REGULAR SEASON
| EAST | WEST | ||||||||
| Laurentian | 11-1 | 22-7 | Mike Heale | Waterloo | 9-3 | 20-9 | Don McCrae | ||
| York | 11-1 | 33-5 | Bob Bain | Wilfrid Laurier | 9-3 | 18-9 | Don Smith | ||
| Carleton | 7-5 | 17-11 | Pat O’Brien | McMaster | 8-4 | 15-6 | Wes Hicks | ||
| Ottawa | 6-6 | 12-15 | John Scobie | Windsor | 8-4 | Paul Thomas | |||
| Toronto | 5-7 | 6-8 | John McManus | Guelph | 5-7 | 10-15 | Doug Dodd | ||
| Queen’s | 2-10 | 3-13 | Pete Smith | Western | 3-9 | 6-10 | Doug Hayes | ||
| Ryerson | 0-12 | Ed DeArmon | Brock | 0-12 | 4-23 | Walt Szpilewski | |||
At the start of the season, Laurentian coach Richie Spears accepts the women’s heading coach position at San Diego State. He is replaced by ex-Ottawa Gee-Gee/Voyageurs guard Mike Heale.
Playoff non-qualifiers:
Brock Badgers: Jim Nelligan, Terry Rigg, Andy Fraser, Kelly Baker, Bill Shaw, Steve Myrie, Kevin Smith, Bob Tamburino, Paul South, Paul Follis, Greg Krar, Rick Druzina, coach Walt Szpilewski
Guelph Gryphons: Henry Vandenburg, Peter Markus, Ron Hall, Shane Scott, Mike Hryb, Rob Barber, Jim Cotta, Tom Heslip, Rick Rusk, Mickey Sharpe, Jim Haalboom, Ron Hall, Paul Treitz, Eric Dunn, coach Doug Dodd
Queen’s Golden Gaels: Scott Sisson, Kim Carleton, Phil Moore, Jody Connor, Ross Doran, Kevin Feighery, Jeff Folkhart, John Kutkevicius, Steve McCready, Sandy Pearce, Ken Russell, Scott Smith, Gary Szoke, Jack Aubry, Wilf Lahrkamp, John Lomas, coach Pete Smith
Ryerson Rams: Dave Fogolin, Rob Kimstow, Avo Albo, Alex Grigonis, Lanny Jarvis, Henry Kruthheinz, Dave Paborsa, Tony Abramezicius, David Fogolin, Reiner Gaic, Lanny Jarvis, Mike Vincent, Bill Barlow, coach Ed DeArmon
Toronto Varsity Blues: Randy Cook, Frank Wenzl, John Lamb, Bill Pangos, Joe Braunstein, Tony Braunstein, Doug Fox, George Gorzynsky, Brian Hummell, Tim McGhie, Vincent Nycz, John Zanette, N Kurcharczyk, S Prince, Joe Tucci, coach John McManus
Western Mustangs: Francis Moccio, Rob Niro, Dan Berry, Scott McLeod, Bruce Meikle, Dave Hale, Bruce Tomlinson, Jim Dowling, Glyn Hughes, Ted Pangia, Jim Snyder, Jim Rain, Jim McArdle, coach Doug Hayes
In the East semis, Charlie Wise scored 25 and Brian Burnett 22 as 2nd-seeded Laurentian demolished 3rd-seeded Carleton 77-62. Carleton was led by Jon Love’s 28 and Pat Stoqua’s 13. The Ravens (coached by Pat O’Brien, manager Howard Bloom) also included Larry Wilson, Kevin Gallagher, Don Reid, Keith Kelso, Rick Powers, Steve Sheehan, Gary Breen, Bill Langford, Jim McSheffrey, Fred Belowitz, Rob Cole, Larry Wilson, Dave McKendry and Henry Mulder.
In the other East semi, top-seeded York destroyed 4th-seeded Ottawa 97-70 as Lonnie Ramati scored 23. Ted Galka and Paul Laefsky each added 14. The Yeomen’s superior speed and marksmanship proved too much for the Gee-Gees. York exploded to a 23-4 lead. Ottawa rallied to trim the margin to 16 at the half before York opened the second half with another rush to take a 61-33 lead. “We got what we wanted,” said coach Bob Bain. “It’s a win but I’m not entirely happy with the way we laid back a couple of times after we built up a big lead. Ottawa had nothing to lose and they kept coming on. I thought we could have been tighter defensively.” Bain was concerned his troops might be overconfident. “We are already looking forward to the final and I was worried the boys might light up. I was pleased at the way we went out and attacked right away. We didn’t let them take the game to us.” Ramati also grabbed 16 of York’s 44 rebounds. Gee-Gees coach John Scobie was pleased with the efforts of his troops. “I thought we played a good game, the kind of game we wanted to. We can’t match up physically with York. We just wanted to hustle and that’s what we did. The name of the game is playing up to your own potential and I think we did that. It’s no disgrace to lose to a more talented team.” Steve Huck led Ottawa with 17 points. Pat Signorotti added 15. The Gee-Gees (coached by John Scobie) also included Rick Traer, Rene St. Fort, Jim Kent, Bruce Davis, Jack Eisenmann, Pete Paulsen, Bob Sebera, Geoff Greirson, Rod MacDonnell and Dale Wilson.
In the East final, Lonnie Ramati and David Coulthard each scored 22 as top-seeded host York defeated 2nd-seeded Laurentian 77-59. Both teams looked jittery early before the Yeomen took command late in the first half, leading 32-29 heading into the lockers. Although the Voyageurs briefly rallied to knot the score at 43 in the second half, Ted Galka tipped in his own shot as York responded with an 8-2 run, closing out the affair with a 34-16 run. Pelech, who coach Bob Bain called “Canada’s best two-way forward” held Voyageurs star Bruce Burnett to 14 points, while scoring 13. “That was basically our game plan,” Bain told the Toronto Globe & Mail. “We tried to shut off Burnett, tried to deny him the ball. … Our defensive game was our key to success. We are the best team defensively in the country and we just proved it again. We forced Laurentian to make a lot of key turnovers.” Laurentian had 17 turnovers. York out-rebounded Laurentian 37-31. “Tonight’s game was a team game all the way,” Ramati told Canadian Press. “If the team doesn’t play well, you don’t win. But we played well in every way – our guards did a good job in controlling the boards. Our forwards played a good game defensively. We paced the game well because we forced them to make mistakes. We just had a good game all around.” Yeomen coach Bob Bain told The Excalibur “what can I say?” And then added nothing. Ramati nabbed 14 boards for the Yeomen. Charlie Wise led the Voyageurs with 15. The Voyageurs (coached by Richie Spears) included LaSalle transfer Charlie Wise, Temple transfer Bruce Burnett and Philadelphia product Varick Cutler.
In the West semis, top-seeded Waterloo nipped 4th-seeded Windsor 60-57 after opening with a 23-9 lead and benefiting from a six-and-a-half-minute drought which saw Windsor unable to buy a basket. But Windsor battled back to within seven, 37-30 at the half and at one point took a 46-42 lead in the second half before Waterloo rallied for the victory. Warriors coach Don McCrae told the Kitchener-Waterloo Record that “we needed that win … No matter what happens from here on in, I didn’t want these kids to remember that they finished the season with three straight losses.” Ted Darcie paced the Warriors with 12. Pat Brill-Edwards added 10, Leon Passmore 10, Ron Graham 8, Tom Fugedi 8, Seymour Hadwen 6, John Freund 4 and Jim Commerford 2, while Peter Greenway was scoreless. Waterloo shot 23-54 from the floor and 14-24 from the line. MacCrae told the Windsor Star that “at the moment, our inside play is suffering a lot. We’re lacking in tenacity and concentration. … Charlie Pearsall was giving us fits and they were controlling the game until Paul (Thomas) took him out. It’s strange but he wasn’t nearly as effective when he returned to the game.” Paul Thomas said “we should have blown them out. This is a painful end to a very frustrating season. What more can I say. I honestly can’t explain what happened early in the ballgame. The ball wouldn’t fall in the basket on our shots and our guys started to press. We change our offence and our defence four or five times in the first half before things started to go right for us. No Lancer team ever tried harder than this club. … Maybe that was the problem. We tried too hard. In practice, we looked great but in games, we had our share of problems.” Thomas told the Kitchener-Waterloo Record that “something went wrong somewhere.” Vince Landry led the Lancers with 17. Bob Oostveen added 12, Charlie Pearsall 8, Dan Devin 7, Ed Bialek 4, Fred Robson 4, John Popowich 3 and Jim Minello 2, while Kevin Greenwood and Jim Molyneux were scoreless. Windsor shot 22-55 from the floor and 13-17 from the line. The Lancers (coached by Paul Thomas) also included Carlo Barzotto and Mike McKinley.
In the other West semi, 2nd-seeded Wilfrid Laurier, led by Nebraska native and western division scoring champion Loren Killion, thrashed McMaster 104-86. The Warriors led 47-35 at the half but the Marauders drew within 55-50 before Loren Killion ripped off 7 unanswered points to turn the momentum. Killion scored 39 to pace the Golden Hawks. Don Whaley added 27 and Fred Koepke 16. Whaley told the Kitchener-Waterloo Record that “we were able to put a lot of pressure on their defence and we also cam up pretty strong defensively ourselves, all but for a few minutes at the start of the second half.” Dave Roser paced the Marauders with 29. Tony Valaitis added 20. Golden Hawks coach Don Smith told the Hamilton Spectator that “they came out and ran at us in the second half. We weren’t playing any defence and not getting any rebounds. Our defence started playing again and Killion scored the points.” Laurier led 47-35 at the half and hit 41-53 from the floor. Dave Roser paced the Marauders with 29, while nabbing 11 boards. Tony Valaitis added 20. The Marauders hit 35-77 from the floor. The Marauders (coached by Wes Hicks) also included Don Bridgeman, Marty Kicul, Mark Dubois, Phil Tamburino, Victor Dhue, Al White, Tim Clutterbuck, Mike Holmes, Pete Roser, Mike Voelkner and Marc Dubois. Hicks said “give them full marks. Those two (Killion and Whaley) played outstanding games. The others played excellent support roles. They knew what they had to do, pass the ball around until they could get it to Killion or Whaley. … Our kinds never came back from a bad first half. … We worked so hard against zones. … Whaley did a great job on the backline when they were in a 1-3-1. He can really leap.” Hicks added that his troops couldn’t the ball inside to Roser, who said “if you get the ball in the middle, it’s vulnerable.”
In the West final, Loren Killion scored 24 to lead 2nd-seeded Wilfrid Laurier past top-seeded host Waterloo 62-59 before 3,400 fanatic Warrior fans. “We wanted to play them there,” Golden Hawks coach Don Smith told the Cord. “We felt we were better and that the team would be mentally prepared before their crowd.” The score was knotted at 32 at the half before the Hawks opened up a 50-44 lead. The Golden Hawks took a 5044 lead on two free throws by Fred Koepke and a bucket from Don Whaley. Seymour Hadwen and Tom Fugedi notched buckets, while Ted Darcie added an and-one as the Warriors rallied. Two free throws from Whaley and two buckets by Fred Dougherty gave the Golden Hawks a 60-53 lead with two minutes to play. Ron Graham and Seymour Hadwen drew Waterloo within three with 1:37 to play but Whaley iced the win with a pair from the line. Loren Killion led the Golden Hawks with 24. Don Whaley added 18 and Fred Koepke 11. Laurier coach Don Smith told the Kitchener-Waterloo Record that “they were able to get a jump on us but once the emotional level evened off, we came around. Neither team was able to take control though … (Dougherty and Peter Zwart) had us fired up. Their contributions don’t show up on the scoreboards but in other ways.” Killion said “I didn’t shoot well but it doesn’t matter. Everybody did a job.” Warriors coach Don McCrae said “there’s no question of us losing our offensive touch. We were defensive minded, there’s no doubt about that. But you don’t get too many clubs that excel both ways, not in this league anyway. … We weren’t able to get any fastbreak scores; they were there but we didn’t capitalize. We took a couple of runs at them but they beat us, what more can you say. Seymour Hadwen paced the Warriors with 10. Richard Kurtz added 8, Ron Graham 8 and Ted Darcie 7 The Hawks were 18-25 from the line, while the Warriors were 3-11.
In the Wilson Cup, York defeated Laurier 100-78 to collect the first title by an Eastern division team in 22 years. The Yeomen were led by rookies David Coulthard and Bo Pelech, as well as Lonnie Ramati, who starred for Princeton when they won the NIT. Frank Zulys was a transfer from Concordia and Paul Layefsky a transfer from Toronto. Coulthard and Pelech both played on national basketball team. Ron Kaknevicius was from Toronto St. Mikes. “The one goal we had at the beginning of the year was to make the national finals,” said York coach Bob Bain. “After the first five or six games I could see we had the talent but I thought we might get to the finals only as the wild card team.” Coulthard scored 30 in the final. Scoring leader and Nebraska product Loren Killion got into early foul trouble for Laurier and finished with only 15 points under Pelech’s defence. “They used a zone defence the whole game and I just don’t think teams can zone us,” said Bain. “We always seemed to have one guy in the open and they never put any real pressure on us. Bo did a great job shutting down Killion and (guard Paul) Jones came off the bench and did a good job on (Don) Whaley.” Whaley, another import who’d played at Nebraska, led Laurier with 29 points. Ramati grabbed 19 rebounds and scored 18 for York. Pelech had 16 for York, Ron Kaknevicius 12, Paul Layefsky 10, Chris McNeilly 6, Ted Galka 4 and Paul Jones 4. The Yeomen hit 47-81 from the floor. The Yeomen jumped in front early, leading 50-38 at the half and expanding their lead to as many as 20 in the second half. “We weren’t psyched up for this one,” Hawks coach Don Smith told The Cord. “They just have a super team.” Smith told the Kitchener-Waterloo Record that “I’m not making any excuses for the loss. We didn’t play all that badly, but they played super. They shot the eyes out of it, everything they put up went in. … We weren’t psyched up. Then they got off a pretty good start, it was a struggle for us all game. Fred (Koepke) was hampered with a sore knee and we didn’t use Killion for about final seven or eight minutes.” Don Whaley led the Hawks with 29. Lorne Killion added 15, Larry Labaj 14, Ken Daugherty 6 and Greg Paolini 6.
After the season, McMaster coach Wes Hicks resigned, saying it was impossible to do the job on a part-time basis, so he was accepting the athletic director’s position at Mohawk College.
The co-bronze medalist Laurentian Voyageurs: Charlie Wise; Bruce Burnett; Varick Cutler; Mike Mulvihill; Mark Bennett; Peter Domengoni; Tom Orpin; Ken Schildroth; Tom Greco; Rick Owens; Barry D’Angelo; Jamie Kennedy; coach Mike Heale
The co-bronze medalist Waterloo Warriors: Seymour Hadwen; Ted Darcie; Peter Greenway; John Freund; Pat Brill-Edwards; Mark Reis; Ron Graham; Tom Fugedi; Jim Commerford; Brian Ray; Richard Kurtz; Leon Passmore; Mike Tynes; Kent Manning; coach Don McCrae; assistant Court Heinbuch
The runner-up Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks: Lorne Killion; Don Whaley; Fred Koepke; Gord Caldwell; Mitch Rowe; Orval Clark; Chris Heaver; Greg Paolini; Larry Labaj; Rick Paulowicz; Peter Zwart; Ken Dougherty; Larry Adams; Steve Agnew; Greg Irvine; Paul Jarjapka; George Lewin; Mike Stankovits; coach Don Smith; assistant Chris Coulthard
The champion York Lions: David Coulthard; Bo Pelech; Lonnie Ramati; Ted Galka; Paul Layefsky; Frank Zulys; Harry Hunter; Chris McNeilly; Mike Willins; Ron Kaknevicius; Paul Jones; coach Bob Bain; trainer Harold Cipin; manager Bill Arthur