In pool A round robin play, held in St. Boniface, for rural and private schools with enrolments under 200: …………………………………………………… The Rossburn Raiders nipped the 5th-seeded Dauphin Western Christian Mustangs 58-57. Jamie Lobert and Ryan Nelson each scored 14 to pace the Mustangs. Kevin Elford added 7. The Mustangs (coached by John Harvey) also included Nathan Close, Lawrence Van Dyke, Jimmy Williams, John McCutcheon, Shad Hawkey, Jamie Lobart, Steve Elford. …………………………………………………… The Rossburn Raiders dumped the 4th-seeded Morris Beavers 62-38. …………………………………………………… The 4th-seeded Morris Beavers edged the 5th-seeded Dauphin Western Christian Mustangs 48-44. Jamie Lobert paced the Mustangs with 26. Ryan Nelson added 7 and Nathan Close 6. “We couldn’t get on track,” said Mustangs coach John Harvey. “We played extremely good defence but we couldn’t get out offence rolling,” primarily because of the absence of star Lawrence Van Dyke, who averaged 16 ppg and 12 rpg on the season, and who was attending the funeral of his brother, who was killed in a traffic accident shortly before the tournament. “I was very happy with the guys played,” Harvey added. “For a team that hasn’t had any playoff experience, they were extremely poised.”
In pool B play: The 7th-seeded Roblin St. Vladimir College Knights stunned the 2nd-seeded Boissevain Broncos 61-56. …………………………………………………… The 7th-seeded Roblin St. Vladimir College Knights crushed the Nelson House x 65-44. …………………………………………………… The 2nd-seeded Boissevain Broncos dumped the Cross Lake Otter Nelson House Otters 75-25. The Broncos included Mike McCallum, John Anderson.
In pool C play: The 8th-seeded St. Laurent Hawks edged the 12th-seeded Carberry Cougars 56-53. ………………………………………………… The top-seeded Landmark 96ers whipped the 8th-seeded St. Laurent Hawks 70-38. The Hawks included Grant Buors, Keith Chartrand, Henry Carrier. …………………………………………………… The top-seeded Landmark 96ers clubbed the 12th-seeded Carberry Cougars 73-17. The Cougars included Harry Hoff, Terrance Hurlory, Steve Saunders, Jeff Deroo.
In pool D play: The 6th-seeded Elie St. Paul’s Barons edged the Manitou Nellie McClung Tigers 50-47. ………………………………………………………………… The 6th-seeded Elie St. Paul’s Barons dumped the 3rd-seeded St. Boniface Diocesan Centurions 55-45. ………………………………………………………………… The 3rd-seeded St. Boniface Diocesan Centurions crushed the Manitou Nellie McClung Tigers 56-42. The Centurions included Gerard Pruchnicki.
In the semis, the 6th-seeded Elie St. Paul’s Barons dumped the 7th-seeded Roblin St. Vladimir’s College Knights 65-60.
In the other semi, the 7th-seeded Rossburn Raiders stunned the top-seeded Landmark 96ers 57-54 in overtime. Two 96er starters missed the semi because of a conflict with a hockey game.
In the bronze medal match, the 7th-seeded Roblin St. Vladimir’s College Knights dispatched the top-seeded Landmark 96ers 49-41. The 96ers (coached by Chris Gudzunias) included Kelly Peters, Jeff Patrick, Lucas Penner, Peter Barg, Rob Giesbrecht, Jeremy Hildebrand, Nathan Plett, Jeff Roski, Erick Pay and Mason Peters.
In the final, the 6th-seeded Elie St. Paul’s Barons defeated the 9th-seeded Rossburn Raiders 63-54. Twenty-year-old coach Cheryl Cyrenne was in her rookie season at the helm. “At the start of the year they needed a coach and every one of the players came up to me and asked if I would coach them. I always thought I would get into coaching, but in volleyball. These guys won on athletic skill. They’re into every sport but this the first year they worked on actual plays in basketball. They never had any real basketball coaching before but there is a good phys-ed program at the school and that helped them learn the game.” Cyrenne added that she kept the game plan as simple as possible. “We worked on a basic defence and didn’t try anything complicated,” said Cyrenne. “Rossburn didn’t give up at all, even in the fourth quarter with four minutes left and we had a 16-point lead. They had two main offensive shooters and we just worked on keeping them off the scoreboard. Then they lost one of their main shooters (fouled out) and that was a big
help.”
The bronze medalist Roblin St. Vladimir’s Knights: Chris Sirdar;
The silver medalist Rossburn Raiders: Scott Charney; Geoff Ternovetsky; Cory Hrebeniuk; Randy Weselak; Rick Melnyk; Kim Huynh; George Bilinsky; coach Steve Sullivan
The gold medalist Elie St. Paul’s Barons: Paul Bouchard; Neil Griffiths; Cory Redwood; Chuck Skrabek; Cam Chabot; Alain Regnier; Denis Fleury; Marc Senecal; coach Cheryl Cyrenne; assistant Court Reyda