In the semis, the Summerside Three Oaks-1 Axemen thrashed the Elmsdale Westisle Wolverines 87-48 after leading 52-23 at the half. Dylan Gallant paced the Axemen with 22. Mark Matheson added 14, Lucas Coughlin 13 and Alec Parise 12. Kenan Wilkie led the Wolverines with 15. Nathan Barbour added 10 and Matt Gallant 7.
In the other semi, the 2nd-seeded Charlottetown Rural-1 Raiders clubbed the Charlottetown Colonel Gray-1 Colonels 72-54 after leading 45-26 at the half. The Raiders, led by 12 quick points from Kyle Welton, started the game on a 15-0 run. Gray closed to within 61-60 with five minutes to play behind Joel Dennis’ clutch foul shooting and a tough pressure defence, but a clutch three-pointer by Stephen Seviour broke the Colonels’ momentum. Kyle Welton paced the Raiders with 18. Noah Giddings added 17 and Ryan MacKinnon 10. Mike MacKenzie led the Colonels with 13. Brad Farrow added 12 and Brett Hiscock 10.
In the bronze medal match, the Charlottetown Colonel Gray-1 Colonels dispatched the Elmsdale Westisle Wolverines 77-66 after leading 35-32 at the half. Two treys and a basket by Jeff Morrison gave Colonel Gray a 62-52 lead with 5:30 left to play and the Colonels cruised to the bronze medal. Mike MacKenzie led the Colonels with 16 points and 9 boards. Jeff Morrison added 16, Brett Butler 13 and Joel Dennis 11. Kenan Wilkie led the Wolverines with 22. Parker Gallant added 14 and Conor Gavin 9.
In the final, the Summerside Three Oaks-1 Axemen thrashed the Charlottetown Rural-1 Raiders 91-71 after leading 52-38 at the half. The Axemen captured their second consecutive provincial title. “Rural played a good game,” said fifth-year Axemen coach Faro Halupa. “They made us work for it, and just didn’t hand us the game. They scored early, tried to put a little bit of pressure on us right off the hop and I thought we responded to it. … Our goal going into the year is to always win the provincial title. As a team, and as crazy as it sounds, we set out to not lose a game at all. You don’t go into many seasons thinking that, because you don’t really know who you are going to play. You don’t know when you show up to a tournament, what teams are going to be in those tournaments, especially when you go to a Coal Bowl. There are teams from all over Canada playing in it. Mentally, we believed that it was a possibility. We did lose a game early in the year to Horton, and as time went on, I believe the boys started to feel the disappointment from that loss. They realized that if this ends up the way it’s going, that could be the only one (loss) we pick up all year. It was a big goal to shoot for, but I thought it was an attainable goal. … When I came, I think we were 10 years between provincial titles until last year, and this is two in a row. The goal is to win provincials, but it goes beyond that. Counting provincials, basically we won five tournaments this year. Last year, we won four, the year before that we won three, the year before that we won two, the year before that we won one. You can’t sustain this kind of success year after year. The overall big success of winning all the tournaments is tough to do. It does take special teams to win at this rate because you are playing so many other good teams. But the standard has been set and it’s something other kids, as they come in and even our Grade 10s who were here this year, are going to have to understand the expectations are growing.” Mark Matheson led the Axemen with 33 points and 12 boards. Alec Parise added 21, Dylan Gallant 19 and Lucas Coughlin 11. Kyle Welton paced the Raiders with 21. Noah Giddings added 15, Stephen Seviour 14 and Kyle Gillis 14.
The bronze medalist Charlottetown Colonel Gray-1 Colonels: Mike MacKenzie; Jeff Morrison; Brett Butler; Brad Farrow; Brett Hiscock; Joel Dennis; Jeff Moore; Jeff Rogers; Michael Clory; Alex Ellsworth; Ryan Doucette; coach Chris Huggan; coach Paul Ellsworth
The silver medalist Charlottetown Rural-1 Raiders: Kyle Welton; Noah Giddings; Stephen Seviour; Kyle Gillis; Ryan MacKinnon;
The gold medalist Summerside Three Oaks-1 Axemen: Mark Matheson; Alec Parise; Dylan Gallant; Lucas Coughlin; Colin Arsenault; Andrew Brawn; Adam Gallant; James Meek; Tanner Mendoza; Colin MacKay; Patrick Murray; Aidan Smith; Luke Thompson; coach Faro Halupa; manager Jennifer Halupa