In the wildcard game, the Winnipeg Mennonite Brethren Hawks dispatched the Winnipeg John Taylor Pipers 84-77.
In the opening round: …………………………………………………… The 8th-seeded Winnipeg Daniel McIntyre Maroons whipped the 9th-seeded Winnipeg Miles Macdonell Buckeyes 85-66. The Buckeyes, coached by Jeff Shaddock, were Jordan Barendregt, Kyle Barendregt, David Dyck, Jamar Farley, Chris Hondz, Stephen Hupe, Tim Ireland, Travis Matiation, Brett Nicholls, Brennan Romaniuk, Michael Shumsky, Luke Sierhuis, Steven Trefi and Nick Trivunac. …………………………………………………… The 5th-seeded Winnipeg Kelvin Clippers stomped the 12th-seeded Brandon Vincent Massey Vikings 94-46. The Vikings, coached by Brett Nohr, were Ali Ahmed, Reed Beaudry, Iain Cowie, Jay Cummings, Evan Didychuk, Ryan Johnson, Conner Kennedy, Jeremy Lucio, John Macalanda, Spencer Riche and Travis Singbeil. …………………………………………………… The 6th-seeded Winnipeg Dakota Lancers clipped the 11th-seeded Winnipeg Mennonite Brethren Hawks 82-64. The Hawks, coached by Jon Goossen, were Adam Bergen, Noah Derksen, Simon Dueck, Derek Elliot, Tyler Friesen, Mitch Keenan, Steve Klassen, Landon Loewen, Bennett Podolsky, Brenden Shultz, Jeff Stafeckis, Kyle Visch and Ben Wolfram. …………………………………………………… The 7th-seeded Winnipeg Kildonan East Reivers edged the 10th-seeded Winnipeg Sisler Spartans 75-70. The Spartans, coached by Scott Martin, were Jeffrey Ani, Paul Belanger, Jerome Borja, Mikko Branzuela, Serjordan Cruz, Josh French, Kevin Genido, Tyree Gordon, Kevin Huang, Akida Lewis, Paulo Medina, Harold Memita, Victor Nguyen and Aaron Olivier-Job.
In the quarterfinals, the top-seeded Winnipeg Garden City Fighting Gophers outlasted the 8th-seeded Winnipeg Daniel McIntyre Maroons 93-86. The Maroons, coached by Carey Lasuik and Brad Purpur, were Mohamed Alor, Jerome Ariegue, Deang Capuno, Aaron Cass, Saio Mansaray, Shawn Masesar, Yusuf Nar, Kyle Queijo, Jurrell Reyes, Jeyson Saceda, Darin Soung, Brian Tran, Jonathan Wilner and Abdulaziz Yassin.
The 4th-seeded Winnipeg St. Paul’s Crusaders handled the 5th-seeded Winnipeg Kelvin Clippers 82-70. The Clippers, coached by Chris Young, were Rodel Aaron, Ruff Alinsob, Jordan Ankrah, Stephen Jones, Kristjan Lamont, Christian Lozaga, Dillon Miranda, Brandon Puglisis, Kalvin Ramos, Dakotah Roussin, Abdul Sesay, Michael Thorne-Finch and Randell Viray.
The 3rd-seeded Winnipeg Oak Park Raiders dusted the 6th-seeded Winnipeg Dakota Lancers 84-60. The Lancers, coached by Dean Favoni, were Mansoor Ali, Taha Ali, Dan Beddome, Taylor Brown, Riley Delavau, Orabe Eliazar, Evan Gathrop, Matej Juric, Alex MacLeod, Josh McKay, Solomon Schmidt, Brayden Sutherland, Nic Tardiff and Justin Tran.
In the last quarterfinal, the 2nd-seeded Winnipeg Sturgeon Heights Huskies stomped the 7th-seeded Winnipeg Kildonan East Reivers 91-63. The Reivers, coached by Jeremy Martin, were Mike Bell, Ricky Bhandal, Abu Conteh, Austin Coombes, Jon Deng, Shaminder Dhaliwal, Atley Durette, Lukas Glandorf, Ivan Griffiths, Ryan Hawley, Haben Kidane, Anddru Ladoh and Nzanzu Mitayango.
In the semis, the top-seeded Winnipeg Garden City Fighting Gophers defeated the 4th-seeded Winnipeg St. Paul’s Crusaders 77-70 despite trailing 41-32 at the half. Chris Benevides paced the Fighting Gophers with 20. Jordan Kelly added 18 points and 10 boards, Andre Arruda-Welch 16 and Mark Garcia 13. Ross Book led the Crusaders with 19. Theo Deezar added 16 and Joey Nitychoruk 11 after getting into early foul trouble. Garden City built a 25-16 lead after one quarter but the Crusaders exploded for a 23-3 run to take a 41-32 lead at the half. Then Gophers coach Phil Penner delivered a proverbial inspirational speech at the break. “I’ve yelled and screamed sometimes if I don’t think we’re competing hard enough. But today I didn’t yell and scream very much, I was just trying to get them focused on what they needed to do because I could see there were a few times in the game where the atmosphere was a little bit big. You’ve got to understand; my point guard is Grade 10 and the rest of my starters are Grade 11 and they haven’t been here before. We’re real young that way so even though we’ve been in a lot of big games it’s not the Provincial Semifinals. I give our guys credit for fighting back from a nine-point deficit at halftime. The guys work real, real hard and sometimes hard work is better than brains. You saw that today. We just kinda gutted it out. We showed a lot of character. We were a little sketchy down the stretch with our decision making, but the guys showed a lot of heart.” The Gophers dominated the third quarter, out-scoring the Crusaders 31-9 and then withstood a late St. Paul’s run for the win. Gophers guard Jordan Kelly said “our coach has a lot of experience. He’s told us a lot of stories about past teams that won, so we know a lot of stories about past teams. What makes the team work? We’re all friends off the court, so that helps us a lot on the court with chemistry. And we’ve just got a lot of shooters. A lot of people can shoot on our team and we’re very young, so we just shoot the lights out sometimes. … Most games in provincials come down to runs. So we just had to get back on our run after they went on their big one.” Kelly knocked down a pair of three-pointers in the third quarter, during which Crusaders star Joey Nitychoruk headed to the bench after getting called for his fourth foul. St. Paul’s coach Jeff Laping earned a technical for arguing the call. The Crusaders had a 73-39 advantage in the rebound department, but the much smaller Gophers knew that was going to happen. So, they just did what they do best: shoot the ball. “We’ve just got a lot of shooters,” Kelly said. “A lot of people can shoot on our team and we’re very young, so we just shoot the lights out sometimes.” Even though their field-goal percentage wasn’t that much better than the Crusaders’, the Gophers drained twice as many three-pointers and built up a comfortable 69-56 lead midway through the fourth. “It was a little bit scary out there today,” Penner said. “We knew we were going to have a problem on the boards, because they’re really big and talented and Joey’s a jumping jack down underneath the boards. We really got going in the second half when we started full-court pressing their guards.”
In the other semi, the 3rd-seeded Winnipeg Oak Park Raiders stunned the 2nd-seeded Winnipeg Sturgeon Heights Huskies 83-75 despite trailing 43-39 at the half. The Raiders led 59-57 after three quarters. Elliott Taylor led the Raiders with 26 points and 12 boards. Jordan Fotheringham added 16, including four from beyond the arc, while John Kiesman scored 15. Garrick Hutsal and Amarjit Basi each scored 18 to pace the Huskies.
In the final, the 3rd-seeded Winnipeg Oak Park Raiders crushed the top-seeded Winnipeg Garden City Fighting Gophers 86-61 after leading 35-25 at the half. Elliott Taylor paced the Raiders with 31. John Kiesman added 23 points and 17 boards, while Junior Sesay scored 17 and nabbed 12 boards. Chris Benevides led the Fighting Gophers with 21. It was the second straight title — and third in the last five years — for the Raiders. “I just feel happy that I didn’t screw up what (Randy) Kusano built for 30 years,” said rookie Raiders coach Jon Lundgren. “It feels good.” Lundgren said John Kiesman dominated the paint. “He’s a big, solid guy. Sometimes he finishes, sometimes he doesn’t. Today was his day.” Kiesman, who’d quarterbacked Oak Park to a high school football championship in November, dominated the boards at the Winnipeg Duckworth Centre. “I’m just a football player for the most part. I just come out here for basketball, try to work hard and try to help the team win.” Using his big body beneath the basket to his advantage, Kiesman scored three straight buckets and then added a pair of free throws to go on his own 8-0 run that gave Oak Park a 25-15 lead. Garden City never really threatened again. When Kiesman and the football players weren’t killing the Gophers on the inside, tournament MVP Elliot Taylor was delivering from the perimeter, including four three-pointers and a handful of coast-to-coast dashes that showed off his athleticism. “It feels great,” said Taylor, who also had 12 rebounds. “Back to back. You couldn’t ask for anything better than that.” Gophers coach Phil Penner said his team shot the ball poorly from the arc (7-24). “Offensively we didn’t get anything going at all today. (But) I don’t think there’s too many people in the province who would’ve picked us to be here at the start of the year, so I’m very proud of what the guys have accomplished.” The Gopher only lost two games all season, both to the Raiders.
The tournament all-stars featured MVP Elliott
Taylor (Oak Park); A.J. Basi (Sturgeon Heights); Theo Dezar (St. Paul’s); Andre
Arruda-Welch (Garden City); Chris Benevides (Garden City); and John Kiesman (Oak
Park). The Player’s Choice Award went to Oak Park’s Cash Blanca.
The co-bronze medalist Winnipeg
St. Paul’s Crusaders: Graeme Bligh; Ross Book; Suk Brar; Ty Cranston; Myles
Dancho; Theo Deezar; Greg Gorlick; Rhys Hansen; Ronald Huletey; Matt Kochan;
Joey Nitychoruk; Evan Pollard; Quinn Roberts-Stovel; Chris Schmidt; coach Jeff
Laping
The co-bronze medalist Winnipeg Sturgeon Heights Huskies: Amarjit Basi; D.J. Dupasquier; Adam Hebert; Jordan Herdman; Justin Herdman; Garrick Hutsal; Mike Kenny; Patrick Mart; Vincent Munoz; Matt Paquette; Eben Rawluk; Zach Regert; Desmond Sackey; Kyle Sumner; coach Stephen Tackie
The silver medalist Winnipeg Garden City Fighting Gophers: Andre Arruda-Welch; Chris Benevides; Luka Chol; Denis Cicak; Ronnie Cruz; Mark Garcia; Jordan Kelly; Josh Magpantay; Alec Soriano; Jonas Tugade; coach Phil Penner
The gold medalist Winnipeg Oak Park Raiders: Mike Bell; Calvin Birdsall; Shapour Birjandian; Cash Blanca; Jordan Fotheringham; Aaron Ivey; Sean Jamieson; John Kiesman; Jordy Lomonaco; Fatlum Selishta; Brennan Senchuk; Junior Sesay; Elliott Taylor; coach Jon Lundgren