has been a long time coming for them, so I give them a lot of credit.”
The bronze medalist Chestermere Lakers: Drake Bruney; Julian Bruney; Seth Dickin; Charnjot Gill; Jherald Gonzales; Bailey Grabmuller; Corey Hendry; Yuvraj Hundal; Viny Jawanda; Riley Lenci; Tyis Yellowhorn; coach Mitch Turgeon
The silver medalist Cochrane Cobras: Noah Bean; Corbin Courage; Seth Milner; Kyle Moortgat; Jake Moulton; Chace Nielson; Murray Perrault; Matt Pipa; Mike Quillian; Nathan Rom; Milton Singeris; coach Kris Nielson
The gold medalist Edmonton Christian Lions: Andrew Barbe; Sawyer Boyle; Tristian Galang; Anthony Heidelberg; Brent Hofstede; Musset Joseph; Regan Luth; Dean McGowan; Quinton McLeod; Daniel Rozema; Justin Visscher; Levi Wolthuis; coach Rob Hofstede