In the interzone playoffs: …………………………………………………… In the zone 4/13 playoff, the Ste. Anne Lynx dusted the Sanford Sabres 95-75. …………………………………………………… In the zone 7/8/9/15 semis, the Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans stomped the Virden Golden Bears 91-17. …………………………………………………… In the zone 7/8/9/15 final, the Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans edged the Swan River Swan Valley Tigers 66-63. …………………………………………………… In the zone 1/3/5 final, the Gordon Bell Panthers defeated x.
In the wild card game, the Swan River Swan Valley Tigers clipped the Winnipeg St. James Jimmies 84-75. The Jimmies opened with a 10-0 run but the Tigers rallied to a 43-37 lead at the half. St. James knotted the score at 65 with 8 minutes to play but Kayden Nunn ignited an 8-0 Tigers run with a trey. The Jimmies rallied no closer than 2 down the stretch. Dave Muller led the Tigers with 20, along with 10 boards. Riley Munro notched 16, along with 12 boards, Masen Corbett 14, along with 8 boards, and Mike Chartrand 14 and 10 rebounds. The Tigers played without starter Ethan Gott, who’d sprained his ankle. The Jimmies (coached by Ryan Kangas) included Oliver Bermido, Zach Caithness, Karl Calderson, Alex Erhmantraut, Ryan Furutani, Daniel Lajoie, Gio Larracas, Jade Mamacud, Jalen Mangaron, Walter Pereira and Tavian Rolin.
In the provincial quarterfinals, held in Winnipeg, the top-seeded Winnipeg Gordon Bell Panthers clubbed the 8th-seeded Winnipeg Nelson McIntyre Wolverines 95-57. The Wolverines (coached by David Day) included Isaiah Alexander, Aden Antoine, Jon Cardano, Jacob Cardinal, David Dizon, Jon Dizon, Marcus Dungca, Liam Elson, Josh Oshmachenko-Rioux, Payton Pederson, Titi Phrakonekham, Joel Pound and Tom Yuma.
The 4th-seeded Swan River Swan Valley Tigers smacked the 5th-seeded Ste. Anne Lynx 88-69 after leading 54-24 at the half. The Lynx rallied no closer than 15. David Muller paced the Tigers with 25, along with 17 boards. Michael Chartrand scored 17 and Tre Fleury 16. The Lynx (coached by Tom Lewis) included Jacob Carr, Alex de Jong, Garret Delf, Colin Francey, Maan Husein, Daniel Martens, Nic Rachel, Austin Recunyk, Tony Rugema, Ashton Tanner and Dylan Tobacco.
The 2nd-seeded Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans clipped the 7th-seeded Thompson R.D. Parker Collegiate Trojans 76-58. The Trojans (coached by Derek Barnett) included Gavin Alcock, Gabe Dy, Ahmed El-Rennewi, Nicholas Gelasco, Mathew Kaspick, David King, Kobe Mckay, Tyler Monias, Trent Taylor, Kyle Tomchuk and Neil Ryan Yee.
In the last quarterfinal, the 3rd-seeded University of Winnipeg Collegiate Wesmen dispatched the 6th-seeded Winnipeg St. John’s-Ravenscourt Eagles 69-61. The Eagles (coached by Brent Corrigan) included Dylan Banash, Keerat Bhullar, Liam Brown, Elie Feierstein, David Gui, Ethan Harms, Kai Kim, Jason Ko, Ethan Lin, Steven Muggli, Liam Patrick, Evan Ruta and Ben Sedleski.
In the semis, the 4th-seeded Swan River Swan Valley Tigers stunned the top-seeded Winnipeg Gordon Bell Panthers 91-86 in overtime. Tigers coach Kevin Carter later wrote that “we went into the game with Gordon Bell as the lower seed and talked to the guys that being the underdog comes with little pressure. We could stay loose, enjoy the game, the moment and let the chips fall where they may. Win or lose we were going to be playing for a medal on Saturday. We came out well in this game with things going back and forth early on, but we put together an 11-0 run at the end of the first quarter to take an 18-10 lead. Steady play and scoring continued on both sides and the halftime score was 44-34 in our favour. Both teams continued to play hard and we continued to hold the lead at 62-55 at the end of the third quarter. We stretched the lead to 14 with 6 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter and at that point, the #1 team, possibly sensing their opportunity to advance was passing them by went on a run. They got hot from the 3-point line, we panicked a bit and stopped executing offensively taking shots early in the shot clock. Our scoring dried up and we were unable to secure any rebounds on the offensive end to extend scoring opportunities. At the 3 minutes mark our 14-point lead had disappeared. They moved ahead to lead by 6 points with 43 seconds remaining on the clock. We scored a bucked to cut the lead to 4; and fouled to put one of their players on the line. Fortunately for us, he missed both free throws giving us another chance. We took advantage of the opportunity with Riley Munro hitting a three-point shot cutting the lead to 1 with 34 seconds remaining. We again fouled right away putting their player on the free throw line where he made the first of two giving them a 2-point lead with 22 seconds remaining. We rebounded the miss on the second shot, pushed the ball up the floor and David Muller was fouled on a three-point attempt with 8.3 seconds left on the clock. David made the first two free throws tying the game at 81. Unfortunately, the third free throw bounced off the rim and in a scrambled last 8 seconds, Gordon Bell tossed up a wild shot that missed and the game was tied at the end of regulation time. Going into overtime, we had lost both Sean Kirkpatrick and Michael Chartrand as they had fouled out of the game. We scored the first 6 points of the overtime period giving us an 87 – 81 lead with 2 minutes left in the overtime. In that period, Tre Fleury also fouled out of the game which left us without any eligible players if anyone else fouled out and with Ethan Gott and Masen Corbett playing with 4 fouls apiece. Fortunately, they did not pick up any additional fouls, we traded buckets in the last minute and held on for a 91-86 victory and earned a spot in the Provincial Final. The semi-final game was a huge victory for our kids and program. Definitely an emotional roller-coaster with giving up the double-digit lead, coming back from down 6 with under a minute left in regulation and managing through the overtime.” David Muller led the Tigers with 34, along with 22 boards. Riley Munro notched 18, along with 12 boards, Mike Chartrand 18 and Ethan Gott 14.
In the other semi, the 2nd-seeded Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans pounded the 3rd-seeded University of Winnipeg Collegiate Wesmen 100-60.
In the bronze medal match, the top-seeded Winnipeg Gordon Bell Panthers stomped the 3rd-seeded University of Winnipeg Collegiate Wesmen 71-50. The Wesmen (coached by David Nepon) included Harveer Bajwa, Jordan Boulette, Gryphon Fortier, Mankower Gill, Abdistar Hassan, Ahmed Isse, Yonathan Mengasha, Mearon Meresi, Riley Simms-Mitchell, Harman Singh, Rameet Singh, Lukas Sutton-Scarlette, Manjot Thind, Mahammad Tobail and Lemi Zelalem.
In the final, the 2nd-seeded Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans clocked the 4th-seeded Swan River Swan Valley Tigers 86-64. Tigers coach Kevin Carter later wrote that “although they went into the tournament as the #2 seed, they were arguably the best team and the team to beat. It was going to be a tough game for us even though we had played them a few times earlier in the season. They came out heavy and hard and took control in the first quarter. We were unorganized offensively and got caught flat-footed early on. We had trouble scoring and keeping up defensively which is not a good combination against a team like Neelin and they jumped out to a big 24-point lead by the end of the first quarter. We found our pace a little bit more into the 2nd quarter, but the lead remained at 21 at the half with us down 49-28. Both teams continued to play and work hard in the second half, but we were unable to mount any sustained runs that could have led to closing the gap. Their lead was 28 at the end of the third quarter, but we worked hard right down to the final minute.”
The all-tournament team included MVP Riley Paul (Neelin); David Muller (Swan Valley); Mike Chartrand (Swan Valley); Abdi akin Hedoon (Gordon Bell); Mahammad Tobail (U of Winnipeg Collegiate); and Dayton Black (Neelin).
The bronze medalist Winnipeg Gordon Bell Panthers: Babala Ali; Victor Bell; Jayson Bercero; Trayquan Cornelius-Stay; Riley Flett; Abdihakin Hedoon; Amin Hedoon; Ibrahim Jemei; Chad Kakegumick; Quinlan Manernaluk; Hassan Mohamed; Georges Munga; Nathan Stewart; coach Odik Opap
The silver medalist Swan River Swan Valley Regional Tigers: Michael Chartrand; Masen Corbett; Tre Fleury; Ethan Gott; Sean Kirkpatrick; David Muller; Riley Munro; Kayden Nunn; coach Kevin Carter
The gold medalist Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans: Caley Barscello; Dayton Black; Liam Gambito; Ethan Goertzen; Hayden Johnson; Chase McCallum; Evan Nachtigall; Riley Paul; Josh Robinson; John Saville; Jacob Thomson; Lucas Vasconcelos; coach Don Thomson