REGULAR SEASON
| Laval | 13-2 | 25-10 | Jacques Paiement | ||
| Concordia | 8-7 | 14-13 | John Dore | ||
| Bishop’s | 5-10 | 6-19 | Eddie Pomykala | ||
| McGill | 4-11 | 12-15 | Nevio Marzinotto | ||
In the regular season, Laval topped the standings with a (13-2) record.
Playoff non-qualifier McGill Redmen: Domenico Marcario, Kirk Reid, Elliot Siemiatycki, Jamie Robinson, Gregory Rembeyo, Greg Kennedy, Denburk Reid, Hidesh Bhardwaj, Kevin Boyle, Craig Clare, Pat Kieran, Frederic Bernard, Victor Feret, coach Nevio Marzinotto, assistant Bernie Rosanelli, assistant Matthew Davies
In the sudden-death semi-final, Concordia defeats Bishop’s 76-61. “Concordia was full measure (the better team), without a doubt,” Gaiters coach Eddie Pomykala told the Montreal Gazette. “They were more aggressive. It’s their trademark and it overwhelmed us. We were asking ourselves why we were letting it happen but we couldn’t do much to stop it.” Concordia led 44-32 at the half and opened the second half with a 15-0 run. They soon led by as many as 27. Philippe Langlois and Patrick Perrotte each scored 13 to pace Concordia. Dilip Nayar added 12, while nabbed 6 boards. Gavin Musgrave and Jonathan Dresner each scored 10. Dresner scored all 10 of his, consecutively, in the first half, nailing a pair of treys as Concordia built a 10-point lead. “This is all about coach (John Dore’s) preparation,” Langlois said. “He’s made us peak at the right time. Now we’ve got a good shot (against Laval). We’ve beaten them once this season. They have to know we’re ready.” Phil Miguel led Bishop’s with 19. Jeffrey Szita added 12.
In the finals, Laval defeated Concordia 90-93; 56-55, 76-56 (2g-1)
In game one, Concordia upset Laval 93-90 in overtime as Gavin Musgrave scored 21 and Philippe Langlois 18. “We’re a much-improved team since the beginning of the year and the more we play, the better we get,” Stingers coach John Dore told the Montreal Gazette. “This was the game we wanted. Now, we’ve got them in our gym for the next one.” Dilip Nayar added 17 for Concordia, which outscored Laval 9-6 in overtime after the teams were knotted at 84 in regulation. “They scored the first four points in overtime but we came back and did what we had to do,” said Dore. Charles Fortier led Laval with 26.
In game two, Laval knotted the
series after rallying from a 10-point deficit with six minutes to play to nip
Concordia 56-55. The Stingers led 32-28 at halftime and 45-35 early in the second
half before their shooting deserted them. Concordia scored only two baskets in
over a 10:20 span and shot a paltry 32 per cent (9-28) from the field in the
second half compared to 14-25 (56%) in the first half. Laval used 6-7 centre Marc-Antoine
Horth on the blocks to claw back into the game. Horth scored 24 on 10-18 from
the floor and 10 boards, while playing all 40 minutes, as forward Samuel
Audet-Sow was in foul trouble soon after the opening tip-off, picking up two
fouls in the first minute alone. “I think we played this game with a lot of
composure,” said Laval coach Jacques Paiement. The Stingers led for practically
the entire game, staking an 18-9 lead with 13:10 to play in the first half. But
Laval scored eight unanswered points off of three steals and some crisp passing
to tighten the lead to 18-17 with 8:46 to play. Concordia answered back with a
couple of three-pointers by Rastko Popovic and Phillippe Langlois, who led
Stingers with 16 points and seven assists,
to make the score 24-20 with 6:33 remaining in the half. Concordia opened the
second half with six unanswered points to make the score 38-28 in the first two
minutes and staved off another Laval comeback with another trey by Langlois
with 15:14 remaining in the game to make the score 45-35. But Laval attacked
Concordia’s basket, using their perimeter shooting to give Horth room to work
from the baseline. Audet-Sow scored a three-pointer from atop the key with 6:45
to tie the score at 47 and Charles Fortier tossed in another trey from the
right side to give Laval its first lead, 50-49 with 6:01 left on the clock.
Concordia seems to regain its scoring touch while trailing 52-51 with 2:46 to play.
Gavin Musgrave scored four unanswered points, including two on an alley-oop pass
from Langlois, to give the Stingers a 55-52 lead with two minutes to play. The
Rouge et Or pounded the ball inside to Horth, who squirmed through three
defenders on the right-side baseline to make the score 55-54 with 1:40 on the
clock. After Concordia wasted its possession, Laval regained the ball with 32 seconds
remaining. The Rouge et Or worked the ball around the perimeter before feeding
it once more to Horth, who chipped in a short bank shot from the right side of
the basket with 11 seconds left to pull out the win. Dominique Soucy scored 9
on 3-9 from the floor and 1-2 from the line. Laval shot 22-51 from the floor
and 8-17 from the line. Philippe Langlois paced Concordia with 17 on 7-12 from
the floor. Gavin Musgrave added 13 on 6-12 from the floor. Concordia shot 23-53
from the floor and 5-6 from the line. Laval outrebounded Concordia 38-27 as
Horth nabbed 10. Vigneault, Lacasse, Langlois, Popovic, Nayar and Musgrave each
nabbed 3 boards for Concordia. Laval had 12 assists, led by Soucy’s 4.
Concordia had 10 assists, including 7 by Langlois. “We had them on the ropes
but we allowed them to chip away and get back into the game,” said Gavin
Musgrave. “Going back to Laval
wasn’t what we wanted to do. But we’ve beaten them twice there this season and
we’ll be confident going in. We’re still the underdog. The pressure’s on them and
they just better be ready for us because we know we should have had this one
tonight.” Concordia coach John Dore said “we didn’t score enough and we allowed
them a couple of second-chance opportunities at the end.”
In game three, host Laval whipped Concordia 76-56. Samuel Audet-Sow paced Laval with 23. Marc-Antoine Horth added 21. Fueled by five treys, Laval raced to a quick 19-point lead and then extended it to 43-20 at the half. Horth dominated the blocks. Philippe Langlois led Concordia with 14. Gavin Musgrave added 10. “In our last game, we got good productivity from Philippe and Gavin but we didn’t get a lot out of other people,” said coach John Dore. “We talked about that going into today’s game. We tried to get some things going early but unfortunately, we were not able to do it. And against a team that shoots seven threes, 65 per cent from the field and 70 per cent from the line in the first half, well, that’s as good as it gets. They played as well as I’ve ever seen a Laval team play anywhere at any time.” The Stingers got no closer than 17 in the second half. “Give them a lot of credit for their poise, their patience on offence and the way they play,” Dore said. “I thought we competed much better in the second half but we dug ourselves such a big hole that we couldn’t climb out of it.” Ex-Laval player Daniel Lacasse, a 6-10 centre, was booed every time he touched the ball and end up with only 1 point and 4 boards. “We were really looking for a good start today,” said Lacasse. ‘I think we did come out playing hard but we missed a couple of easy shots early and they hit everything. Today’s game was decided in the first few minutes. But the series was decided last Wednesday when we had our chance to win it.”
After the season, the University of Quebec @ Montreal Citadins rejoined the league, hiring as their coach Olga Hrycak, the coach of the Dawson College Blues, the reigning Quebec community college champs, for the previous 15 years. Hrycak won nine CEGEP titles with Dawson, and a silver at the CCAA nationals’ weeks earlier.
The bronze medalist Bishop’s Gaiters: Phil Miguel; Jeffrey Szita; Ricardo Telamon; Jason Thorne; Paul Stephens; Shaun Brade; Launey Tomsin; David Suzuki; Kyle Pearson; Graeme Scott; Cam McDonald; Scott MacDonald; Eric Donohue; Max Jones; Matt Angell; coach Eddie Pomykala; assistant Mike Hickey; assistant Michel Fontaine; therapist Stephen King
The runner-up Concordia Stingers: Philippe Langlois; Gavin Musgrave; Daniel Lacasse; Rastko Popovic; Louis Vigneault; Rastko Popovic; Kurt MacAlpine; Frederic Gagnon; Andrew Kanho; Dilip Nayar; James Aubourg; Jason Pace; Patrick Perrotte; coach John Dore; assistant Ernie Rosa; assistant Harvey Liverman; student therapist Sabrina Hanna; student therapist Fiona Moise
The champion Laval Rouge et Or: Charles Fortier, Samuel Audet-Sow, Marc-Antoine Horth, Dominic Soucy; Philippe Cote-Jacques; Remi Cambron; Luc Drolet; Simon Fournier-Gosselin; Mathieu Bilodeau; Luc Drolet, Mirza Hodzic, Jean-Michel Leblanc, Jean-Charles Moudio-Alene, Christian Nadeau, coach Jacques Paiement, assistant Jacques Paiement Jr.; assistant David Levasseur; manager Maxime Gauthier; therapist Jean-Philippe Boivin; therapist Claudia Hamel; medical coordinator Gilles Courchesne; SID Paul Langlois