In the opening round: …………………………………………………… The North Delta Huskies defeated the Vancouver Point Grey Greyhounds 63-51 as Jibril Adam scored 21. Reid Martin led the Greyhounds with 17. Robert Wilson added 14. Greyhounds coach David Braun told the Vancouver Sun that playing in the tournament for the first time in 25 years “was a new experience for everyone – the school, our fans and especially the players. Not only is this big in terms of experience for our returning players but for the kids in Grade 8, 9 and 10 this tournament becomes a realistic opportunity. From Vancouver, Kitsilano is very strong as is Lord Byng, hopefully we can add our name.” The Greyhounds also included Acer Huang. …………………………………………………… The Prince George Kelly Road Roadrunners defeated the Maple Ridge Thomas Haney Thunder 75-67 as Joey Farebrother scored 40, including 4 treys. Jordie Fraser added 12. Tyson Neale paced the Thunder with 24. Brandon Schell added 16. The Thunder were playing without star Shane Heuring who was sidelined by an infected knee. “Just sitting there, watching, all I wanted was to just get out there and play so bad,” Heuring told the Vancouver Sun. “I kept asking myself was, `Why me? Why now?’ It’s pretty rough. This was my last chance and the first time we’ve ever made it [to provincials] and I couldn’t play or experience what it would have been like to be on the court.” Thunder coach Mike Shannon said that “without Shane, I mean he’s good for 25-30 points, it was going to be tough and it was. There’s no question it would have been a different story with him in the lineup. He’s been recording double-doubles all year, he’s our key player and everything centres around the kid so … What more can I say.” Schell added that “no one likes to lose this way, but above all else we’re feeling for Shane, it’s got to be tough for the guy. Just think about it, five years of high school basketball then to go down in such a freak way. It’s hard for all of us because we could have done so much better with him. He would have made a difference for sure – what did we lose by, eight points? It definitely would have been a different game.” The Roadrunners led 43-27 at the half. “It’s difficult,” Heuring told the Vancouver Province. “You work so hard to get here and then you’re shut down like this … it’s hard. I think we had a chance of doing well. It’s just tough when you don’t have a lot of height.” …………………………………………………… The New Westminster Hyacks dispatched the Terrace Caledonia Kermodes 76-67 as Herman Dhillon scored 31, Dave Moore 18 and Jeuel Jackson 16. Robert Haugland led the Kermodes with 20. Amri Dhaliwal added 11. The Kermodes also included Sean Dusdal, Sukhjit Dhaliwal, Jason Klein. …………………………………………………… The Abbotsford W.J. Mouat Hawks defeated the Trail J.L. Crowe Hawks 69-60 as Chris Hilderbrand scored 26, Sonny Tatlay 19 and Andrew MacKenzie 17. Paul Naka paced Crowe with 14. Dylan Viau, Brad Ashman and Brian Scotland each added 12. The Hawks also included Sam Boatang.
In the second round: …………………………………………………… The 2nd-seeded Victoria Oak Bay Bays defeated the Surrey Fleetwood Park Dragons 81-72 by neutralizing the Dragons impressive 6-9, 6-8, 6-8 front-line with speed. Senior point guard Anthony Beer rattled the slower Dragons, dishing the ball with aplomb to grade 11 forwards Chris Bailey, who scored 29, and Matt Tanner, who scored 10. “They tried to muzzle Anthony with the box-and-one but he broke through that tactic with maturity,” said Oak co-coach Gary Mols told the Victoria Times-Colonist. Beers finished with 15 points and 11 assists. The Bays press also proved effective. “We pressured the heck out of them,” said Mols. “And we mixed up our presses. It worked because they were not that quick afoot.” Kamil Rylek led the Dragons with 25. The Dragons (coached by Kerry Taylor) also included Hartej Gill, Dan Knezetic, Kelly Truman, Marc Roots, Sean Kelly, Ben Gray, Tyler Kinnear, Harman Bedi. …………………………………………………… The 4th-seeded Saanichton Stelly’s Stingers defeated the Prince George Kelly Road Roadrunners 70-52 as University of Montana-bound Chris McKay scored 19. Point guard Chris Spoor controlled the tempo, while forward Matt Ashmead starred defensively. The Roadrunners (coached by John Taylor) included Joey Farebrother, Jordie Fraser, Lester Greenshields. …………………………………………………… The 5th-seeded Clearbrook MEI Eagles defeated the 12th-seeded Courtenay G.P. Vanier Towhees 73-70 as Justin Neufeld scored 15 and Dusty Werana 15. The Eagles led 44-28 at the half but the Towhees rallied to within 71-70 down the stretch and had the ball in their possession. After a timeout, G.P. Vanier inbounded to guard Justin Kelly just outside the three-point line and he turned his back to the basket and held the ball. The problem for the Towhees was that Kelly kept holding the ball. He didn’t dribble it in the allotted five seconds, and the referees whistled him for a turnover. MEI, of Abbotsford, was fouled after inbounding, and they sank the subsequent two free throws for a 73-70 final. “Justin totally forgot and I totally forgot about the five- second call,” Towhees coach Larry Street told the Vancouver Province. “I’m not even thinking about it then. It’s a great call by the official … a gutsy call. Justin was just about to do his thing.” Neufeld told the Abbotsford News that “we almost choked. We had too many turnovers and we didn’t handle the pressure.” Joel Havilland said “it was a lot closer than it needed to be. Player of the game Joel Haviland led the Eagles with 21. Brandon Ellis led the Towhees with 30 points. Blake Tobacca added 17. Haviland told the Sun “we just weren’t executing in the second half and we got a little sloppy and when they came to within one point it got scary. We didn’t get many shots from the outside; we had to drive the whole time. We let them get back into it and that should never happen. They were pretty determined and we opened the door and barely shut it at the end.” Eagles coach Pete Reimer said the team was still adjusting to Haviland’s return. He’d rejoined the team in January after being suspended for undisclosed reasons. “It probably looks like we’ve had a layoff, like we’re a little rusty. Joel came back in January and we had to start slowly with him, getting used to his play and easing him into the system. But in the last couple of weeks we’ve been playing not bad. He’s a good scorer, obviously; he can score inside and out although his outside shot wasn’t dropping today. He looked a little tentative about going hard to the hoop and he’s got to improve that this week and we’re counting on him for more defence.” Towhees coach Larry Street said the squad was playing for former teammate Nate Da Silva, who died in a car accident a year earlier. “He was an awesome player, he was our Brandon Ellis last year. Losing him was an enormous loss and this year for our guys, he’s always on their minds here. He’s been kind of watching over us all year.” Street added that his troops have “been the Comeback Kids all year. There have been some big games where we’ve been down by eight, or 10 or 12 and have come back to win. I thought wow, this is going to happen again. We had a missed layup that would have put us into the lead, a missed pass, we had opportunities to win.” The Towhees (coached by Street) also included Jayson Shulman. …………………………………………………… The Salmon Arm Gold defeated the Richmond Colts 76-58 as grade 11 guard Casey Archibald scored 37. Jason Birring paced the Colts with 23. Colts coach Bill Drisbow was irate, telling the referees “you don’t play all season to get here and then have it be a football game.” The Colts (coached by Drisbow) also included Jay Lee. …………………………………………………… The Vancouver Lord Byng Grey Ghosts defeated the Abbotsford Yale Lions 86-71 as Andrew Cooke scored 29. Jeff Payne paced the Lions with 19. Mike Ivany added 18 and Luke Lundell 10. The Lions (coached by Al Friesen, assistant Bob Burgess) also included Tyson Klein, Chris Laurie, Tyler Klein. …………………………………………………… The Vancouver Kitsilano Blue Demons defeated the Abbotsford W.J. Mouat Hawks 65-40 as Levon Kendall scored 16 and grabbed 21 boards. The Blue Demons struggled on offence but dominated defensively, while outrebounding the Hawks 46-21. The Blue Demons led 27-17 at the half. Tyler Bowie led the Hawks with 8. Vicky Singh added 8. Chris Hildenbrand told the Abbotsford News that “we know we can win, that what’s so frustrating. Today was their day. They went to the boards hard and that was the difference. They looked good today. They had a lot of fan support and that’s tough to play against.” The Hawks (coached by Rick Ralston) also included Sonny Tatlay, Chris Hildebrand, Nick Schnee, Andrew MacKenzie. …………………………………………………… The North Delta Huskies stunned the 3rd-seeded North Vancouver Handsworth Royals 58-57. “Upset? We don’t regard this as an upset,” Huskies forward Parm Malhi, who scored 6, including a critical trey at the third quarter buzzer, told the Vancouver Sun. “We don’t match up with Handsworth very well in terms of height. But we knew we were a more athletic team and decided from the outset to be very aggressive against them. The idea was to run the ball hard at them, force them into fouls and be very aggressive on the boards. I think we succeeded in all of those areas.” The Royals took a 36-34 lead at the half, primarily by pounding the ball inside to Ryan Lennarduzzi and Pat Sponaski. But then Huskie post Dave Machin went to work, dominating the boards in the second half, while scoring 8. Machin also made the most crucial play of the game – a clean block on Handsworth guard James Hudson’s last-gasp, six-foot jumper shot with two seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Hudson had pulled the Royals back to 56-56 with two free throws with 23.6 seconds remaining. “We knew we had to outrebound them to win and I think we were particularly effective on the defensive boards,” Machin said. “We’re a better team athletically and the only question in our minds was whether we could outrebound them. We were the more aggressive rebounding team and I really think that made the biggest difference.” The Royals actually took the lead at 57-56 with 23.6 seconds to go, when Hudson canned a couple of free throws. North Delta could have packed it in right there and been commended for their effort, but they promptly went down to the other end and got a lay-up from Charles Acompanado with 8.1 seconds showing on the clock. After a timeout, Handsworth got off a half-hearted shot off that was blocked by Machin. “We were surprised that they were sticking with us, because they weren’t supposed to stick with us,” Handsworth guard James Hudson told the Vancouver Province. “But, in the end, they just played better than we did. In the end, it wasn’t the pressure, it wasn’t the stadium, it wasn’t the crowd. It was that they played better than we did.” Handsworth forward Ryan Lenarduzzi added: “We haven’t had many close games this year and we were a little shell-shocked.” The Huskies held the Royals without a field goal for nearly eight minutes in the second half. “Hey, we’re not too bad,” said North Delta coach Tyler Kushnir. “On a given day, I think we can play pretty well with anybody. Our problem has been consistency. Today, it was mostly guts. We didn’t execute our stuff real well, but we played hard and we wouldn’t go away.” “It’s hard to say if there was too much pressure on the kids,” said Handsworth coach Ed Pedersen. They’ve been in pressure situations before [in] the past two years. But there were also a couple of times today when they normally would put balls in the basket and they didn’t.” Jibril Adam and Charles Acompanado led the Huskies with 10 apiece. Ryan Lenarduzzi paced the Royals with 18. Pat Sponaski added 10. Peterson told the Sun “full credit to North Delta – they beat us pretty good on the boards, better than we thought they would. They were able to penetrate the middle and that gave us some problems. We thought maybe they were at an advantage having played yesterday, getting used to the court and the crowds. They did a good job.” Lenarduzzi said “obviously that was an upset – and you never want to be on the end of one of those. We haven’t played a very tough game like that probably all year. You can never say that you underestimated them. We prepared for them as we would any other team. They earned their place here and it showed today.” …………………………………………………… The top-seeded Surrey White Rock Christian Warriors crushed the New Westminster Hyacks 96-47. But the win may have been costly as point guard Zach Hogan rolled his ankle, spending the second half with his foot elevated and being taken to hospital after the match. “I just rolled it going for the layup and I don’t even know if I scored,” Hogan told the Vancouver Sun. Coach David Craig added that a player injury “was my greatest fear. Zach’s ankle looks pretty bad to me. We’re going to have it examined by a doctor later tonight. If he can’t play it will hurt our confidence a little because he’s definitely a major impact player. But I think we have other players who can step in.” Hogan shot 8-13 from the floor, scoring 16 and nabbing 11 boards. The Hyacks were unable to get their offence on track. The Warriors hit .560 from the floor, while the Hyacks hit .240.
In the quarterfinals, the top-seeded Surrey White Rock Christian Academy Warriors defeated the 9th-seeded Vancouver Lord Byng Grey Ghosts 90-54 as Kyle Wilson scored 24, along with 12 assists, Jordan Craig 17 and Sean Stewart 16. The Warriors led 43-30 at the half, but outscored Lord Byng 29-11 in the third quarter to blow the game wide open against the third-place Lower Mainland team. “They’re good … very good,” Grey Ghosts post Anthony Halley, who scored 28, told the Vancouver Province. “We went in believing, but with their depth and talent, we got outclassed.” Warriors coach David Craig told the Vancouver Sun that his troops appear to miss Zach Hogan (who injured in ankle in the second round) early. “In the first quarter we weren’t very confident, not that we were nervous, just a little lack of confidence without Zach. It’s different without him. He’s such a leader and having him in makes a big difference. We shot the ball well enough in the first half to be up 13, but the swagger started to come back after Sean [Stewart] made a couple of layups in the second half.” Wilson said “we struggled a bit at the start to get used to not having Zach, he’s a great player, a very underrated player and we’re just not the same team without him. A lot of our early problems were my fault, I was taking some bad shots and not running the team as well as I should have. A lot of credit should go to Sean. He stepped up big and besides that first quarter, we got the job done.” Andrew Cooke added 13 for the Grey Ghosts. Byng coach Dave Martin said Halley has “been real good for us all year. You might not be able to count on him for 25-30 every game but he played extremely well for us tonight.” Hogan, watching from the sidelines, noted that “I think the guys that don’t usually get the start really stepped it up.” The Grey Ghosts also included Mike Job.
The 6th-seed Clearbrook Mennonite Educational Institute Eagles defeated the unseeded North Delta Huskies 66-62 as Joel Havilland scored 30 and grabbed 11 boards. North Delta took an early 18-11 lead as Jibril Adam and Parm Mahli repeatedly knifed for layups. But the Eagles began working the ball to Havilland in the post in the second quarter and rallied back to within 32-25 at the half. They took command of the boards in the second half. With Havilland rattling the rims with a dunk, MEI cut the lead to 44-40 at the three-quarter mark. Haviland took over the game in the fourth quarter, scoring 11 of his game-high 30 points in that stanza. Havilland drained a jumper with 1:14 to go that gave MEI a 59-56 lead, and then, after North Delta’s Parm Mahli hit a three-pointer to tie it again, Haviland hit a trifecta of his own that put the game away for good. The feisty Huskies seemed to have control of the game going into the final frame. “I know people were favouring North Delta to beat us, and that’s OK, because it helped inspire us,” Eagles guard Justin Neufeld told the Vancouver Province. “People are going to favour Kits tomorrow, and that’s OK, too. We think we have a shot to win the whole thing. That’s been our goal all season and it’s still our goal.” The Eagles double-teamed Adam in the fourth quarter and the Huskies offence soured. MEI took a 57-56 lead with two minutes to play and Havilland drained a long jumper to extend the margin to three. But Adam tied it with a three pointer. Havilland countered with his own three-pointer to put the Eagles ahead for good with 47 seconds to play and then iced it at the line. “We love to be the forgotten team,” said Eagles coach Pete Reimer. “I hate publicity and I avoid you guys [the media] as much as I can. Everybody loves to be the underdog and we will certainly be the underdog tomorrow night. Kits is huge. We’re going to have to pull off a miracle.” Haviland told the Vancouver Sun that “to a certain extent, we were guilty of looking past North Delta and thinking of our next game. That was definitely a mistake. North Delta is a quick team and they play tough. They proved that in the opening round.” Reimer said he switched to a zone defence at the half to contain Adam. “We knew we had to do something to contain him.” Adam noted “I don’t know what to say – we’re just so disappointed about tonight. Especially after our great start against Handsworth. This is pretty tough to take.” The Huskies (coached by Tyler Kushnir) included Charles Acompanado, Parm Mahli, Jabril Adams, Dave Machin, Jeff Payne.
The 4th-seed Saanichton Stelly’s Stingers defeated the 11th-seeded Salmon Arm Gold 89-70 as Chris McKay scored 28, nabbed 13 boards and blocked six shots while dominating the paint. Casey Archibald led the Gold with 22 points. The Stingers, the junior provincial champions from two years ago and Vancouver Island titleholders this season, were up 47-25 at halftime on the Golds and coasted in from there. The Gold (coached by Chris Harrington and Jim Duxbury) also included Alex Moroni, Marty Southworth, Neil Maxemiuk, Cole Goodwin, Ryan McGrew, Russell Johnston.
In the last quarterfinal, the 2nd-seeded Vancouver Kitsilano Blue Demons defeated the 7th-seeded Victoria Oak Bay Bays 74-65 as Chris Porteus scored 24. Oak Bay, the second-place team from Vancouver Island, had a 19-9 lead, but Kits stormed back behind 24 points from swingman Chris Porteous. The Bays (co-coached by Graham Taylor and Gary Mols) included Anthony Beer, Peter Richmond, Chris Bailey, Matt Tanner, Nolan Miles, Liam Farrell.
In the semis, Kyle Wilson led the Surrey White Rock Christian Academy Warriors past a determined Saanichton Stelly’s Stingers 94-78. The Stingers took an early 6-0 lead by pounding the ball low to Chris McKay. Wilson led the charge as White Rock came back, but Stelly’s was able to maintain a lead for most of the first quarter on the perimeter shooting of Matt Ashmead and Matt Paquette. White Rock coach David Craig moved his team into a zone defence to give them a better chance of double-teaming the six-foot-10 McKay, and that began to pay off as the score mounted. McKay had 12 points and seven rebounds in the first quarter, but only two points and one rebound in the second. “They started to crowd him. They knocked down some passes that were going to him,” Stelly’s assistant coach Joe Milligan told the Victoria Times-Colonist. By the half, White Rock had pulled ahead 49-46, focusing on keeping the ball out of McKay’s hands. In the third quarter, White Rock held the momentum, taking the score to 71-60 by the end of the quarter. In the fourth, Stelly’s had to pull McKay for five or six minutes after he had four fouls. The point deficit quickly went from about nine to 20. Stelly’s was able to regain its scoring momentum late in the game, but it was not enough. “We played our game and got beaten. We were beaten by a good team,” said Milligan. He credits Wilson with turning the game around for White Rock. “He went on a tear and broke down our defence,” Milligan said. Despite the defeat, Milligan was very proud of his team’s accomplishment. It is the highest they’ve ever reached in the provincials. “They played with class the whole time,” he said. Wilson finished with 38 points, 18 assists and 5 steals. He scored or assisted on 32 of White Rock Christian’s 34 field goals and had a direct hand in 81 of the team’s 94 points. That’s 86 per cent of White Rock Christian’s output. “When I was doing the game, I was in awe of how he played,” said longtime McNair Marlins coach Paul Eberhardt, who was handling colour commentary Friday for radio station AM 1040. And, the thing is, White Rock Christian is a controversial school, because of the recruiting charges, and I’m sure that there were people in the crowd looking not to like him. But, by the end of the game, they all gave him a standing ovation.”
In the other semi, the Vancouver Kitsilano Blue Demons overcame a strong game by Joel Haviland and the Clearbrook MEI Eagles to prevail 87-67 after taking command over the tiring Eagles in the second half, as Chris Porteous scored 26 and Levon Kendall 19, along with 16 boards. MEI’s Havilland was hot from the perimeter in the evenly-played sloppy first half. But Justin Mensah-Coker hit a pair of long jumpers to give Kitsilano a 15-14 lead after one quarter. Havilland continued firing from the perimeter as MEI moved ahead 33-31 at the half. But Kitsilano came out of the locker room more focused. Mensah-Coker went to work in the paint. David Hanson returned from early foul trouble and Chris Porteous began to find his rhythm as Kitsilano began to assert itself. Havilland kept bombing, though, and the teams traded the lead back and forth. After Justin Neufeld of the Eagles and Porteous traded some clutch shots, the score heading into the fourth was deadlocked at 50-50. Kitsilano opened the final frame with an early 12-2 run as Porteous and Kendall caught fire. They stretched their lead to as many as 15 and romped. Joel Haviland led the Eagles with 25. Justin Neufeld added 11 and Dusty Warawa 9. Kitsilano guard Chris Porteous told the Abbotsford News that “MEI put up a good fight. Joel Haviland hit a few amazing shots. He hit some on me with hand right in his face.” Eagles coach Pete Reimer said “we did a good job for three quarters and five minutes. Then (Porteous) just took over the game. They’re a good team. There’s no shame in losing to them.” Blue Demons coach Simon Dykstra said “it was three quarters of awesome basketball. They had us scouted and stopped our primary offences. We just had some guys get hot down the stretch.”
In the bronze medal match, the Saanichton Stelly’s Stingers defeated the Clearbrook MEI Eagles 68-62 as defensive player of the tournament Chris McKay scored 26. Chris Spoor added 15. “I’m very proud of the boys after Friday’s disappoint loss to White Rock,” Stingers coach Dave Tooby told the Victoria Times-Colonist. “In the White Rock game, the boys felt they had the game within their grasp but they rebounded and fought back in this game.” Nathan Toews led the Eagles with 14. Dusty Werawa added 13, while nabbing 11 boards. The Eagles (coached by Peter Reimer) included Joel Haviland, Justin Neufeld.
In the final, Chris Porteous and David Hanson led the Vancouver Kitsilano Blue Demons to a 94-80 upset over the top-ranked and previously undefeated Surrey White Rock Christian Academy Warriors. The Blue Demons took control of the game right from the opening tip-off. While both teams seemed a bit nervous early, Kitsilano settled down and started running their powerful offence. Porteous caught fire from the perimeter. White Rock star Kyle Wilson was forcing things and couldn’t find his touch. But teammate Sean Stewart kept them in it. But Kitsilano’s defence prevailed. With Porteous gunning from the perimeter and Justin Mensah-Coker clogging up the middle, the Blue Demons led 28-11 at the quarter. Porteous scored six threes in the final. In the second quarter, Kitsilano’s tough defence continued to disrupt White Rock. Wilson started to find his groove, driving and dishing for easy buckets as the Warriors clawed back to within 43-39 at the half. White Rock’s defence stiffened early in the second half but Porteous repeatedly hit long jumpers as Kitsilano maintained its edge. The Blue Demons extended their lead to 66-57 after three quarters. They built the margin to 13 early in the fourth quarter and relentlessly stifled White Rock bids at a rally. Hanson finished with 24 points and grabbed 11 boards, while Chris Porteous scored 26, grabbed six boards, dished three assists, made 2 steals and had 1 block. “Chris was struggling offensively for the first couple of games, but Chris is Chris,” said assistant coach Randy Coutts. “Shooters will shoot the ball and he got into a groove tonight – he was playing with a lot of confidence, displayed a lot of enthusiasm – and when he got the ball, he was hitting his shots. And that’s Chris. He’s a great shooter. …The idea was to keep Kyle (Wilson) on the outside, and every time he got a little penetration, we were going zone against it. So every time he went to the left or the right, we had two guys on him so he couldn’t penetrate. If he was going to do it, he was going to have to do it from the outside.” The defence forced Wilson into eight turnovers. White Rock Christian shot 8-24 from the arc. David Hanson added 24 points and game high 11 boards, while forward Dave Matousek had nine points, six rebounds and five assists. Dykstra noted that “Dave Hanson was outstanding for us. He went to the offensive and defensive boards big time. His nickname is the animal, and he showed why tonight.” The key was teamwork, Dykstra said. “We had these guys at the half and we knew it – we were pissed off we were only up by four. These guys played together and stuck within the team system. We had five guys out on the floor at all times that trusted in our system. It wasn’t a one-man show. It was a team effort. We played our best game of the year on the last night of the season. You can’t ask for anything more as a coach than that.” Warriors coach David Craig said Kitsilano’s height advantage “was a big factor. We knew we had some matchup problems with Hanson because of his strength.” Kyle Wilson led the Warriors with 30 points, 10 boards, 10 assists and 2 steals en route to being chosen tournament MVP. “I wanted this so bad,” Porteous told the Vancouver Province. “We wanted to beat White Rock Christian so bad, to prove that we were the No. 1 team in the province all year and not them. Kyle’s a great player and he’s going to do a great job at university next year. But he’s just one player and one guy can’t beat five guys. We are a team.” The Blue Demons hit .540 from the floor, while the Warriors hit .420. They didn’t wilt when White Rock Christian made their customary charge in the second half. And they didn’t mishandle the basketball, something they certainly had a reputation for doing. Kitsilano averaged just over 20 turnovers through their earlier games at the provincials, but Saturday they only chucked it away 10 times. “This is what I hoped for, this is what I dreamed of,” said Kitsilano coach Simon Dykstra. “This is the best game they’ve played all season. They had to play their best and they did.” Porteous was a major reason. When he wasn’t making plays, he was barking orders, or encouragement, at his teammates. And although he’s a shooting guard by trade, he handled the ball much of the night, and didn’t falter under the pressure. “He was amazing,” said Dykstra. “And he was amazing in the team concept. He didn’t go out on his own.” Wilson ended his high school career with a triple double, with 30 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds. Sean Stewart, a forward, had 27 points and 14 rebounds in the losing cause. Kitsilano shot .500 (10-20) from three-point range after averaging .280 going in. After Kitsilano jumped out to a 28-9 lead, White Rock Christian came storming back and was down only 43-39 at the half. They got it to 52- 50 midway through the third quarter, but a Blue Demons 13-4 run put the game away. “I never really got worried through our first three games,” said Kitsilano centre Levon Kendall. “I had confidence in our team and I had it throughout the year. Sometimes we’d be down or making bonehead plays during the year, but I always trusted in my teammates, always knew that we’d pull it out in the end.” Dykstra told the Vancouver Sun that “we had these guys at the half and we knew it – we were pissed off we were only up by four. The guys played together and stuck within the team system. We had five guys out on the floor at all times that trusted in our system. It wasn’t a one-man show it was a team effort. We played our best game of the year on the last night of the season – you can’t ask for anything more as a coach than that.” Craig said “their height was a big factor – we knew we had some matchup problems with Hanson because of his strength.” Craig had done a masterful job at the helm of Warriors, having assumed the head coaching position after coach Scott Allen was suspended, and his team kicked out of the Fraser League, for recruiting violations. The Warriors were 36-0 heading into the final. “White Rock Christian teams haven’t always been like this,” Pitt Meadows Marauders coach Rich Goulet, told the Vancouver Sun. “This is one of the few teams that I’ve seen that’s been really together. They stuck together through this controversy and I think you have to give a lot of that [credit] to Craig. He did what he had to do. He stopped any infighting. The team is more disciplined than ever. He kept them focused on the team. Whether he did any Xs and Os is secondary.” McNair coach Paul Eberhardt added that “I think he’s done a tremendous job stepping into a tough situation. I just think to step in and have to deal with a No. 1- ranked team and all the egos that come along with it…that has to be the challenging part…the mental side. He had to take a personal beating today [at the meeting], considering his own kid has transferred, but he dealt with it like a man. And people are looking at it like, `Good for you. You’ve inherited this situation and you’ve dealt with it in a classy way.”’
The bronze medalist Saanichtown Stelly’s Stingers: Chris McKay; Chris Spoor; Matt Ashmead; Matt Paquette; Darryl de Leeuw; coach Dave Tooby; assistant Joe Milligan
The silver medalist Surrey White Rock Christian Academy Warriors: Kyle Wilson; Zach Hogan; Sean Stewart; Jordan Craig; Rorrie Cal; Sam Emerson; Donald Burton; Ryan Sawatzky; coach David Craig
The gold medalist Vancouver Kitsilano Blue Demons: Justin Mensah-Coker, Chris Porteous, Levon Kendall, Jackson Todd, Miles Bridge, David Hanson; Dave Matousek; Jeremy Alexander; Eric Wilson; James Whyte; Brendan McEwen; Tom Beetlestone; Lucas Tishaw; London Sam-Baergen; coach Simon Dykstra; assistant Randy Coutts