| (2) | Victoria | 71 | ||||||
| (7) | U.P.E.I. | 52 | Victoria | 73 | ||||
| (3) | Regina | 68 | Regina | 60 | Victoria | 66 | ||
| (6) | Concordia | 67 | ||||||
| —–VICTORIA | ||||||||
| (1) | Manitoba | 77 | ||||||
| (8) | Lakehead | 67 | Manitoba | 62 | Manitoba | 61 | ||
| (4) | Laurentian | 75 | Laurentian | 44 | ||||
| (5) | Western | 73 |
In the quarterfinals, held in Thunder Bay, the 3rd-seeded Regina Cougars nipped the 6th-seeded Concordia Stingers 68-67. The Cougars took a 40-27 midway through the half and hung on for the victory. Concordia had a chance to tie it with 21.5 seconds to play but Carol-Anne Tull missed the second of two free throws. Concordia’s Marie-Helene Heroux nabbed the rebound but missed the putback. Regina nabbed the board. A desperate trey by Concordia’s Carolyn Moran rolled off the rim at the buzzer. Player of the game Jasmine Weseen led the Cougars with 14 points. Marie-Helene Heroux led Concordia with 21. The Stingers held all-Canadian Andrea Gottselig to just three points. “It’s a very tough loss and the girls took it very hard,” said Concordia coach Keith Pruden. “As disappointing as it is, we have to be proud of the way we played, especially in the second half. We had an opportunity to win, two chances, in fact, in the dying seconds but the ball just didn’t drop for us.”
The 2nd-seeded Victoria Vikings thrashed the 7th-seeded University of Prince Edward Island Panthers 71-52. The Vikes took control of the game early and ended the half with a 49-28 lead. Team defence and rebounding proved the difference. Ten Victoria players hit the scoresheet, led by player of the game Megan Dalziel’s 14 points. She added 11 rebs, 3 assists and 4 steals. Kim Johnson scored 14 and had 3 steals. Janet McLachlan 11 pts and 7 rebs, Lindsay Brooke 10 points, Lisa Koop 8 points, 5 assists, Lily Blair 7 points 6 reb. Eireann Rigby led PEI with 17 points and 5 steals. Jennifer Johnston added 14 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 assists but had 8 turnovers, Marie Claude Couture 6 points. PEI had difficulty getting into its full-court press traps because they only shot 18-60 (.300) from the floor and Victoria was getting the rebounds. The Vikings shot .435 from the floor while PEI shot .300. Vic shot .364 from the arc, while PEI was .231. Vic was 13-28 from the line, while PEI was 13-18. Vic out-rebounded PEI 51-36. Each team had 20 turnovers. The Vikings size, strength and quickness were superior. “UPEI is a quick and athletic team but I think that is something that we are underestimated at,” said Megan Dalziel. “We are big but we are very athletic and we proved that today.” The Canada West champs used their size to dominate the boards and give the Panthers very few second-chance opportunities. “I don’t think we were prepared for it,” said UPEI guard Eireann Rigby. “We didn’t work hard enough in practice bumping and being physical and we needed to be more physical with those big girls today. They ate us up inside.” Victoria led 17-6 by the 4:30 mark as Janet McLachlan converted a three-point play. Rigby got the Panthers to within five at 19-14 when she hit back- to-back threes 14 seconds apart in the sixth minute but from there, it was Uvic. A 15-2 run by Victoria over the next eight minutes extended the lead to 34-16. UPEI then found themselves down by as much as 23 when Dalziel went inside with less than two minutes to play in the opening half to extend the Vic lead to 47-24. “The first half killed us,” said Panther head coach Tracy Ellsworth. “We were pulled out of our game, we got caught chasing on the press and that cost us. That is a powerful offensive team and you just can’t give them anything.” Ellsworth added that the Panthers did not play like a team and “that’s bothering us right now.” Victoria stole the ball 15 and UPEI stole it 9 times.
The top-seeded Manitoba Bisons defeated the host and 8th-seeded Lakehead Nor’westers 77-67 in an overtime barnburner. Marjorie Kelly sent it into overtime when she hit a bucket with no time on the clock to tie the game at 67. Coach Coleen Dufresne was forced to hold time outs on court because the crowd was so loud. Lakehead was ahead by three with half a minute to play but player of the game Anne Smith hit a bucket. Lakehead fouled. Hit only 1-2, then Kelly hit the bucket, which spun around the rim and dropped in. Manitoba opened overtime with 6-0 run. Lakehead looked tired and hit nothing in the extra session.
In the last quarterfinal, the 4th-seeded Laurentian Voyageurs edged the 5th-seeded University of Western Ontario Mustangs 75-73 as player of game Joy McNichol dominated the paint. Mustangs post Angela Nobes missed an opportunity to force overtime in the final seconds when her shot rattled around the rim. McNichol had helped the Voyageurs rally from a late 6-point deficit to knot the score at 69 with two minutes to play and then win it down the stretch. Nadia Pezzolo told the Western Gazette that little errors undid the Mustangs. “It was a really tough first-round match-up. We expected it to be a close game and it came right down to the wire.” Voyageurs coach John Campbell said that “I think we certainly knew we had our hands full. We’d played them twice now and the first game was decided in overtime and they won it. Last weekend we snuck one out in overtime so we knew it was going to be a great match-up.”
In the semi-finals, Victoria defeated Regina 73-60. Victoria started fast with Lisa Koop on fire from well, everywhere. Regina, playing without injured starter Amy Mickleborough, (third degree ankle sprain) rallied late in the first half with a 5-0 run to cut the margin to 35-32 at the break. But Victoria was torrid to start the second half as Lindsay Brooke scored 9 straight Viking points, including a pair from beyond the arc and a drive into the lane). Regina rallied to take its first lead of game midway through the half but Victoria’s defense took over. The Vikings exploded for a 17-3 run, keyed by great defensive pressure and good perimeter shooting. Regina then lost Crystal Heisler to a knee injury and Victoria coasted to the win. Player of the game Lisa Koop scored 25 points, dished four assists and had two steals for Victoria. Lindsay Brooke added 18 points, including 4-6 from beyond the arc. Megan Dalziel scored 12, while Lily Blair and Angela Mangan dominated the glass with 10 and 8 boards respectively. Vic finished 8-12 from beyond the arc. Medorann Harris led Regina with 13 points and 7 rebounds. Becky Poley added 10 points and 5 boards but also had 8 turnovers while subbing for Mickleborough. Andrea Gottselig and Jasmine Weseen each scored 9 while Jillian Weseen scored 7.
In other semi, Manitoba thumped Laurentian 62-44 as speed and shooting beat size inside. Manitoba guard Anne Smith was chosen player of the game after scoring 29, nabbing 15 boards and hitting 15-16 from the line. “Anne did her usual great job for us,” said Bisons coach Coleen Dufresne, who was named 1998 CIAU coach of the year. “She dominated.” Marjorie Kelly added 13, 6 boards and 6 steals. The game was tied at 29 at the half but Manitoba elevated its defensive intensity. “It was a team effort that got us rolling,” Dufresne said. “Everyone did their
job.” Kyla Koskie, who scored 7 and nabbed 8 boards, held Voyageurs all-Canadian post Joy McNichol to four points in the final 20 minutes. “Our rookie Ola Samborski worked with Jana Taylor to hold Laurentian’s all-Canadian Stephanie Harrison to five points,” Dufresne said. Bison point guard easily handled Laurentian’s pressure. Lisa Koop paced Victoria with 25 on 10-27 from the floor, 1-2 from the arc and 4-6 from the line. Lindsay Harris added 18.
In the final, the 2nd-seeded Victoria Vikings dumped the top-seeded Manitoba Bisons 66-61. Lisa Koop scored 23 for the Vikings, including 18 in the second half. Point guard Lindsay Brooke, 5-2, easily handled Manitoba’s pressure defence, scored 11 and was chosen MVP of the tourney. “She’s played in a lot of big games, with the (B.C.) provincial team, winning a gold medal at the Canada Games,” said coach Kathy Shields. “Everywhere she has played, she has been successful. She’s our quarterback. She’s smart and she makes good decisions. I talked with her and told her to walk the ball up the court, instead of trying to run with them.” Victoria led 29-22 at the half, thanks in part to three-point buckets by Brooke and Lily Blair late in the half. “I’ve been inconsistent this year shooting threes but I hit some in Friday’s (first round) game and took some confidence from there,” said Brooke, who hit three from beyond the arc in the final. “These were the most important ones.” Koop, a fifth-year senior, noted “it’s been a long wait (for a title) but this makes it worth the wait. I have no regrets now. I was a bit shaky in the first half but everybody stepped up and helped. … I think there was a lot less pressure on me this year. I wasn’t so concerned with my own performance, because I knew if I wasn’t scoring there were other people who could. That’s different from past years. … It’s the best feeling ever, I just can’t explain it. It feels like everything I worked for I accomplished. Five years of hard work and early mornings – it was all worth it,” she said. “I feel at peace, I accomplished what I came to Uvic for. … I knew we could do it. We had the talent, the skill, the ability, the coaching and we were totally prepared, but there’s always that doubt that it’s just too good to be true.” Angela Mangan said Brooke was exceptional. “I’m just so happy for Lindsay. She played brilliantly this weekend and if there’s one player who exemplifies what a point guard should be it’s her.” Koop said Brooke “has been a rock for us all year. She plays so steady. She played incredibly this tournament.” Brooke was “surprised” by the MVP award. “I was shocked. I just felt like I had been doing the things that I was supposed to be doing out there.” Brooke and Lily Blair hit three-pointers late in the first half to give Uvic a 29-22 lead before the break. Mangan said the team’s unselfishness was critical. “That’s what it’s been about all year long. When the men won last year, Kathy said it was because they bought into the idea that they all had a set role to play. That’s what we did, we know our roles and accepted them.” The Vikings team defence kept Manitoba, a good inside team, on the perimeter for most of the game, and limited All- Canadians Anne Smith (19) and Marjorie Kelly (11) to 30 points between them. “They had scored two-thirds of the team’s points in the first two games, and we wanted to limit them to half their team’s output, we did that tonight,” Shields said. “Defence was the difference in this game.” As was rebounding. The Vikes forwards, Mangan, Megan Dalziel, Lily Blair and Janet McLachlan outworked the Bisons for loose balls all over the floor. The hard work was definitely worth it, said Koop. “It’s the biggest thrill of my life. It’s an unbelievable feeling.” Mangan said “this is indescribable. We just played so well tonight as a team … I’m feeling just fine!” Shields added the group that made up this year’s Vikes team deserved no less than the championship, after working so hard down the stretch to prepare. “We had a great second half of the season,” she said, noting the Vikes are 20-0 since a Christmas loss to Calgary. “We worked so hard, and when one player wasn’t doing it, another stepped up to fill in the gaps – this was a total team effort.” The Vikings finished (31-3) on the season.
The all-tourney team featured: MVP Lindsay Brooke (Victoria); Anne Smith (Manitoba); Lisa Koop (Victoria); Marjorie Kelly (Manitoba); Joy McNichol (Laurentian); and Medorann Harris (Regina)
The co-bronze medalist Regina Cougars: Corrin Wersta; Amy Mickleborough; Andrea Gottselig; Bree Burgess; Jasmine Weseen; Becky Poley; Heather Dedman; Crystal Heisler; Jill Weseen; Medoran Harris; Christa Howie; Debbie Lozinski; Jodie Metcalfe;
The co-bronze medalist Laurentian Voyageurs: Stephanie Harrison; Shelley Dewar; Tanya Tatti; Joy McNichol; Shauna Conway; Karen Vos; Nicole Walker; Chantal Gregoire; Tammy Kenzie; Stephanie De Sutter; Jennifer Chorney; Amber Petryshen;
The silver medalist Manitoba Bisons: Anne Smith; Marjorie Kelly; Kyla Koskie; Megan Dixon; Ola Samborski; coach Coleen Dufresne
The champion Victoria Vikings: Lindsay Brooke; Lisa Koop; Megan Dalziel; Lily Blair; Angela Mangan; Kim Johnson; Janet McLachlan; Emily King; Joanna Holdsworth; Lindsay McDonald; Kim Oslund; Paula Thompson; coach Kathy Shields