In the quarterfinals, held in Saint John, the 3rd-seeded Quispamsis Kennebecasis Valley Crusaders dusted the 6th-seeded Sackville Tantramar Titans 67-50 as Widdershoven scored 30, Scovil 18, McCallion 10, Pierce 5 and C Buckley 4. Frank Oulton led the Titans with 16. Alex Cameron added 11, Malcolm Phinney 6, Bruce Kingston 6, Macleod 4, Sears 4 and P Oulton 3, while McCallum and Trainer were scoreless.
The 4th-seeded Saint John Greyhounds edged the 5th-seeded Woodstock Thunder (Warriors?) 5-147 as Raynes score 24, Cossey 8, Ferguson 8, McLeod 5, Thorne 4 and Fox 2. Dale Cummings led the Thunder with 14. Jeff Graham added 9, Dana Stokoe 01, Tony Hawkes 4, Frank Harvey 4, Herb Gibson 4 and Burtt 2, while P Cummings, Tait, Smyth, Tenhave and Delong were scoreless.
The 2nd-seeded St. Stephen Spartans mauled the 7th-seeded Dalhousie Condors 68-43 as M McBeachy scored 12, Fagan 11, S McGinley 9, Henry 7, Madsen 6, D McGinley 6, Hanson 4, Legace 4, S McGeachy 2 and Nicholson 2. Arsenault led the Condors with 13. George Miller added 11, Basque 7, Brian Valdron 7, G Morris 2, Bulton 2 and Landry 1, while Jenkins, Caplin, R Morris and Beaudoin were scoreless.
In the last quarterfinal, the top-seeded Campbellton Restigouche Bruins defeated the 8th-seeded Saint John Vocational Vultures 70-60 as Arsenault scored 22, G Holton 15, Beualieu 12, Audoin 12, Targett 6, McKenzie 4 and Ayles 1. Peter Wedge led the Vultures with 26. Derreck Dixon added 14, Murray McCavour 6, Ron Derry 6, Bosco 4, Jack 2 and Richards 2, while Morrison, Reid and Vautour were scoreless.
In the semis, the 2nd-seeded St. Stephen Spartans clubbed the 3rd-seeded Quispamsis Kennebecasis Valley Crusaders 65-45 as M McGeachy scored 23, S McGinley 12, Fagan 12, Nicholson 8, Madsen 8, Hanson 2 and D McGinley 2. McCallion led the Crusaders with 26. Widdershoven added 12 and Scovil 7.
In the other semi, the 4th-seeded Saint John Greyhounds stunned the top-seeded Campbellton Restigouche Bruins 5-44 as Kelehar scored 20, Raynes 17, Fox 16 and Cossey 13. Arsenault led the Bruins with 12. MacKenzie added 11, Aucoin 10, Beaulieu 5, G Holton 4 and Ayles 2.
In the bronze medal match, the 3rd-seeded Quispamsis Kennebecasis Valley Crusaders defeated the top-seeded Campbellton Restigouche Bruins 63-55 as McCallion scored 26, Widdershoven 10, Pierce 10, Scovil 9, McGuire 5 and Armstrong 3. Aucoin led the Bruins with 18. Arsenault added 8, R Holton 8, Mackenzie 7, Ayles 4, G Holton 4, Beaulieu 3 and W Mann 1. The Bruins also included Targett, R Mann and Biddishcombe.
In the final, the St. Stephen Spartans defeated the St. John Greyhounds 54-52. Mark McGeachy led a second half offensive rally that pulled out the victory despite having had his nose broken in the first half. He scored 15, as did Steve McGinley. Madsen added 12, Nicholson 4, Fagan 4 and D McGinley 4. Spartans coach Dave Nutbrown told the Saint John Telegraph Journal that called McGeachy is “the gutsiest guy to ever don a uniform.” McGeachy said “when Nutbrown took us onto the floor in our first practice, he let everyone know what he expected. He did a heckuva job – he brought us along way. It was really important for the whole team. For me, it was one of my last high school games – a lot of pride was at stake. It was do or die. … Personally, he (Nutbrown) has really helped me develop, particularly in the area of leadership skills and in controlling my temper. He’s just a very inspirational coach. You’ve heard of the great Lombardi’s halftime talk, well coach Nutbrown topped that 10 times over today. … It was just one of those things. Jim Cossey was coming down and I was going up from a crouch when I caught his elbow. When I came back in the second half, I was psyched out for a couple of minutes but I got over it. They have Keith Raynes, who’s a terrific center with great timing and Cossey, who’s really tough on the boards, but when you look at things overall, we only had one mismatch, while they had several. Sure we had to use about three players to compete with Raynes for reobunds but with our overall height advantage, things worked out pretty well. … Defence won the game for us … Their two little backcourt men have improved since the start of the year. They showed more poise and ballhandling skills than we expected. The Saint John defence surprised us a bit too. They spread out more and provided more pressure on the wings than usual. The game didn’t fit me well. I like to play against man-to-man, when you drive and pass off. Today, they forced us to take the long bombs, the lower percentage shots. … We weren’t over-confident but we had to tell ourselves we were the better team. We thought they’d have to come to us and they did in the second half. We were consistent. We hustled on defence and we wanted it. That’s why we won.” Nutbrown said “somebody’s got to win and somebody’s got to lose. I wouldn’t want to go into the Saint John dressing room after a tough one like that. … It was crucial that we come out on fire in the second half. We did. We took the momentum, and yes, we had some luck.” The Spartans had taken an 8-point lead in the second half but Raynes hit two free throws to draw the Greyhounds with 50-49. Raynes led the Greyhounds with 14. Cossey added 12, Keleher 8, Fox 5, Macleod 4 and Thorne 2.
The bronze medalist Quispamsis Kennebecasis Valley Crusaders: Ron Corbin; Robert Armstrong; Greg Pierce; Jeff Scoville; Shawn McGuire; John Lutes; Peter Buckley; Robert Miller; Paul Widdershoven; Jim Hughes, Brian McCallion; Chris Buckley; coach Peter Corby; manager Bud Love; manager John Cunningham; manager Brent Taylor
The silver medalist Saint John Greyhounds: Keith Raynes; Jim Cossey; Colin Ferguson; Bruce McLeod; Thorne; Chris Fox; Davidson; Cox; Morgan; Slader; McGinnis; Keleher, Putnam; Dickinson;
The champion St. Stephen Spartans: Marc (Matt?) McGeachy; Steve McGinley; Dave Fagan; Henry; Albert Madsen; Dave McGinley; Hanson; Legace; S McGeachy; Bruce Nicholson; Clark; Purcell; Wilson; coach Dave Nutbrown