1983-84 OUA – men

REGULAR SEASON

	EAST				WEST
	York	14-0	32-6	Bob Bain	Waterloo	11-1	29-11	Don McCrae
	Ottawa	11-3	19-19	John Restivo	Brock	8-4	22-13	Garney Henley
	Laurentian	9-5		Mike Heale	Western	7-5		Doug Hayes
	Carleton	9-5	13-19	Paul Armstrong	McMaster	7-5		Barry Phillips
	Toronto	6-8		Brian Heaney	Windsor	5-7		Paul Thomas
	Queen’s	5-9		Jim Crozier	Wilfrid Laurier	3-9		Chris Coulthard
	Ryerson	2-12		Terry Haggerty	Guelph	1-11		Dave Arsenault
	RMC-Kingston	0-14		Barry Smith

Playoff non-qualifiers:

       Queen’s Golden Gaels: Bruce Shoveller, Kirt Charter, Duff Trimble, Dennis Parolin, Todd Hooper, Brian Heagle, Steve Babineau, Dave Cleminson, Grant Lawrence, Rick Vanderllee, Dave Thomas, Don Fulton, coach Jim Crozier

       Royal Military College Paladins: Mike Minicola, Mike O’Rourke, Marshall Sangster, Dean Milner, Cam Spence, Bastien Dufour, Andy Smith, Jeff Price, Paul Rutherford, Derek Sebalj

       Ryerson Rams: Steve Arlauskas, Martin Berlin, Mirko Filipovic, Rob Hager, Rob Hare, Rob Hutchinson, Kevin Lewis, Tim Pink, Jamie Voskuil, Greg Ziesmann, coach Terry Haggerty

Toronto Varsity Blues: Roger Rollocks, Ranald Davidson, Jonathan Roy, Jim Desmarchais, Mario Tennentes, Mike Powers, Anthony Hadwen, Scott Wortley, Al Saplys, Niall Bruce, coach Brian Heaney

In the East semis, 2nd-seeded Ottawa defeated 3rd-seeded Laurentian 92-67. The Voyageurs (coached by Mike Heale) included Jeff McKibbon, Jeff Gark, Tim Yawney, Bill Sandblom, Mike Hamilton, Rob Thirkhill, Brad Austin, Scott Horrobin, Mike Powers, Clarence Woodsma, Dave Burden, Devon Armstrong and Keith Woods.

In the other East semi, top-seeded York clipped 4th-seeded Carleton 110-67 as Grant Parobec scored 22, Tim Rider 18, Enzo Spagnuolo 18, and 7 steals, Mark Jones 18 and John Christenson 16. “We’re really taking it one game at a time,” Parobec told Canadian Press. “Four or five years ago, everyone was talking about winning the nationals and we got knocked out in the first round. I think we all learned a lesson from that.” Coach Bob Bain said his Yeomen “methodically” dissected the Ravens. Bain added that York’s foe in the final was irrelevant “We’ve beaten everyone.” The backcourt tandem of Enzo Spagnuolo and Mark Jones forced 15 turnovers in the first half. York led 52-30 at the break. Greg Armstrong led Carleton with 20. Peter Richards added 14. Ravens coach Paul Armstrong told the Charlatan that his squad’s 29 turnovers proved their undoing. “They picked us apart at half court. Their pressure killed us.”  The Ravens (coached by Paul Armstrong, managers Michelle Ballantyne and Matthew McCreery) also included Bill Holmes, Geoff Wells, Mike Brady, Rob McGruer, Russ Hotsenpiller, Andy Waterman, Tim May, John Barrington, Andy Czich, Kevin Mullington and Dave West (who left the team mid-season because of a lack of playing time).

In the East final, top-seeded York defeated 2nd-seeded Ottawa 95-77. The Yeomen built a 16-4 lead after four minutes and extended the margin to 46-31 at the half. “I don’t think this team has ever been as hungry as it is right now,” said guard Mark Jones, who scored 23. John Christensen led York with 27, along with 10 boards. Mark Jones added 23 and Enzo Spagnuolo 17. Rohan McLean paced Ottawa with 23. Pascal DeCourreur added 18.

In the West quarterfinals, the 2nd-seeded Brock Badgers defeated the 7th-seeded Guelph Gryphons 89-52 as Kelly Grace scored 17, Doug Fast 12, Jim Zaretski 11, Bob Yuhasz 10, Mike Butera 10 and Ron MacCrae 10. The Badgers, particularly Grace and Dave Hodges, dominated the boards. Grace told the St. Catharines Standard that “I’m concentrating more on rebounds. The shots come off the boards. Before I was concentrating too much on getting a pass and shooting.” Hodges said “I was never a big scorer in high school. I’m happy in my role of playing good defence and only taking shots I should take.” Jim Zaretski said “there it is – balanced scoring.” Fast said “the rebounds get us into our fastbreak which gets us into the right tempo. Our new offence is still the key.” Bob Yuhasz added that “they just weren’t into it. It’s not like we beat a sharp team.” The Badgers his 35-63 from the floor, while the Gryphons were 23-69. Gryphons coach Dave Arsenault said “the game was decided before our first point. We missed four free throws and our five first shot attempts. Inevitably, the slump was difficult to rise out of.” Anthony Stewart paced the Gryphons with 12. John Lohr added 8. The Gryphons (coached by David Arsenault, assistant Joe Raso, manager Peter Seymour, trainer Dee Hall) also included Drew Scott, John Farragher, Dan Sukara, Rob Henry, Paul Flack, Greg Hook, Brad Bowering, George Baader and Ian McGregor.

The 3rd-seeded Western Mustangs defeated the 6th-seeded Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks 93-77 as Ross Hurd scored 18, Scott MacKenzie 18, Blair Shier 14 and Peter Van Den Bovenkamp 10. Western broke to a 20-9 lead but the Golden Hawks trimmed the margin to two on the free throw shooting of Dave Byck and Dave MacNeil, and buckets by Steve Forden, Tim Boisvert and Doug Aitchison. But the Mustangs kept breaking the Hawks press for transition buckets as they built a 53-42 lead at the half. Pat Keane notched a bucket to cut the margin to 8 but Ross Hurd quickly responded and the Mustangs pulled away down the stretch. Dave Byck led the Golden Hawks with 28 on 12-14 from the line. Dave MacNeil added 14, Steve Forden 10, Mark Polischuk 10 and Doug Aitchison 7. Hawks coach Chris Coulthard told The Cord that “they annihilated us on the boards. … The press was effective but we were unable to make the conversions.” Coulthard told the Kitchener-Waterloo Record that “we full court pressed the whole game but the guys were exhausted. We had it close a few times in each half but Western was just better. … (The rebounding margin, 49-30 in Western’s favour) should tell you something about the kind of trouble we’re having.” The Golden Hawks (coached by Chris Coulthard, assisted by Tim Darling, manager Rick Pajor) also included Chuck Klassen, Greg White, Pat Keane, Peter Bramhill, John Anstess, Warren Viegas and Larry Rourke.

In the last West quarterfinal, 4th-seeded McMaster nipped 5th-seeded Windsor 71-70 as Tony Sterling hit a jumper from the foul line with 14 seconds to play. Lancer Jim Kennedy hit what appeared to be the winner with five seconds to play but was called charging. McMaster missed two free throws and Windsor had an inbounds play with three seconds remaining on the clock but fumbled the inbounds pass. Lancers coach Paul Thomas told the Windsor Star that “we practice that play enough, week in and week out, but we’re not supposed to bugger up the inbounds pass. But I guess in a one-point game such as this, you can see a million places where we could have won it. Our shooting in the first half was atrocious, both from the field and at the line. … We always seemed to be one player short.” The score was knotted at 33 at the half but the Marauders took a 47-37 lead in the second half before Windsor rallied to knot the score at 57. Tony Sterling paced McMaster with 18. Maurice Armstrong added 14, Mark Traynor 13, Ralf Rosenkranz 12, Peter Ross 6, Ed Zubas 5 and Brian Bidulka 3, while Phil Gardham and Horace Peterkin were scoreless. The Marauders hit 28-61 from the floor and 14-27 from the line. Jim Kennedy led the Lancers with 16. Rob Biasutto added 13, Mike Stockwell 10, Matt St. Louis 9, Andy Kiss 6, Brent Lister 4, Scott Thomas 4, Hunt Hool 4, Frank Berardi 2 and Paul Sobocan 2. The Lancers (coached by Paul Thomas) also included Ross Sisco and Tony Piazza. The Lancers hit 24-66 from the floor and 22-30 from the line.

In the West semis, top-seeded Waterloo defeated 4th-seeded McMaster 84-58 as Peter Savich scored 19, Randy Norris 14, along with 12 boards, Cal Keil 11, Steve Atkin 8, Dave Burns 8, Steve Jackson 7 and Paul Boyce 6. The Warriors led 40-31 at the half and closed it out with 20-7 run down the stretch. Warriors coach Don McCrae told the Kitchener-Waterloo Record that “I think we simply wore them out and there’s no question our size was a big factor. We worked a lot of guys into the action at times when the game was still closed and when you do that, sometimes you have periods when you break down. I still thought we got more running into our attack tonight. We got some good perofrmances from Randy and Cal.” Waterloo outrebounded McMaster 44-37. Ed Zubas led the Marauders with 13. Tony Sterling added 10 and Maurice Armstrong 8. The Marauders (coached by Barry Phillips) also included Horace Peterkin, Ralf Rosenkranz, Jamie McNeill, Phil Gardham, Mark Traynor, Scott Thornton, Peter Ross, Brian Bidulka, Ray Bergstra and Murray Goddard.

In the other West semi, 3rd-seeded Western upset 2nd-seeded Brock 73-55 as Scott McKenzie scored 17, Blair Shier 16, Chris Cavender 14 and Ross Hurd 10, along with 14 boards. The Mustangs took command with a 17-0 first half run after Brock had taken a 12-6 lead. The Warriors outrebounded the Badgers 38-20. Mackenzie told the St. Catharines Standard that the Mustangs concentrated on shutting down Brock’s fastbreak. Western outrebounded Brock 38-20 and hit 19-26 from the line, while the Badgers were 7-12. Doug Fast paced the Badgers with 12. Mike Butera added 8, Rich Lianga 8, Rob McCrae 6, Jim Zareski 5, Kelly Grace 5 and David Hodges 5. Fast said “they were sagging off on the guards really well, collapsing all the time. They simply played good, solid defence.” Hodges said “everybody was up for it. I don’t know what happened.” Badgers coach Garney Henley said “we embarrassed ourselves. We’ve never felt more prepared for a game. Our hearts and guts weren’t in it. I can’ explain why. It’s an absolute shame to play like that. We lost 90% of the loose balls. They put the pressure on us and we started to play individual basketball.” The Badgers (coached by Garney Henley) also included Mike Butera, Richard Lianga, Kelly Grace, Rob MacRae, Steve Vanleeuwen, Glenn Haughton, David Hodges, Bob Yuhasz, Tim Overholt, Bruce Weir and Jim Zareski.

In the West bronze medal match, Brock clipped McMaster 91-78.

In the West final, 3rd-seeded Western stunned top-seeded Waterloo 91-88 in triple overtime to capture their first OUA West crown since 1967. “I think we won by playing consistently and we didn’t allow them to get a big spurt,” said Mustangs coach Doug Hayes. “They have a tendency to wear their opponents down but we stayed within striking distance of them.” Hayes told the Kitchener-Waterloo Record that “we did a lot of substituting with a variety of people in the first half because we want to keep as many of our key people as fresh as we could. … Waterloo will wear you down with their size but tonight the guys just kept battling to the end. … Ross (Hurd) was just a Trojan out there today and he’s the guts of the team.” The Mustangs trailed 42-36 at the half but led 66-60 with four minutes to play before the Warriors knotted the score at 68 on a bank shot by Steve Atkins. The first two overtimes were a deadlock, point for point, but the Mustangs took command in the final overtime session. Ross Hurd led Western with 21, while nabbing 14 rebounds. Peter Savich paced Waterloo with 22. Western hit 17-31 from the line, while Waterloo was 10-15. Warriors coach Don McCrae said “they really stopped us defensively tonight and I never felt we had control of the game in the home stretch of the regulation, or in the overtime.”

       In the Wilson Cup final, York defeated Western 92-76 to end what guard Mark Jones called an excessive, one-year title “drought. It’s nice to get the championship back. Waterloo borrowed it for a year.” Jones scored 17. York broke open a tight affair midway through the first half on a run ignited by 6-9 centre John Christensen, who blocked a shot. The ball was recovered by Winston Thorrington, who raced down a hit a 15-foot jumper to give the Yeomen a 32-27 lead. York extended their lead to 42-33 at the half and romped. Enzo Spagnuolo led the Yeomen with 23. Mark Jones added 17, Grant Parobec 16, Tim Rider 15, John Christenson 14 and Wayne Shaw 5, along with 3 steals. Lions coach Bob Bain told The Excalibur that “our game plan was to contain Ross Hurd on the inside and Scott McKenzie on the outside. We also wanted to run against them. … We boarded well and neutralized their big man. … John did his quiet usual job. He altered a lot of shots on defence. Defensively, I’d have to say he is one of the best big men in the league.” Hurd, who along with Blair Shier was one of the Mustangs self-styled ‘Bruise Brothers’, said “I think it could have been closer if we had been able to make more of our shots from the foul line and hit some of the easy baskets we missed.” Hurd finished with 12 and 15 boards, while Shier scored 22. Scott McKenzie notched 15. The Mustangs hit an anemic 14-26 from the line. “We were a little discouraged being down at halftime,” Hurd said. “They had the momentum and the crowd really got them going.”

The co-bronze medalist Waterloo Warriors: Peter Savich; Paul Boyce; Randy Norris; Dave Moser; Rob Froese; Bernie Alvarez; Steve Atkin; Paul Van Oorschot; Cal Keil; Bruce Milliken; Steve Jackson; Doug Sutton; Frank Naus; Dave Burns; Andy Balogh; coach Don McCrae; assistant Mike Frisby; assistant Mike Visser

The co-bronze medalist Ottawa Gee-Gees: Rohan McLean; Rob Taylor; Pascal DeCourveur; Jeff Grosspietsch; Ethan Bynoe; Ray Kabartas; Kevin Hart; Daniel Gingras; Matt Kane; Winston Ivey; Andre Aube; Bob Lumley; David Lapinat; Paul Manning; Ed Paplinski; Ross Buskard; coach John Restivo

       The runner-up Western Mustangs: Scott McKenzie; Ross Hurd; Kevin Armstrong; Chris Cavender; Mike Fedak; Greg Moore; Peter VandeBovenkamp; Jamie Ziegel; Blair Shier; George Cope; Shawn Manuel; Pod Armstrong; Chris Simpson; Gareth Whiteside; coach Doug Hayes

       The champion York Lions: Grant Parobec; John Christensen; Enzo Spagnuolo; Tim Rider; Mark Jones; Adrian Koene; Wayne Shaw; Mike Gillett; Winston Thorrington; Pete Luik; Jon Brillert; Bill Rusk; coach Bob Bain; assistant Mike Quigley