1978-79 Calgary – uSports men

(2)	York	93
(5)	McGill	78	York	92
(1)	St. Mary’s	110	St. Mary’s	98	St. Mary’s	90
(6)	Windsor	95					—–ST. MARY’S
(3)	Victoria	74
(4)	Winnipeg	70	Victoria	82	Victoria	83
(7)	St. F.X.	100	St. F.X.	81
(8)	Calgary	74

St. Mary’s captured their second straight title in 1979, largely on the strength of the efforts of New York City native Mickey Fox, who’d migrated from the Big Apple to Halifax with his high school coach, Brian Heaney, when he assumed the Huskie reins in 1971-72. A three-time all Canadian (1973-75), Fox had enrolled in graduate school after three years playing senior ball in Halifax when the AUAA adopted a rule increasing player eligibility to five years from four years. With St. Mary’s playing its fifth final in seven years, Fox was to earn his second tourney MVP award (he’d also won 1973), by scoring a three-game tournament record 101 points, including 37 in leading the Huskies past Victoria in the final 90-83.

        Held at the Calgary Corral, the quarterfinals pairings (i.e. seedings) were determined a year earlier by the CIAU to reflect conference successes in the 1978. Top-seeded St. Mary’s opened against 6th-seeded Windsor, the OUAA West representative, which had upset York 80-78 for the Ontario title. The Huskies prevailed 110-95 as Fox, the all-time leading scorer in Canadian college history at the time, hit for 37 points in a run-and-gun contest whose tone was set very early when acrobatic St. Mary’s forward Percy Davis twice slam-dunked the ball, including a flying alley-oop which electrified the crowd. Davis finished the game with 18 points. Windsor’s second-team all-Canadian Wayne Allison had 20 points at the half, keeping the Lancers within two, 51-49. But Fox pumped in 22 in the second half and finished the night hitting 14 of 23 from the floor and 9 of 10 from the line. Fellow first-team all-Canadian Kevin Wood scored 17 points and collected 11 assists. Centre Tom Kappos hit for 18 and 11 boards. Ron Blommers scored 14, Rick Plato 4 and Ross Quackenbush 2. St. Mary’s Allison was held to 10 in the second half and he finished with 30 points. Jim Molyneux hit for 20, Phil Hermanutz scored 10 and Stan Korosec 10 for the Paul Thomas coached Lancers. Kevin Greenwood added 5, Vince Landry 6, John Ritchie 5, Brian Hogan 4 and Mike McKinley 4.

        Wildcard and 7th-seed St. Francis Xavier thrashed 8th-seed and host Calgary 100-74. Playing their first game since losing to St. Mary’s in the AUAA final, the X-men hit 48% from the field, coasting to a 50-36 halftime lead and thoroughly outclassing the slower Dinosaurs. Varouj Gurunlian, once the starting guard at Laurentian, scored 26, Greg Winston 21, Doc Ryan 17 and Gil Green 15 for the X-Men. Sullivan added 11, Adrien 4, McFarland 4 and Eddie Pomykala 2.  For Calgary, forward Pat Lee hit for 20, Eric Duerksen 12, Geoff Thompson 12, Scott Stephenson 12, Paul Babcock 4, Greg Van Dolah 4, Cal Keil 2, Mark Jorgenson 2, Jeff Markert 2, Jim Boldt 2 and George Hardisty 2.

        OUA East champ and 2nd-seed York romped to a 93-78 win over QUAA champs McGill, 5th-seeded and starring three Americans, 6-7 Pat Kehoe, 6-6 Gregg Fasulo and 6-5 Steve Skabla. With Skabla on the bench because of a broken ankle, York romped to a 46-32 halftime lead, even though all-Canadian centre Lonnie Ramati picked up three quick fouls in the first five minutes of the game. Led by replacement Peter Greenway, first-team All-Canadian David Coulthard and forward Bo Pelech, the Yeomen appeared to be en route to a rout but McGill guard Gregg Fasulo caught fire in the second half, bombing from outside to pull the Redmen to within four with eight minutes to go. York coach Bob Bain called a time out and the Yeoman came out swinging and stretched their lead to 10 over the next four minutes. The final margin was 15. Pelech scored 23 and nabbed six rebounds. Ramati hit for 18 and 11 boards; while Ed Siebert scored 16; Peter Greenway 14 and David Coulthard, one of only four Canadian-born players on first or second team all-Canadian squad, (joining Windsor’s Wayne Allison; Winnipeg’s Ken Opalko and Victoria’s Robbie Parris) hit for 13, Ted Galka 4, Paul Jones 3 and Ron Kaknevicius 2. Gregg Fasulo scored 28 for McGill, while Pat Kehoe scored 19, Gord Brabant 14, Kevin Dogen 11, Jim Vanderaa 2, Michael Homsy 2 and Sylvain Castonguay 2. The Redmen played without injured defensive rebounding specialist Steve Skabla. Star York centre Lonnie Ramati was in early foul trouble. Moser winner Dave Coulthard appeared nervous for most of the first half. “Whether you like to admit it or not, I think getting the Moser Award yesterday added a lot of pressure on me,” said Coulthard. “I didn’t go to the boards that much and I didn’t shoot. My floor game was all right but I didn’t get going until near the end of the game. We’re sure going to have to play a lot better from now on.” Bain told The Excalibur that he thought his troops lacked intensity. “That’s the way it’s been all year. We get a lead and then we lose our intensity. I don’t think we played really well.”

In the last quarterfinal, the 3rd-seeded CWUAA champs, the Victoria Vikings prevailed 74-70 in their tussle with 4th-seeded GPAC representatives, the Winnipeg Wesmen, making their first ever appearance in the national tourney. The Wesmen were fresh from knocking-off Lakehead in the GPAC playoffs and led by national junior team member, freshman centre Belaineh Deguefe; first-team all-Canadian 6’4 forward Ken Opalko; and playmaker Dan Kinaschuk, led by 39-34 at the half. But Deguefe picked up his fourth foul with just under 18 minutes to play in the second half with Winnipeg up by 3. With Deguefe on the bench, the Viking’s Reni Dolcetti (formerly at Laurentian), Gerald Kazanowski and Kelly Dukeshire began to outmuscle Winnipeg with their inside game. Keyed by Parris’ ballhandling, Vic pulled ahead 58-47 within five minutes of the second half and stretched it to 64-57 with eight minutes to play. But Bob Magel and Deguefe began crashing the boards and Opalko briefly found his range. Kinaschuk hit a jumper to pull the Wesmen to within one 67-66 with 2:40 to go but the Wesmen missed several crucial free throws in the final minutes and fumbled the ball away with seconds to go. Parris hit two free throws with seven seconds remaining to ice the game for the Vikings 74-70. Kineschuk finished with 18 and Opalko a scant 14, having hit only 6 of 24 through the contest. “What really hurt us was Magel and Deguefe playing with all those fouls,” Wesmen coach Bruce Enns told reporters. “We played physical basketball all year, and it was tough for us to adjust.” For Victoria, Parris hit for 19; Ian Hyde-Lay scored 15, Rene Dolcetti 12, Ted Anderson 10, Kelly Dukeshire 10, Gerald Kazanowski 6 and Ken Kirzinger 2.

        Midway through the tournament, St. Mary’s coach Brian Heaney lobbed a bombshell at the CIAU by suggesting that the Atlantic schools would best be served by withdrawing from the national association in protest of its plans to further restrict the number of foreign trained athletes to be allowed on any one team. The CIAU had passed a rule six years earlier limiting teams to three foreign athletes (which had led to a challenge before the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission) and had recently announced that commencing in 1983, only two imports would be allowed. “Who’s to say they won’t reduce it to one after that, or finally none?” fumed New York native Heaney. “It could be the end of us. … We’re in competition for people’s entertainment dollars. Right now, they’re dropping $4 and $5 for a ticket and they’re loving it. But they’ve come to expect the best – the best players – and this country just doesn’t have the population pool to consistently stock all the teams in the east. Quite simply, we’ve got the product and this is what the CIAU would like to see everywhere. We don’t need the CIAU though. We’ve got three good games here. But we get 30 tough ones each season in our own conference and the States.”

        Against that backdrop, in the semis, before a crowd of 4,000, Heaney’s Huskies stunned top-seeded York 98-92. The Yeomen had been ranked number one all season. The 2nd-ranked Huskies quickly fell behind 11-4 but stepped up their full court press and the Yeomen just as quickly succumbed to the pressure. St. Mary’s pulled ahead 18-17 and stretched their lead to 13 when York’s Bo Pelech, Ed Siebert and Dave Coulthard each picked up three fouls in the first half. Foul-plagued and often-flustered, the Yeomen tried to fight back in the second half, with Coulthard and Pelech leading the way. But Fox almost single-handedly kept the game out of reach, maintaining a Huskie lead of at least three and more often 10. He finished with 27, while Percy Davis and Kevin Wood each hit for 20. Ross Quackenbush and reserve guard Rick Plato joined Fox in shredding the York zone from outside, with Quackenbush hitting for 12, Kappos 8, Plato 6 and Ron Bloomers 5. Centre Lonnie Ramati scored 16 points and grabbed 13 boards for the Yeomen before fouling out with three minutes to play. Pelech finished with 20, Coulthard 17, Peter Greenway 13, Ted Galko 11, Paul Jones 9, Ron Kaknevicius 4 and Ed Siebert 2. But the game was essentially won at the line, where York hit 10-13 while St. Mary’s, in the bonus situation early in each half, hit 28 for 34. York hit 47% from the field (41-88), while St. Mary’s hit 53% (36-66). York almost pulled off the victory, but missed a free throw and a layup in the final minutes and the Huskies were on to the final with a 98-92 victory. Huskies coach Brian Heaney said on national television that “the Atlantic schools have an advantage over the rest of the country when it comes to preparing for the nations. Our tough competition toughens the teams mentally and physically.” York coach Bob Bain told The Excalibur that “I think it was just a case of St. Mary’s being superior that game.” York outrebounded St. Mary’s on the offensive board 21-9. St. Mary’s shot 41-88 from the floor and 28-34 from the line. York hit 41-88 from the floor and 10-13 from the line. Peter Greenway said “we were trying to block too many shots. Instead of putting our arms out and leaning back, we leaned into them.” Eddie Siebert said “our division hurt us. The things we could do in our division, we couldn’t do abainst better teams. We were on the decline the last few weeks of the season and St. Mary’s was peaking at the tournament.” Paul Layefsky said “some competition would have helped our defence when playing against better players. It would have helped us keep our intensity.” Chris McNeilly said “St. Mary’s has a well-developed bench and they used their players well. Also, the (AUAA) league down there is much stronger.”

        In the other semi, 3rd-ranked Victoria nipped 4th-ranked St. Francis Xavier 82-81 in overtime to become the first western team to reach the final in seven years. St. FX led by as many as five early in the game but the Vikings rallied to a 43-40 halftime lead. Star X-men guard Varouj Gurunlian picked up his fourth personal early in the second half and was replaced by reserve Eddy Pomykala (now coach at Bishop’s), who hit three outside jumpers to rally St. FX to a 62-55 lead with 10 minutes to play. But Vic promptly ran off 10 straight led by 6-5 Oakville, Ont. native, reserve guard Tom Narbeshuber. The teams traded the lead through the final minutes, until Ted Anderson hit a 20-footer to put Vic head 69-66 with 2:39 to play. Fifth-year X-men guard Gil Green stole the ball to pull St. FX within one. With a minute to go, Viking point guard Robbie Parris missed the front end of a one-and-one but forward Kelly Dukeshire was fouled on the rebound and hit both his free throws. Green was fouled with 45 seconds to go and hit one of his free throws. Vic controlled the boards and ran the clock down to 8 seconds before missing a jumper. St. FX called a time out and Green dribbled down the court and hit a 25-foot jumper to tie the game and force overtime. In the overtime, Vic centre Reni Dolcetti was fouled by Green (his fifth) at 2:29. He finished off a three-point play to pull Vic ahead 78-73. Greg Winston cut the lead to 3 but guard Ian Hyde-Lay put Vic back up by 5 with a 20-foot jumper. Gurunlian countered with a long bomb and Doc Ryan pulled the X-men to within one with 54 seconds to go by hitting two free throws. Hyde-Lay then hit another bomb but Gurunlian countered with own long-ranger jumper.  With Vic desperately trying to run out the clock, Gurunlian stole the ball with 15 seconds to go. But a tenacious Vic defence and an errant pass prevented the X-men from getting a shot off and the jubilant Vikings ran off the court, having escaped with a one-point victory.  Vic won with defence, Dukeshire’s rebounding and the ball-handling wizardry of fifth-year 5’8” guard Robbie Parris. Dolcetti finished with 18, Gerald Kazanowski 16, Tom Narbeshuber 12, Kelly Dukeshire and Rob Parris each had 10; Anderson 6, Hebb 6 and Ian Hyde-Lay 4, all in overtime. For the X-men, 6’8 centre Greg Winston scored 18, Green 17, Doc Ryan 14, Gurunlian 12, Tom Sullivan 10, Eddie Pomykala 6 and Adrien 4. “We weren’t planning on overtime,” said Vikings coach Ken Shields. “There’s no way you can plan on something like this happening. All I was hoping was that winning coach of the year wouldn’t carry the proverbial jinx with it. The team was extremely positive going into the overtime period and I think we’ve learned to play under pressure since we’ve come to this tournament.”

In the bronze medal match, York defeated St. FX 79-73 as Bo Pelech scored 25. “We lacked intensity in the first two games,” Dave Coulthard, who scored 18, told Canadian Press. “But we redeemed ourselves somewhat because of this game.” York trailed 39-31 at the half and was treated to a tongue lashing by coach Bob Bain in the lockers. They tightened their defence and made up the disadvantage after three minutes of play in the second half, carrying a seven-point lead into the last five minutes of the game. “I was worried about me getting up, never mind the team,” said York coach Bob Bain. “But I think by the second half, the guys realized this game wasn’t just going to go by the boards. There were a few things on the line, one being that if we were going to lose to anybody, let’s not lose to anybody but the best.” Coulthard told The Excalibur that “we redeemed ourselves somewhat. We hadn’t played well and there was some fireworks between halves. There was pride on the line and we had to turn ourselves around.”

        The final, “billed as the Best from the West, versus The Beast from the East,” (or alternatively, as “the Canadians versus the Americans) pitted Victoria against Mickey Fox, a New York City-product who played in a proverbial ‘zone’ throughout the entire contest, hitting from everywhere on the court, with Vikings draped all over him, as he led the Huskies to a 90-83 win. Fox scored 19 in the first half in leading the Huskies to a 41-37 half-time lead, and throughout the contest, every time Vic closed the margin, he’d fire St. Mary’s back into the lead. The Huskies, playing in their fifth national title game in seven years, stretched their margin to seven early in the second half before all-Canadian guard Robbie Parris and tournament all-star Reni Dolcetti keyed a rally that brought the Vikings back to within two. But Fox promptly scored 4 in a row. “I just felt that I could get by my man out there. I started shooting a little wild in the first half, but it settled down in the second and I knew I could hit,” he later told reporters. Vic rallied to within a point, 64-63, with 10:17 to go. But Fox responded by hitting three jumpers in a row. He finished 14 of 17 from the field and 9 of 9 from the line. Americans Kevin Wood (a point guard from Randolph-Macon University) and Percy Davis (a transfer from the University of Rhode Island) finished with 15 and 12 respective, while national team member 6-8 centre Tom Kappos scored 20 and nabbed a game-high 20 boards. For Vic, Dolcetti hit for 24 and the hard-driving Parris 17. Kazanowski finished with 14. Vikings coach Ken Shields later noted: “Kappos killed us. We didn’t have the intensity on the boards and Kappos did.” Heaney later told reporters the Huskies were motivated to show everyone who the best team in the nation was, having been ranked behind York for most of the season. Mickey Fox, he added, “may well be the best player to come to Canada.” Fox noted that his point total was immaterial, as was his selection as tourney MVP. “All I care about is the championship. This is by far the best university basketball team I’ve ever seen in Canada.” Shields told The Gauntlet “that we simply could not stop Fox. He was the key.” The Huskies became the first repeat champions since the Windsor Lancers of the mid-1960s. “Winning my second Canadian championship feels just as good as the first,” said Fox, who returned to St. Mary’s this season after a three-year absence. “I left St. Mary’s after we lost the national final to Guelph in 1974 by two points. I wanted to come back and go out as a champion, not as a loser. … I don’t care about the points. I don’t care about the (MVP) award. All I care about is the championship. This is by far the best university team I’ve ever seen in Canada.” Kappos said “when the money’s on the table, that’s when we play our best. That’s the first time I’ve scored 20 points all year. I decided to save it for the championship.” Mickey Fox paced St. Mary’s with 37 points on 14-27 from the floor, 9-9 from the line and 4 boards. Tom Kappos added 20 on 9-18 from the floor and 20 boards. Kevin Woods scored 15 on 4-16 from the floor, 7-8 from the line and 8 boards. Percy Davis notched 12 on 5-19 from the floor and 8 boards. Rick Plato scored 4 and Ross Quackenbush 2, while Ron Blommers; Derrick Lewis and Jeff Gourley were scoreless. The Huskies shot 35-81 from the floor and 20-21 from the line, while garnering 20 boards and 22 fouls. Reni Dolcetti paced Victoria with 24 points on 11-22 from the floor, 2-5 from the line and 10 boards. Robbie Parris added 17 on 7-16 from the floor, 3-4 from the line and 6 boards. Gerald Kazanowski scored 12 on 6-12 from the floor and 12 boards. Kelly Dukeshire notched 10 on 4-7 from the floor, 2-4 from the line and 3 boards. Mickey Welder scored 8, Anderson 5 and Ian Hyde-Lay 3, while Greg Kazanowski, Tom Narbeshuber, Chris Hegg, Kirzinger and Budd were scoreless. The Vikings shot 37-77 from the floor and 9-17 from the line, while garnering 37 boards and 19 fouls. Mickey Fox told the Saint Mary’s University Journal in regard to his tournament MVP selection that “I get all the glory because I’m the shooter but this team might have been the finest basketball team ever assembled in Canada. This is certainly the deepest team we’ve had at Saint Mary’s and those people who said we didn’t have an inside team didn’t know what they were talking about. Just look at Tom Kappos and Ross Quackenbush.”

        The all-tourney team featured: MVP Mickey Fox (St. Mary’s); Rob Parris (Victoria); Reni Dolcetti (Victoria); Wayne Allison (Windsor); Bo Pelech (York); Percy Davis (St. Mary’s)

        The bronze medalist York Yeomen: Ted Galka; Ed Siebert; Lonnie Ramati; David Coulthard; Bo Pelech; Paul Jones; Peter Greenway; Chris McNeilly; Paul Layefsky; Ron Kaknevicius; Lester Smith; coach Bob Bain

        The silver medalist Victoria Vikings: Ian Hyde-Lay; Greg Kazanowski; Tom Narbeshuber; Mickey Welder; Chris Hebb; Rob Parris; Ted Anderson; Gerald Kazanowski; Ken Kirzinger; Reni Dolcetti; Gary Budd; Kelly Dukeshire; John Kazanowski; coach Ken Shields

        The champion St. Mary’s Huskies: Mickey Fox; Kevin Woods; Tom Kappos; Percy Davis; Ross Quackenbush; Ron Blommers; John Dronsella; Ivan Ross; Rick Plato; Derrick Lewis; Jeff Gourley; coach Brian Heaney; assistant Willie Follette; assistant Jim Collins; manager Allan Wentworth; manager Paul Baxter; manager John Landry; trainer Alex McLellan