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O M H A C H A M P I O N S Loyola grad fills big role for Bishop's Mike Andrews named MVP of Quebec university basketball by Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver Staff 27 | Friday, March 22, 2013 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com The Oakville peewee AE Rangers won their third OMHA title in four seasons Wednesday. | photo submitted Peewees no sleepers in OMHA playdowns Dave Skjarum used one of the most effective parenting ploys when it came to motivating his peewee AE Rangers squad before Game 3 of the Ontario Minor Hockey Association final. "I asked, `Do you want to have a party, or do you want to go home and go to bed?'" said the Rangers coach. "Kids like to have fun. They knew if we won this, we were having a party." The Rangers apparently aren't that big on sleep. Oakville blitzed the Stoney Creek Warriors 9-2 Wednesday at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex, completing a three-game sweep of the first-to-six-point series and claiming its third OMHA title in four years. The lopsided victory came on the heels of two competitive contests, a 3-2 Oakville win in Game 1 and a 2-0 triumph in Game 2. Dominating the final game of a series was a trend for the Rangers in the OMHA playdowns. Oakville defeated Peterborough 5-2 in the clinching game of the semifinals and routed New Tecumseth 8-3 in the last game of the quarter-finals, two series that had also been tightly contested through two games. Oakville has made the OMHA final in each of the last four seasons, with last year's loss to the Orangeville Flyers being the only hiccup. Skjarum said claiming another OMHA crown and winning the International Silver Stick title were his team's two main goals this season. The Rangers accomplished both, having already won the Silver Stick in January. "From tryouts, I knew the kids I had were amazing. We were so strong," Skjarum said. "We had a lot of good offensive threats, a lot of good talent." Oakville was second in Tri-County league play this season with a 22-4-2 mark. Orangeville was first, but the Flyers did not advance out of the opening round of playdowns. Contributors to the Rangers' OMHA win were Ethan Enright, Max Perry, Eli St. James, Caleb Walker, Jordan Gamble, Rogan Doyle, James Johannesson, Mac Sinclair, Adam Nicholson, Michael Syrota, Chris Nurmi, David Hayman, Aidan Williams, Daniel Littlejohn, Ryan Skjarum, Ben Ecclestone and Aidan Ecclestone. Sean Doyle, Cam Sinclair and Luke St. James also coach the Rangers, Steve Nicholson is the trainer and Paul Enright is the manager. Paul Nurmi, Richard Gamble, Cynthia Perry and David Johannesson also fill volunteer roles with the team. -- Jon Kuiperij Prior to the university basketball season, Bishop's Gaiters coach Rod Gilpin told third-year centre Mike Andrews he was capable of being one of the best players in the league. Andrews had won the Quebec university rookie-of-the-year award, then turned in similar stats in his sophomore season. But Gilpin saw the potential for more. "I thought it was possible, but I'm not sure he believed me," Gilpin said. In the season opener, Andrews came off the bench to score 28 points, pull down 11 rebounds and block six shots in a 77-76 overtime loss to Concordia. It would be the first of the Loyola grad's three 20-point, 10-rebound games on the season. Andrews may not have believed his coach's forecast -- or at the very least, not expected it to come to fruition so soon -- but when he arrived at Bishop's he had set three individual goals for himself. At some point in his university career, he wanted to be an all-Canadian, he wanted to be the league's best defensive player and he wanted to win a league MVP award. He checked all three off his to-do list this season. "I was having fun out there and I think it was just maturity as well," Andrews said of his breakout year in which he finished second in the province with 15.3 points per game, grabbed 6.4 rebounds and was second in the country with 2.0 blocks per game. "I always thought I had a lot of passion for the game but it reached a new level this year." Andrews' play helped lift a Gaiters team that had won only six games in his first two seasons combined to a second-place finish with a 10-6 record, with half of those losses coming by three points or less. Then with its 6-foot10, 235-pound big man leading the way (averaging a team-best 18 points in the playoffs), Bishop's came within a basket of upsetting first-place McGill in the Quebec final. Gilpin said Andrews' defensive abilities were evident in high school, but he also saw untapped offensive ability. Mike Andrews (in blue) was named the most valuable player of the Quebec university men's basketball season. | photo courtesy Bishop's University "When he played at Loyola, they had a couple of fantastic guards, so he didn't have to do more than block shots, get rebounds and set ball screens," the Bishop's coach said. Andrews took on new responsibilities when he arrived at Bishop's. Playing in an offence geared to getting the ball into the post, he has had to expand his offensive repertoire. Though he averaged 9.8 points in his rookie season, Gilpin said Andrews was still very raw. With Andrews dedicating himself to improving, Gilpin was certain his player would one day dominate inside. This year, Andrews led the league in field-goal percentage at 53.8 per cent, up from 41.3 the previous year. "He gotten better finishing inside, either to his left or to his right," Gilpin said. "When he came here, he couldn't even look to his right. Now he's got a couple of go-to moves and with his big body, he's hard to stop." With Andrews' eagerness to learn, it see Loss on p.28