In the quarterfinals, the Woodstock Thunder (2nd, southwest) whipped the Bathurst Phantoms (3rd, southeast) 85-59. Ross Kinney poured in 29 for the Thunder. The Phantoms included Brad States, Alex Robichaud.
The Moncton Purple Knights (1st, northeast) crushed the Quispamsis Kennebecasis Valley Crusaders (4th, southwest) 76-58. Simon Gagnon netted 15 points for the Crusaders. The Crusaders (coached by Dennis Robinson) also included Adam Spurrell, Steve Flanagan, J.D. Kent, Jared Crawford, Matt Costello, Aaron Lu.
The Fredericton Black Kats (3rd, southwest) whipped the Moncton Bernice MacNaughton Highlanders (2nd, southwest) 89-66 as Nathan Mazurkiewicz scored 29 and Gibson Horsman 17. Eric Lowe led the Highlanders with 13. Ben MacGillivary added 11. The Highlanders also included Caleb Dow, Mac Ingles, Morgan McIsaac.
In the last quarterfinal, the host Fredericton Leo Hayes Lions (1st, southwest) stomped the Dalhousie Regional Condors (4th, northeast) 100-61 as Josh Daniels and Richie Wilkins each scored 21. Ryan Smith led the Condors with 35. Matt Daley added 15.
In the semis, the Woodstock Thunder edged the Moncton Purple Knights 82-76. The loss ended a 12-game winning streak for the Purple Knights, who started point guard Dylan Rogers, forward Jordan Bedard, centre Brandon Colwell, Marc McDougall and Jesse Hazell and were primarily a team of football players who’d won the provincial gridiron crown earlier in the year, they’d captured the Northeast Conference regular season with a 14-2 record. “We kind of had a collective gulp at first, wondering if we were going to get going, but I always thought we had the horses to do it. I’ve had a good feeling about this group of players for a few years now,” Purple Knights coach Andrew MacPherson, in his ninth season at the helm, told the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal. “We just have great athletes on this team. They’re very competitive and they’re not the type of kids you have to motivate at all. They show up every single day to play.” Ross Kinney had 27 points to lead Woodstock while Jordan Irvine added 25. Jordan Bedard led Moncton with 29 points.
In the other semi, the Fredericton Black Kats nipped the Fredericton Leo Hayes Lions 72-69. The Lions, coached by John Hickey, won the southwest conference. Reserve forward Gibson Horsman entered the semi with 2:48 to go after starry Stefan Bielecki fouled out. Then when Nathan Mazurkiewicz clanked two key free throws off the front rim, Horsman fought though two Lions to grab the rebound, got fouled and made one of two shots to put the Kats ahead, 72-69. Lions’ Jason Daniels subsequently missed a potential game-tying three at the other end as the buzzer sounded. Jeff O’Donnell led all scorers with 21 points while Mazurkiewicz added another 17. Daniels was the top Lion with 15 points. “When he got the board and blocked out, it was so huge for us,” O’Donnell told the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal. “It changed the game really. They would have went for two otherwise, but that rebound meant they had to shoot a three and I think it was the difference.” Both the Kats and the Lions were a little slow out of the gate. Mazurkiewicz swatted a Daniels layup out of the air a few minutes in, but clanked a turn-around jumper of his own a few plays later. Lions’ Sean Nugent brought down several of offensive boards, but didn’t make good on the put backs. Then after Daniels hit an open three with 2:57 to go in the first quarter, the Kats kept the Lions off the scoreboard for the next 5:08, but barely took advantage, scoring just two baskets during the stretch. O’Donnell’s three with six seconds left in the first half gave the Kats a 33-30 edge and as it turned out was the beginning of the end for the Lions as O’Donnell nailed back-to-back corner threes to open the third quarter and then added a another later as the Kats opened up a nine-point lead. “Jeff is a wonderful shooter once he gets in rhythm and they were giving him open looks and he was knocking them down,” said Fredericton coach Phil Wright. “It certainly was a turning point in the game.” The Kats, who led 55-46 entering the fourth quarter, hit 5-8 treys in the third quarter. “I don’t know what it was, but I made some threes, Nathan made some threes and we just kept getting looks so we kept shooting them,” said O’Donnell. The Lions had beat the powerhouse Black Kats three times and came within one shot of advancing to just their second Final 8 in school history. “It was not an easy game to lose and the guys are taking it tough, but they should be proud. They played hard and the ball just didn’t fall,” said Lions coach John Hickey. “That’s all it was. We had a couple chances to tie it, a couple chances to win it, but they just didn’t go down and you know what, that’s fine.”
In the final, the Fredericton Black Kats captured their second consecutive AAA crown by dusting the Woodstock Thunder 82-66 after leading wire-to-wire. The Kats were up by eight after six minutes and by 17 at the half, and – after surviving a nightmarish eight-minute stretch in the third quarter when the Thunder inched back to within two – got their bearings and their wits back about them. Four Kats were in double figures and seven had as many as seven points. Peter Esson collected 21 points, including three clutch three-pointers, and 11 rebounds. Guard Nathan Mazurkiewicz had 15 points and five assists. Backcourt mate Stefan Bielecki had eight points and five assists before fouling out. Etienne Hache had 13 points and 11 boards. Gibson Horsman came off the bench to deliver 11 points. Woodstock got 18 points and nine rebounds from Ross Kinney, 18 points from Scott Anderson and 13 points and nine boards from Jordan Irvine. But they simply couldn’t keep up with the lightning-quick Kats. “We’re a little bit faster than they are,” Mazurkiewicz told the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal. “They’re big, but we weren’t letting them get inside. We were pushing really hard down the court. … Because we went deep (on the bench) we got to go faster for most of the game. It tired them out even more. We knew they’re a really good team when they slow it down and play a half-court game. We wanted to speed it up. The faster we go, the better it is for us.” The Kats pounced early. Bielecki jumped up for a steal and an easy layup for the Kats’ second basket of the game to make it 4-2, and Jeff O’Donnell followed with a trey. Though it was the captain’s only trey of the night, it was an accurate snapshot of what was to come. The Kats wound up draining six of them in all, three of them by Esson when it looked like the wheels might be wobbling. The Thunder took off on a 20-6 run over the first eight minutes of the third quarter, closing the gap to 56-53 as Kinney, Anderson and Irvine all got hot. Not even Irvine’s fourth foul, with 2:01 left in the third, could cool them, although the Kats managed to answer just often enough to stay in front. Matt Shaw’s jumper brought the Thunder back to within two points with 8:04 left. “We weren’t really running,” said Esson. “We were going at their pace of the game. We’re more an up pace, run-and-gun team.” But Hache hit a field goal on the next trip up the floor, Esson spotted up left at the top of the key and swished a three, and the Thunder never got that close again. “It was getting hectic in here,” said Bielecki. “We just needed to calm down and get back to doing the fundamentals, and just do what we do.” Esson said “I felt like we were kind of dragging. Once I made a shot, I just kind of kept going. It felt awesome. Last year, I was known for driving (to the hoop). This year, and all summer last year, I’ve been working on the range.” Kinney, chosen player of the game for Woodstock, said “we started a little slow. They were hitting their shots and we weren’t. But there’s no other group of guys I’d want to be with. We fought our butts off and we battled back. I’m proud of every one of them. I think we expected a battle and that’s what we got. The score might not show how tough and intense and close the game was, but I think Fredericton knows it wasn’t easy.” Bielecki expected “it would be a couple of points or overtime.” The Thunder came in as the favorite after winning four of five regular season meetings, although all but one was a close game. “I don’t think any team was an underdog,” said Kinney. “I think it was pretty even.” Mazurkiewicz said “these are always the best games of the year. If you can make it to this game, you’re having fun no matter what, whether you win or lose. We were the underdogs in the standings, but we’ve played close games with this team and just come up short because of not playing very smart, dumb turnovers and stuff. But we knew if we played really smart today, didn’t turn the ball over and ran, we would win. To everyone else, we were the underdog. But we had the confidence that, if we played our game, our better is better than their better.” Thunder co-coach Scott Jones was disappointed. “They outhustled us and beat us in most facets of the game. We didn’t stick to our game plan very well. We needed to get the ball inside, and we didn’t do a real good job of that, and we were a little undisciplined at times. We clawed back to within two and we thought ‘Gee, we’ve got a good shot here.’ But they made some big shots, and we got a little bit out of our game plan again. I told the boys, I wouldn’t trade changing rooms for anything. It’s an incredible group. They (FHS) can cut down the baskets and have the banner. They deserved it, bottom line. But I wouldn’t trade places for anything. Unfortunately, we’re judged on one game. We (he and co-coach Luke Flemming) won’t look back and judge on one game. They’ve had a successful season and incredibly successful careers. One game doesn’t define a season or a career by these kids.” Black Kats coach Phil Wright said “for (Esson) to step up and make shots like he did in the second half speaks well for what we’ve got coming up. It’s hard for me to say goodbye to kids when they leave. I tell them all the time that I care about them and I love them and I do. We have six of them that are leaving, but we have seven good solid kids coming back, and good JV kids coming up. So I think we’ve got the capacity to come back next year.”
The co-bronze medalist Moncton Purple Knights: Dylan Rogers; Jordan Bedard; Brandon Colwell; Marc McDougall; Jesse Hazell; Matt Toogood; coach Andrew MacPherson
The co-bronze medalist Fredericton Leo Hayes Lions: Josh Daniels; Richie Wilkins; Scott Blackmore;
The silver medalist Woodstock Thunder: Russ Kinney; Billy Delong; Scott Anderson; Jordan Irvine; Michael Shaw; Sam Gray; Alex Stocek; Colton Watson; Josh Gray; Kyle Parkinson; Joey Stewart; Isaac Gray; Justin Stairs; co-coach Scott Jones; co-coach Luke Flemming
The champion Fredericton Black Kats: Nathan Mazurkiewicz; Peter Esson; Stefan Bielecki; Etienne Hache; Gibson Horsman; Jeff O’Donnell; Emmanuel Adeniyi; Amate Otuteye; Luke MacMillan; Nik Mijatovic; Tyler Daley; Daniel Zebarth; Justin Kearney; coach Phil Wright; assistant Larry Wisniewski; assistant Mike Wright; assistant Mike King