In the opening round: …………………………………………………… The 17th-seeded Vancouver St. George’s Saints defeated the 16th-seeded Nanaimo Dover Bay Dolphins 68-65 as Sean Anthony scored 17, Chunwei Chang 16, Eliot Soo 12, Doug Grant 11, David Stockton 6 and Michael MacKay 6 and Chunwei Chang 4, while Kyle Dhillon, Eden Chuang, Wesley Mark, Sam Dougherty, Chris MacKay, Jason Hamilton, Melvin Mayott, David Creighton, Mark Stockton, Ravi Monday, Aaron Vick and Grant Findlay were scoreless. Matt Kazanowski led Dover Bay with 24. Tyler Boe added 17, Matt Kuzminski 12, Grant Vickers 5, Mike Brouwer 4, Joey Spillman 2 and Edgar Carlson 1, while Jared Hyland, Brian Wood, Kristof Kraemer, James Saunders and Connor Whyte were scoreless. Saints coach Brian Lee told the Vancouver Sun that “our guys really hadn’t played up to par until this point. The difference this time is that our guys are really up for this tournament. We’ve been talking about this for a long time.” Lee told the Vancouver Province that his troops wanted it more, having done little in four previous trips to the provincial tournament. “Our guys are hungry. We’ve been to the tournament four times in the past five years and we haven’t played up to par. Our guys really want it because of that. The difference between No. 1 White Rock and No. 15 or whatever is really minimal. It’s going to come down to that will to win.” Dolphins coach Mark Simpson said his troops weren’t looking past the Saints. Their main problem was trouble with St. George’s on the boards, despite a decent height advantage. The Dolphins were out-rebounded 48-41 by the Saints and didn’t get any clutch boards. “They’ve got the ability to do some damage.” Dover Bay trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half, but rallied with an 11-2 run in the third quarter to knot the score at 49. The teams traded baskets for the better part of the fourth, before St. George’s went on an 8-3 surge to go up 68-62. Dover Bay hit an uncontested three-pointer at the buzzer to make things closer. “We can play a lot better,” said St. George’s forward Sean Anthony. “We had a lot of mental lapses. Everybody needs to step up.” …………………………………………………… The 13th-seeded Port Coquitlam Riverside Rapids defeated the Prince George Polars 83-55 as Ben Sim scored 32, Igor Dutina 17, Acram Adam 8, Seiji Suzuki 8, Dave Mark 4, Kris Quero 4, Kyle Harding 4, Adam Burden 4 and Justin Yoon 2, while Dave-Ray Baptiste, Glen Ang, Henry Yah, James Joh and Darren Liew were scoreless. Gurjiv Chahil led Prince George with 31. Shane Sobus added 9, Matt Hogan 7, Dalbir Dhaliwal 4, Chad West 2 and Rajpal Fagurha 2, while A.J. Ndela, Probo Sibal, Joey Roberts, Mike Rvane, Tut Wonjak and Paul Makowsky were scoreless. …………………………………………………… The 18th-seeded Terrace Caledonia Kermodes nipped the Abbotsford W.J. Mouat Hawks 64-59 in overtime as Bryan Matthews scored 26, Lee Johnson 14, Darren Bell 6, Tyler Hamade 4, Brendan Dawes 4, Jas Aujla 3 and Brandon Spletzer 2, while Jeremy Bryce, Bryan Collingridge, Steve Goosen, Jesse Ehrenberg, Brendan Jongkind, James DeJong, Cliff Fewings and Burton Atkinson were scoreless. The game went back and forth, and Caledonia had a chance to win in regulation at the buzzer, but a shot ricocheted off the rim. The Kermodes outscored the Hawks 13-8 in the extra session. Matthews also had 11 boards, three assists, a block and four steals in his 42 minutes of work. Lucky Bath led W.J. Mouat with 26. Danny Horner added 14, Paol More, Justin Unrau 7, Paul Matthews 6 and Jeff Clark 2, while Darren Enlow, Corey George, Matt Arruda, Doug Hayes, Aman Parmar, Gary Haugland and Steve Cullis were scoreless. The Kermodes hit 15-25 from the line, while the Hawks were 4-9. Hawks coach Mike Horner told the Abbotsford News that “it was just one of those days when the ball was not going to drop for us. We just did not play well.” …………………………………………………… The 14th-seeded Surrey Fleetwood Park Dragons defeated the New Westminster Hyacks 86-65 as Carl DeLeon scored 21, Peter Uppal 19, Akio Arkangelo 12, Christian Bronstein 4, Ivor Maylone 4, Kam Mann 3 and Antonio Zenone 2, while Yaw Osei, Adam Goss, Sean Woodward, Kevin Dhaliwal, Ty Pak, Nathan Bronstein and Jerin Mece were scoreless. Mani Athwal led New Westminster with 21. Brent Kavelaars added 18, Tyler Kinnear 16, Kevin Marban 11, Marc Rootes 10, Ben Gray 5, Erniel Lucas 3 and Robby Pandal 2, while Harmeet Hamal, Mark Natividad, Vishal Chand, Dennis Nguyen, Sam Dhaliwal and Richard Kavelaars were scoreless.
In the second round, the 8th-seeded Victoria St. Michaels University Blue Jaguars crushed the Salmon Arm Gold 70-52 as Chris Ufford scored 20, Ryan Willms 15, Logan Smythe 11, Jeff Downs 8, David Spicer 6, Craig Cavin 5, Mark Quinlan 3 and Taylor Willms 2, while Andrew Cavin, Takaya Brunner, Adrian Cochrane, Ben Strocel, David Crapo and Adam McLean were scoreless. Josh Lovestone led Salmon Arm with 15. Cordell Roper added 14, Conor Scafe 11, Steve Waring 7, Graeme Horton 3 and Jeremy Block 2, while Clint Schmidt, Andrew Penner, Andrew Ingenhurst, Gerald DeVeer, Derek Ripel and Marcus Abramzik were scoreless. The Blue Jaguars full-court pressure rattled the Gold (coached by Chris Harrington) into 29 turnovers and they dominated the boards in the second half by a 27-6 count. …………………………………………………… The top-seeded Surrey White Rock Christian Warriors defeated the 17th-seeded Vancouver St. George’s Saints 73-62 as Donald Burton scored 24 and dished 10 assists. Tyrell Mara added 19 points and 11 boards, Jordan Craig 15, Manuel Gogolin 8, along with 11 boards, Riley Hogan 6 and Connor Ferguson 1, while Drew Good, Dan Peterson, Rees Cal, Robert Thibault and Devan Thiessen were scoreless. Doug Grant paced St. George’s with 18. Sean Anthony added 16, Chunwei Chang 10, Eliot Soo 7, David Stockton 7, Eden Chuang 2 and Wesley Mark 2, while Kyle Dhillon, Sam Dougherty, Chris MacKay, Jason Hamilton, Melvin Mayott, Michael MacKay, David Creighton, Mark Stockton, Ravi Monday, Aaron Vick and Grant Findlay were scoreless. “Rebounding was the key in this game,” Warriors coach Scott Allen told Surrey Now. “We out-rebounded them 39-27; that’s a difference of 12 and you can’t win games when you get out-rebounded by that much. It was great team effort, all of the guys clicked really well. We haven’t played for two weeks so I wasn’t sure how we would react but the guys are maturing as a team right now. It’s the right time of the year for sure.” Saints coach Brian Lee told the Vancouver Sun that “they’re very skilled players, and we would have had to play a near-perfect St. George’s game to beat them. White Rock gets such good play from their guards and Tyrell Mara [a 6’5” forward] is tough to stop down low. He’s very aggressive going after rebounds.” Anthony said Craig “was out there to deny me the ball whenever he could,” Anthony said. “I wasn’t nearly ready for it. I kind of faded out of the game. Fortunately, some of our other players stepped up. But when I really needed to get going, I couldn’t.” Allen said Craig and Donald were a perfectly-matched backcourt tandem. “We call them Salt and Pepper [Burton is black], Frick and Frack or whatever,” Allen says. “They’re tight friends, and they complement each other very well. When they start collapsing on Jordan, Donald takes the pressure off by driving to the basket. They read each other well. When one guy gets stuck, he knows he can trust the other.” Burton hit several key buckets down the stretch. …………………………………………………… The 12th-seeded Clearbrook M.E.I. Eagles defeated the Burnaby Alpha Aztecs 97-60 as Jonathan Schmidt scored 27, Alain McGladdery 17, Kit Williams 17, Mitchell Dueck 15, along with 13 boards, Michael Erickson 9, Devon Krahn 4, Jared Krause 4, Mike Nelson 2 and Robbie Kingra 2, while Brad Thiessen and Jonathan Boldt were scoreless. Desi Collinson scored 19 for Alpha. Matt Rachar added 17, Duane Alsop 13, along with and 10 boards, Dustin Nykoluk 8 and Jag Sandhu 3, Kajlan Patterson, Brandon Mack, Joshua Volouche, Tim Wan, Bryant Southwood, Neal Groenewegen, Scott Farrell, Gus Konteamanis, Darcy James, Earl Picardel, Connor Barnsley, Hunter Wang, David Uyede, John Tung and Manesh Sharma were scoreless. The Eagles were playing without 6-2 forward Jon Boldt, who suffered a broken back in a car accident a week earlier en route to practice. The car, being driven by guard Greg Neufeld, skidded on a patch of black ice and slammed into a concrete embankment. Schmidt was in the accident but unhurt. “It was so scary,” Neufeld told the Vancouver Province. “Jon was having seizures and he was going into shock. I had a cell phone. I dialed 9-1-1 right away.” Schmidt said “we were thinking about Jon tonight a whole lot. For me, personally, I didn’t think about him when the game was going on, but I did during stoppages and things like that. We were doing it for him. We’re going to keep doing it for him.” Assistant coach Steve Dueck added that “we think we have a chance [to win some games]. We can’t just replace him. We’re going to find ways to make up for that 20 points he would score. But we can do it. We can get guys to step up.” …………………………………………………… The 4th-seeded Nelson L.V. Rogers Bombers defeated the 13th-seeded Port Coquitlam Riverside Rapids 71-58 as Sean Denison scored 21 and nabbed 22 boards. The Rapids (coached by Ted Cusick) included Ben Sim, Igor Dutina, Acram Adam, Seiji Suzuki, Dave Mark, Kris Quero, Kyle Harding, Adam Burden, Justin Yoon, Dave-Ray Baptiste, Glen Ang, Henry Yah, James Joh and Darren Liew. …………………………………………………… The 10th-seeded North Delta Seaquam Seahawks defeated the 7th-seeded West Vancouver Highlanders 68-55 as Kenny Kuo scored 20, Ryan Johal 15, Rizal Ganeif 11, Amen Sihota 8, along with 11 boards, Michael Worsley 7, Ryan Webber 5 and Devin Franklin 2, while Brent Vickery, Jamie Johal, R.J. Base, Davie Lai, Serban Cojocaru and Jamie Whalley were scoreless. Dave Laird led West Vancouver with 22 points. Erik Holm added 16, along with 21 boards, Chris Perrin 8, Andi Akravan 6, Sam Latif 2 and Tyler Mooi 1, while Nic Edgson, Stephen Kong, Rob Trasolini, Ian Noble, Andrew Gurney, Reid Gustuvson, Spencer Fraser and Luke Cudmore were scoreless. “The first game for a team here is never pretty,” Seaquam coach Jeff Stebbings told Surrey Now. “I’ve played in two (B.C. tournaments) and coached in two and I’ve never seen a pretty one yet. It’s tough getting used to the environment here — the hoops, the court, the crowd, the backdrops. You have to be able to adjust to it because it’s a huge difference from a gym. Whichever team figured it out first would be able to capitalize on it.” …………………………………………………… The 2nd-seeded Vancouver Kitsilano Blue Demons defeated the 18th-seeded Terrace Caledonia Kermodes 85-75 as Kurtis Waldord scored 29, Scott Van Boeyen 20, along with 9 boards, Ben Lightburn 14, Austin Zamora 7, Chris Blanchut 6, Nile Nurse 3, Lorenzo Bruno 2, Mike Hansen 2 and John Grandpiere 2, while John Pradinuk, Liam Butler, Anthony Taylor, Yuki Ueda, Dave Biddle, Sean Hall, Luke Bensler, Henry McQueen, Emery Caner, Russell Whitehead, Josh Lowry and Matt Williams were scoreless. Bryan Matthews paced Caledonia with 41. Lee Johnson added 18, Justin Unrau 9, Paol More 4 and Jeff Clark 3, while Darren Enlow, Corey George, Matt Arruda, Doug Hayes, Paul Matthews, Aman Parmar, Gary Haugland and Steve Cullis were scoreless. The Blue Demons shot .585 from the floor. …………………………………………………… The 11th-seeded Vancouver Templeton Titans defeated 6th-seeded Port Coquitlam Terry Fox Ravens 71-59 as Thai Duong scored 15, Adam Yousefbeih 18, Bert Bemister 13 and 12 boards, Ryan Berg 8, along with 11 boards, and David Nubanda 7, while Ivan Pang, Kim Goff, Dylan Simpson, Jon Nubanda, Nenad Lojpur, Taurean Mills, Galen Frost and Mike Lane were scoreless. Ryan Murray scored 16 and Graeme McCallum 14 to pace Terry Fox. Jamie Campbell added 7, Matt Francisco 6, Rob Hougaard 6, Hamid Shekarchi 4, Alex Stanculescu 4 and Christian Latayan 2, while Kwame Sarkodee-Ado, Tim Unaegby, Tyson Lamarsh, Patrick Gillis, Jamal Lee, Jesse Penner and Matt Nielson were scoreless. The Titans frenzied, frantic defence forced the Ravens into a raft of turnovers. “We may not have all the sets [schemes], like all the Fraser Valley teams do, but we’ve got the speed,” Templeton forward Bert Bemister told the Vancouver Province. “Can anybody else here run with us? I’m not sure. I guess we’re going to find out.” Duong told the Vancouver Sun that “we’re a smaller team than Fox, so part of our game plan was to run the ball faster. The other factor was that we had every confidence in ourselves that we could beat Terry Fox. We knew we could give them a run with our quickness.” Titans coach Theresa Campbell said “a lot of our motivation today came from the media. One newspaper picked Terry Fox to reach the championship game of this tournament and treated us as nothing more than also-rans. There’s no question that that motivated my kids going into today’s game. But we also had a game plan and the players stuck to it.” Campbell pressed her troops to play “hard and very aggressive” defence against the Ravens. “Our players have been in a groove since the third game of the Lower Mainland tournament,” Campbell added. “In my opinion, we’ve been underrated ever since then — and probably most of this season as well.” Terry Fox couldn’t run with them. They also couldn’t defend with them, and, surprisingly, they couldn’t rebound with them, despite having a height advantage inside at times of six and seven inches. Through hustle, Templeton, the third-place place team out of the Lower Mainland, outboarded Terry Fox, the second-place team from the Fraser Valley, 47-42. They also forced the normally disciplined Ravens into 29 turnovers, leading directly to 25 points. The Titans shot just .356 per cent from the floor, but didn’t need to do any better. “I didn’t know how we’d play here,” Ravens coach Rich Chambers told the Province. “I thought we had a chance to win it all and I thought we had a chance to go out in the first round. I don’t really know if it’s an upset. They’re as good a team as we are, and we knew that going in.” Titans assistant Kevin Grant, had been a coach with the Van Tech Talismen eight years earlier when they knocked off the top-seeded Ravens. “Did I think about 1995? You have to,” Grant told the Vancouver Province. “When I saw the draw I said, ‘That’s amazing. It’s like fate, almost.’ “I didn’t think we could do it twice. They’re always such a good team. And, yeah, the kids knew about 1995. I’ve got a picture on my desk at school. You can’t miss it. We were really happy to just win that one game in 1995. With this year, you can see that the [postgame] celebration was much more muted. After the game, all the guys said, ‘That’s only one [win]’.” …………………………………………………… The 3rd-seeded Parksville Ballenas Whalers, making their first ever appearance in the provincial tournament, defeated the 14th-seeded Surrey Fleetwood Park Dragons 64-45 as Justin Sorenson scored 20 and grabbed 16 boards. Dan Taudin-Chabot added 12 and Evan Tricky 10, along with 12 boards, 9 assists and 6 steals, Andrew Barbour 8, Braden Smith 8, Seth Koebernick 2, Nick Pawliuk 2 and Jordan Reid 2, while Aubrey Morrow, Tanziel Hudson, Dustin England, James Lee, Josh Sorenson and Dane Hasell were scoreless. Marc Rootes led Fleetwood Park (coached by Nick Day) with 12. Brent Kavelaars added 11, Tyler Kinnear 8, Mani Athwal 5, Ben Gray 5, Kevin Marban 2 and Erniel Lucas 2, while Harmett Mahal, Mark Natividad, Vishal Chand, Dennis Nguyen, Robby Pandal, Sam Dhaliwal and Richard Kavelaars were scoreless. Whalers coach Bill McLatchie told the Vancouver Sun that defence proved the difference. “We’ve hardly worked on offence at all. Our philosophy is to hold teams to under 50 points a game – 12 per quarter.” McLatchie told the Victoria Times-Colonist that the fact his troops were from a small seaside retirement town didn’t intimidate them. “There’s no recruiting. It’s just a special group of guys who grew up together in a small town. Everything they do is a first for the school.” Many of the team had been members of the provincial AA high school football champions a few months earlier. Dragons coach Nick Day told Surrey Now that “they were really hungry and I don’t think we were as hungry. We lost our composure early in the game and guys were pointing fingers. I don’t think you’re going to win many games when you shoot like that. It was really ugly shooting. Even though we were playing poorly, we were only down two or four points for most of the first and second quarters. This was just a missed opportunity for our guys and it’s definitely disappointing.”
In the quarterfinals, the top-seeded Surrey White Rock Christian Warriors dumped the 8th-seeded Victoria St. Michaels University Blue Jaguars 66-53 as Tyrell Mara scored 24 and grabbed 17 boards. Jordan Craig added 17 points, Manuel Gogolin 17 and 16 boards, Riley Hogan 8, Donald Burton 7, and Devan Thiessen 3, while Drew Good, Dan Peterson, Rees Cal, Connor Ferguson and Robert Thibault were scoreless. The Warriors shot 28-61 (.459) from the floor, 4-17 (.235) from the arc and 6-15 (.400) from the line, while garnering 57 boards, including 19 on the offensive glass, 13 fouls, 13 assists, 21 turnovers, 4 blocks and 1 steal. Ryan Willms led S.M.U. with 24 points. Logan Smythe added 10 and 8 boards, Jeff Downs 8, Chris Ufford 7, Craig Cavin 2 and Taylor Willms 2, while Andrew Cavin, Takaya Brunner, David Spicer, Adrian Cochrane, Mark Quinlan, Ben Strocel, David Crapo and Adam McLean were scoreless. The Blue Jaguars hit 23-68 (.338) from the floor, 4-27 (.148) from the arc and 3-6 from the line, while garnering 25 boards, including 8 on the offensive glass, 15 fouls, 12 assists, 7 turnovers, 6 blocks and 9 steals. White Rock led 32-27 at the half. The Blue Jaguars simply couldn’t their perimeter game going. The Blue Devils (coach Ian Hyde-Lay, assistant Rick Humphreys, assistant Jaime Blake, managers Steve Harmer and Aashish Kumar) also included Tom Killins.
The 4th-seeded Nelson L.V. Rogers Bombers defeated the 12th-seeded Clearbrook M.E.I. Eagles 68-51 as Mike Vance scored 11, Sean Denison 21, along with 15 boards, 3 assists, 6 blocks and 4 steals, Jordan McLaren 8, Jeremy Phelan 8, Matthew Fuhr 7 and Brody Blair 2, while David Joseph, Geoff Kinrade, Ira Achsen, Grant Davidson, Dimitro Kirsch and Addison Rickaby were scoreless. The Bombers shot 24-56 (.429) from the floor, 2-16 (.125) from the arc, and 18-30 (.600) from the line, while garnering 48 boards, including 15 on the offensive glass, 17 fouls, 12 assists, 29 turnovers, 7 blocks and 10 steals. Alain McGladdery led M.E.I. (coached by Pete Reimer, assisted by Steve Dueck) with 18 points. Jonathan Schmidt added 12, Mitchell Dueck 6 and 11 boards, Michael Erickson 6, Kit Williams 5, Robbie Kingra 4, while Brad Thiessen, Jonathan Boldt, Mike Nelson, Devon Krahn and Jared Krause were scoreless. Krahn nabbed 9 boards. The Eagles shot 18-66 (.273) from the floor, 4-16 from the arc and 11-16 (.688) from the line, while garnering 34 boards, including 12 on the offensive glass, 24 fouls, 7 assists, 24 turnovers, 2 blocks and 14 steals. L.V. Rogers led 27-18 at the half. When the L.V. Rogers Bombers had to kick five players off their team at Christmas time after they were caught drinking beer on a road trip in Juneau, Alaska, coach Dale Dergousoff promised that wasn’t going to be the Nelson squad’s defining moment. His revamped squad proved him right. “When that happened, we never doubted ourselves — our plan was to still be here on Friday and Saturday,” Dergousoff told the Vancouver Province. “Our focus didn’t change. It was going to take us some time [to readjust] but, with the guys we still had and the new guys we brought in we knew that we could still do it. We didn’t play a lot of games [after Christmas], but that was a good thing, because we had things to work on.” Even with all that has happened to them, the Bombers still have the most dominating player in the province in 6-10 Sean Denison. Denison was on his game, despite sitting for the final eight minutes of the second quarter, but MEI only outscored L.V. Rogers 12-8 during that time and they trailed 27-18 going into the intermission. Dergousoff told the Sun that “MEI was a good opponent tonight and forced us to play some aggressive defence. We did that while also having some success offensively, so I have to be pleased with the performance.”
The 10th-seeded Delta Seaquam Seahawks defeated the 2nd-seeded Vancouver Kitsilano Blue Demons 63-54 as Kenny Kuo scored 28, Amen Sihota 11 and 15 boards, Rizal Ganeif 7, Michael Worsley 6 and 15 boards, Ryan Johal 5, Jamie Whalley 4 and Ryan Webber 2, while Brent Vickery, Jamie Johal, R.J. Base, Devin Franklin, Davie Lai and Serban Cojocaru were scoreless. The Seahawks hit 22-62 (.355) from the floor, 4-14 (.286) from the arc and 15-22 (.682) from the line, while garnering 52 boards, including 15 on the offensive glass, 16 fouls, 12 assists, 19 turnovers, 3 blocks and 6 steals. Ben Lightburn led Kitsilano with 17 points and 14 boards. Scott Van Boeyen added 10 points, Nile Nurse 9, Kurtis Walford 9, Chris Blanchut 6 and Austin Zamora 3, while John Pradinuk, Liam Butler, Lorenzo Bruno, Anthony Taylor, Yuki Ueda, Dave Biddle, Mike Hansen, Sean Hall, Luke Bensler, John Grandpierre, Henry McQueen, Emry Caner, Russell Whitehead, Josh Lowry and Matt Williams were scoreless. The Blue Demons shot 20-70 (.286) from the floor, 3-21 (.143) from the arc and 11-15 (.733) from the line, while garnering 46 boards, including 16 on the offensive glass, 19 fouls, 7 assists, 16 turnovers, 7 blocks and 7 steals. The teams were tied at 30 at the half. Seaquam led 53-39 after three quarters but the Blue Demo ns clawed back to within 59-54 with two minutes to play. But they were unable to score another point. Seaquam coach Jeff Stebbings refused to call it an upset. “When you look at this tournament, I don’t think you can call any game an upset. Anybody can beat anybody on a given night. I don’t know if what we did today really calls it an upset,” he told the Vancouver Sun. Seaquam dominated from the start and were threatened only when post Michael Worsley and guard Kenny Kuo were on the bench in foul trouble, allowing Kitsilano to go on a run. Both teams were ice cold in the fourth quarter. “You could have built the Agrodome with bricks the way both of us were hitting the rims at the end.” Blue Demons coach Randy Coutts said his squad “didn’t shoot well. We just played poorly.” Kuo said Kitsilano wasn’t “as strong as the team they had last year.” Stebbings kept alive his hopes of reaching the AAA final, as did his coaching father, Bill, in 1988. “I was 10 years old when I saw my dad’s team play in the finals. It was an absolute dream just to be there.” The Seahawks beat the Blue Demons for a third straight time on the season. “We just wanted to go out and play our game, said coach Jeff Stebbings. “We wanted to push the ball. We wanted to get out and run and keep them from getting their half-court defence set up.” Seaquam led 53-39 after three quarters, but Kitsilano clawed back and trailed only 59-54 with two minutes to go. They couldn’t muster a bucket the rest of the way. A key for Seaquam was shutting down Kitsilano star point guard Kurtis Walford. They managed to do that, with guard Ryan Johal leading the way, as Walford was pestered continually and held to nine points, on 3-of-20 shooting from the floor. “We could have built a brand new Agrodome with all the bricks both teams were throwing up in that quarter,” said Stebbings. Seaquam guard Ryan Johal keyed the victory by doing a stellar job defensively on Kitsilano guard Kurtis Walford. Walford was held to nine points, on 3-20 from the floor and 1-10 from the arc. Stebbings told the Vancouver Province that his troops weren’t thinking of preventing Kitsilano from garnering a threepeat. “We just wanted to go out and play our game. We wanted to push the ball. We wanted to get out and run and keep them from getting their half-court defence set up. (In the fourth quarter), we could have built a brand new Agrodome with all the bricks both teams were throwing up.”
In the last quarterfinal, the 3rd-seeded Parksville Ballenas Whalers nipped the 11th-seeded Vancouver Templeton Titans 61-57 as 6-8, 270-pound post Justin Sorenson scored 14 and grabbed 19 boards. Andrew Barbour added 11, Braden Smith 10, along with 9 boards, Evan Trickey 8, Nick Pawliuk 4, Dan Taudin-Chabot 2 and Seth Koebernick 2, while Aubrey Morrow, Tanziel Hudson, Dustin England, Nick Pawliuk, James Lee, Josh Sorenson, Jordan Reid and Dane Hasell were scoreless. The Whalers shot 25-50 from the floor, 1-10 from the arc, 10-22 (.455) from the line while garnering 55 boards, including 14 on the offensive glass, 24 fouls, 15 assists, 37 turnovers, 2 blocks and 8 steals. Thai Duong led Templeton with 18 points. Adam Yousefbeigi added 14, Bert Bemister 11, David Nubanda 6, Taurean Mills 4, Ryan Berg 2 and Jon Mubanda 2, while Ivan Pang, Kim Goff, Dylan Simpson, Nenad Lojpur, Galen Frost and Mike Lane were scoreless. The Titans shot 17-67 (.254) from the floor, 3-21 (.143) from the arc and 20-27 (.741) from the line, while garnering 26 boards, including 10 on the offensive glass, 21 fouls, 9 assists, 18 turnovers and 15 steals. Ballenas led 31-18 at the half. Ballenas effectively used its size against the speedy Titans (coached by Theresa Campbell, assisted by Kevin Grant). “Defence, defence, defence. We’ve spent like an hour and half every practice on defence and only half an hour on offence,” guard Evan Trickey told the Vancouver Sun.
In the semi-finals, the top-seeded Surrey White Rock Christian Warriors defeated the 4th-seeded Nelson L.V. Rogers Bombers 60-51 as Tyrell Mara scored 19 and grabbed 12 boards. Jordan Craig added 16, Donald Burton 15, along with 9 assists, Manuel Gogolin 4, Devan Thiessen 3 and Riley Hogan 3, while Drew Good, Dan Peterson, Rees Cal, Connor Ferguson and Robert Thibault were scoreless. The Warriors shot 21-61 (.344) from the floor, 8-27 (.296) from the arc, 10-15 from the line, while garnering 40 boards, including 16 on the offensive glass, 16 fouls, 12 assists, 14 turnovers, 1 block and 8 steals. Jeremy Phelan led L.V. Rogers with 13. Matthew Fuhr added 11, Mike Vance 9, Brody Blair 8, Jordan McLaren 5, along with 13 boards and Sean Denison 5, while David Joseph, Geoff Kinrade, Ira Achsen, Grant Davidson, Dimitro Kirsch and Addison Rickaby were scoreless. The Bombers shot 18-51 (.353) from the floor, 6-25 (.240) from the arc, 9-15 (.600) from the line, while garnering 34 boards, including 11 on the offensive glass, 17 fouls, 10 assists, 16 turnovers 3 blocks and 5 steals. L.V. Rogers led 28-24 at the half. “Our goal from the start was to try to get Denison in foul trouble because that’s the only way you can stop him,” Warriors coach Scott Allen told the Vancouver Sun. “And all credit to [Warriors’ starting forward] Riley Hogan for that. Riley was on Denison every time he touched the ball and took him out of the game early. … We made a point of putting a lot of pressure on Denison right from the start,” said Craig. “But I give a lot of credit to the other L.V. Rogers players for making a game of it when Denison wasn’t on the court. They made an adjustment and gave us a terrific game.” Denison fouled out in the fourth quarter. Jordan Craig hit a pair of treys early in the fourth quarter as part of a decisive 9-3 Warriors run. Denison, Jeremy Phelan and Brody Blaier were all in early foul trouble for the Bombers. Coach Dale Dergousoff said “what the referees did to us was horrible. Basically, the officials took the best player in the province out of the game. They didn’t allow him to show his talents. I feel bad for our kids and for the people who came here to see Sean.” Allen said “our three Grade 12 starters — Jordan Craig, Donald Burton and Riley Hogan — really responded to the challenge and were our leaders tonight.”
In the other semi, the 10th-seeded North Delta Seaquam Seahawks thumped the 3rd-seeded Parksville Ballenas Whalers 74-57 as Kenny Kuo scored 23, Rizal Ganeif 19, along with 10 boards, Michael Worsley 10, Ryan Johal 9, Ryan Webber 7, Amen Sihota 4 and Jamie Johal 2, while Brent Vickery, R.J. Base, Devin Franklin, Davie Lai, Serban Cojocaru and Jamie Whalley were scoreless. The Seahawks shot 27-53 (.509) from the floor, 4-11 (.364) from the arc, 16-20 (.800) from the line, while garnering 32 boards, including 7 on the offensive glass, 12 fouls, 14 assists, 18 turnovers, 1 block and 8 steals. Evan Trickey led Ballenas with 15 points. Justin Sorenson added 14, Dustin England 8, Nick Pawliuk 6, Andrew Barbour 4, Braden Smith 4, Seth Koebernick 3 and Dane Hasell 3, while Aubrey Morrow, Tanziel Hudon, Nick Pawliuk, James Lee, Josh Sorenson, Jordan Reid and Dan Taudin-Chabot were scoreless. The Whalers shot 22-58 (.379) from the floor, 3-16 (.188) from the arc, 10-12 (.833) from the line, while garnering 22 boards, including 6 on the offensive glass, 18 fouls, 12 assists, 16 turnovers, 3 blocks and 9 steals. Seaquam led 31-19 at the half.
In the bronze medal match, the Parksville Ballenas Whalers defeated the Nelson L.V. Rogers Bombers 72-50 as Justin Sorenson scored 23 and Evan Tricky 17. The Bombers played without star Sean Denison because of a knee injury. The Bombers (coached by Dale Dergousoff) included Sean Denison, Jeremy Phelan, Matthew Fuhr, Mike Vance, Brody Blair, Jordan McLaren, David Joseph, Geoff Kinrade, Ira Achsen, Grant Davidson, Dimitro Kirsch and Addison Rickaby.
In the final, the Surrey White Rock Christian Warriors defeated the 10th-seeded Delta Seaquam Seahawks 80-62 as Jordan Craig scored 21, Donald Burton 20, Tyrell Mara 16 and 17 boards, Riley Hogan 13 and 12 boards, Manuel Goglin 6 and Devan Thiessen 4, while Drew Good, Dan Peterson, Rees Cal, Connor Ferguson and Robert Thibault were scoreless. The Warriors shot 28-57 (.491) from the floor, 9-21 (.429) from the arc, 15-23 (.652) from the line, while collecting 38 boards, including 13 on the offensive glass, 12 fouls, 12 assists, 10 turnovers, 3 blocks and 3 steals. Michael Worsley led Seaquam with 15 points and 8 boards. Kenny Kuo added 15, Amen Sihota 11 and 8 boards, Rizal Ganeif 10, Ryan Johal 9 and Ryan Webber 4, while Brent Vickery, Jamie Johal, R.J. Base, Devin Franklin, Davie Lai, Serban Cojocaru and Jamie Whalley were scoreless. The Seahawks shot 26-72 (.361) from the floor, 5-17 (.294) from the arc and 5-8 (.625) from the line, while garnering 33 boards, including 17 on the offensive glass, 21 fouls, 89 assists, 8 turnovers and 5 steals. Seaquam led 22-18 at the quarter. White Rock led 40-35 at the half and 59-52 at the three-quarter mark. The Warriors finished (31-3) on the season and won their last 21 straight. Jordan Craig said he was determined to vindicate himself from a poor performance in the 2001 final, in which he went 0-7 from the field, including 0-5 from three-point range in 11 minutes of play. “I thought about that game a lot this week,” Craig, who hit 6-12 from the field, including 3-8 from beyond the arc, told the Vancouver Province. “I don’t think most people get two chances at this. I really had to deal with that this week.” White Rock Christian coach Scott Allen added: “The last two years, he’s had that hanging over his head … that he can’t get it done in the big game. He’s gotten over it. He’s a leader, a true warrior, and he showed that tonight.” Point guard Donald Burton spearheaded an 11-2 drive early in the fourth quarter that turned a tight 59-54 game into a 70-56 blowout. The Seahawks simply went cold in the fourth quarter. They had entered the stanza shooting 38.6 per cent (22-of-57) from the field, but made just 27 per cent (4-of-15) in the final frame. “I can’t even explain how I feel right now,” said Burton. “I’m at a loss for words. We were all thinking about the game two years ago. We dedicate this win to all the guys in the 2001 game.” Allen told Surrey Now that the win erased memories of the 2001 season, in which he’d been suspended for recruiting and the Warriors lost in the title game. “It’s been a couple of years since the suspension happened and it was a hard thing for me to go through. It was such a brilliant team back then and we worked really hard for this to come back and make amends for everything. It’s very satisfying to see how it ended here.” Burton said “it’s been three years. We didn’t forget about 2001, that’s all I was thinking about. We lost then and I didn’t want that feeling again.” Craig added, “This means a lot to me. We were second in 2001 and so to come back here and win is very rewarding. The experience I got then helped me tonight. There’s a lot of tension in a game like this and you have to be able to come out and perform. I thought they (Seaquam) did a very good job but we ended up coming out on top.” Seaquam coach Jeff Stebbings noted “nobody could miss in the first quarter, it was unbelievable. It was exciting just to be part of that.” Craig said “experience is a big thing in this type of game. Four of us have been here before which is a big thing because there’s a lot of tension in the air. You have to have confidence and tonight our experience helped to carry
us through.” Allen said Manuel Gogline and Riley Hogan hit timely shots all tournament. “Those two players — Manuel and Riley — really stepped up to the challenge this year. Riley and Manuel both hit some key shots this week and that really confused some teams. When five guys can score, it’s hard to coach against that.”
The bronze medalist Parksville Ballenas Whalers: Justin Sorenson; Evan Tricky; Dan Taudin-Chabot; Dustin England; Nick Pawliuk; Andrew Barbour; Braden Smith; Seth Koebernick; Dane Hasell; Aubrey Morrow; Tanziel Hudson; James Lee; Nick Pawliuk; Josh Sorenson; Jordan Reid; coach Bill McLatchie
The silver medalist Delta Seaquam Seahawks: Michael Worsley; Kenny Kuo; Amen Sihota; Rizal Ganeif; Jamie Whalley; Ryan Johal; Ryan Webber; Brent Vickery; R.J. Base; Devin Franklin; Ryan Johal; Davie Lai; Serban Cojocaru; coach Jeff Stebbings; assistant Chris Johal; assistant Muchtar Ganief
The gold medalist Surrey White Rock Christian Warriors: Donald Burton; Tyrell Mara; Jordan Craig; Riley Hogan; Manuel Gogolin; Drew Good; Dan Peterson; Rees Cal; Connor Ferguson; Robert Thibault; Devan Thiessen; Riley Hogan; coach Scott Allen