In the opening round: …………………………………………………… The Surrey Fleetwood Park Dragons nipped the Vancouver Kitsilano Blue Demons 65-64. The Dragons led 23-17 after one quarter. The Blue Demons led 33-32 at the half. The Dragons led 51-46 after three quarters. Guard Harp Grewal was delighted to be able to play. The Dragons captain had been forced to sit out his entire Grade 11 season after suffering a hernia, but was back in control when it mattered in 2011. With the Dragons locked in a 64-64 tie with the Blue Demons, and 22 seconds remaining in the game, Grewal drew a foul with 4.5 seconds left and hit one of two free throws give the Dragons the win. “We’re the underdogs here,” said Grewal. “No one even knows we’re here. But we were prepared and we were confident.” The Dragons came storming out of the gates, keeping the Blue Demons off balance with the incredible three-point shooting of senior forward Avi Grewal. When he hit a trey from the baseline corner, Fleetwood was leading 23-17, and when he hit another, fading away from the top of the arc with two minutes gone in the second quarter, the Dragons led 29-20. But the Blue Demons began to get the ball inside to big men Luka Zaharijevic and Kirby Johnston and chipped away at the lead. Edvin Malushaga hit back-to-back jumper, setting the stage for a Paulius Makulavicius fadeaway jumper. “Bottom line is we came out and played really flat in the first quarter,” said Kitsilano coach Randy Coutts. “We weren’t fighting through screens and we gave no open looks and that built a pretty good lead for them. We didn’t step up. The game plan was to get the ball inside and use our bigs and we failed to do that. The plan was to keep dumping it inside and we turned the ball over at crucial times in the game. It came down to a one-point game and we have a chance to win it, but we shouldn’t have been in that situation to begin with.” Dragons coach Mike Sweeney said “we shot the ball well in the first half and we talked about being scrappy with loose balls in the second. In the second half, we put it on our point guard (Grewal) and that’s what he has done for us all year.” Avi Grewal paced the Dragons with 22. Manny Sahota added 13, along with 16 boards, Harp Grewal 13, Ashtin Singh 9, Eldred Gomez 5 and Greg Rodgers 3, while Cole Shapitka, Robby Randhawa, Nathan Saran, Gavin Saran, Travis Lukey, Ryan Berar, Kanwal Sahota and Karamveer Virdi were scoreless. Paulius Makulavicius paced the Blue Demons with 20. David Burton added 11, Luka Zaharijevic 10, along with 14 boards, Edvin Malushaga 9, along with 10 boards, Kirby Johnston 6, along with 11 boards, Bryan Lopez 5 and Stewan Annan 4, while Cole Ingram, Varoon Mathur, Tim Chiang, Noah De Rappard, Alex Vidic, Andrew Cassie and Dawson Perron were scoreless. …………………………………………………… The Coquitlam Gleneagle Talons whipped the Prince George Polars 73-35 after leading 21-7, 37-16 and 51-25 at the quarters. “The fortunate thing for us is that this game afforded us the chance to get acclimatized to this gym,” said Gleneagle coach Tony Scott. “It was nice to get in here one full day ahead of the big dogs.” Point guard Zach Usherwood’s chemistry with fellow starters like Brandon Arce, Turell Scott and Alex Klocek improved over the season. “We struggled a bit in the beginning of the season,” said Scott. “But over the last month we have really started believing and finding ways to be successful. We’ve always played tough defence but now we are understanding tempo, who our go-to guys are, and we’re staying patient.” Rookie Polars coach Cory Antrim said his troops were “in awe and I know they’re nervous and things like that. That’s fine. It’s the experience, right. … I hear it afterwards from so many kids, whether it’s been Double A provincials or Triple A, they regret being as scared and intimidated as they were. They realize the [other] kids are just like anybody else, the ball’s the same size, the court’s the same size. They sort of kick themselves after.” Grade 10 guard Nick Novak said “it’s tough. We just want to come out here and have fun and play basketball,” said Polars’ Grade 10 guard Nick Novak. “But it’s pretty tough [that record, 11-46 in 22 appearances at the provincials] once you think about it.” The Polars fate was compounded a week before the tournament when starting 6-3 post and captain Brennyn Gray fractured his ankle trying to help someone push a car out of deep snow. “It hurt our rebounding and our toughness,” said Antrim, who added that just playing the game is a financial challenge for the Polars. “Basically, the kids pay for everything. We got $450 from our school and $450 from our school district, but besides that it’s all self-funded.” He says it’ll cost each of his players $500 to $600 to spend the week in a Langley motel. “Each kid in the end,” he says, “will probably pay $2,000 to play basketball this year.” Said Novak: “It was an expensive year.” Antrim says that to coach in the north these days you have to be business savvy and very creative. He worries that hoops will become “an elitist sport. “If I was a kid nowadays, I wouldn’t be able to play because I didn’t have money growing up.” Zach Usherwood paced the Talons with 14. Josh Langhans added 12, Alex Klocek 12, along with 10 boards, Arash Mohammadi 10, Brandon Arce 10, Scott Turell 5, Justin Barr 4 and Steve Haer 2, while Artem Zaporozhets, Brenden Yee, Ardy Hossein-Pour, Dennis Kim, Jeffri Agibi and Kevin Kim were scoreless. Josh LeTendre paced the Polars, with 9 points and 10 boards. Ryan Gill scored 8, Sager Sandhu 8 and Lucky Johal 3, while Karn Kandola, Anritpal Bhathal, Nick Novak, Chad Leslie, Brennyn Gray and Tysen Plain were scoreless. …………………………………………………… The Pitt Meadows Marauders clubbed the Terrace Caledonia Kermodes 63-34 after leading 18-4, 35-13 and 53-25 at the quarters. “Kudos to any team that comes in here and feels good right away,” said Pitt Meadows coach Rich Goulet. “They’re probably going to win the championships.” The Marauders hit 1-12 early but eventually found their touch. “Every team is going to go through that unless they are absolutely cold, don’t have any feelings, are totally unemotional,” said Toulet. The Marauders held Caledonia’s 6-8 Grade 11 standout Kenneth Monture to .273 from the floor. Pitt was +16 in turnovers, dominated the offensive boards and outscored Caledonia 26-2 in points off turnovers. Malcolm Williams paced the Marauders with 20. Erwin Van Ramshorst added 17, Trevor Severinski 10, along with 13 boards, Matthew Blackaby 9, Mitsu Iwai 3, Ryo Mishimura 2 and Evan Wendt 2, while Luke Gillespie, Mitchell Hole, Matthew Arter, Brett Reddeman, Brandon Severinski, Ryan Hopson, Brett Snowball and Sebiston Marshall were scoreless. Kenneth Monture paced the Kermodes with 16. Deklan Corstanje added 6, Aaron Anderson 4, Justin Klein 3, Joshua Mackay 3 and Reegin Maki 2, while Aidan Klein, Anthony Scodaine, Marcus MacKay, Jeremy Sankey, Chris Rzeczycki, Kevin Brown, Chad Dennis and Ethan Anderson were scoreless. …………………………………………………… The Surrey Tamanawis Wildcats smacked the Cranbrook Mount Baker Wild 71-41 after leading 8-7, 25-16 and 54-31 at the quarters. “We’re pretty happy about our victory,” said Wildcats forward Gagan Sahota. But we can do way more than this. We wanted to set the tone early because of all of the discussion has been about Palmer, Burnaby South and Kelowna. We know that earlier in the season we were in the discussion but we had some injuries and some tough losses. But we want the rest of the province to know is that we’re still here.” The Wildcats sweated through a tough first half. Coach Surinder Grewal said “it was pretty scary with that single-digit halftime score. There are no easy games at provincials so I am happy with the way the guys responded in the second half.” Gagan Sahota paced the Wildcats with 20. Navjot Bains added 15, along with 13 boards, Ravjot Dhaliwal 14, Shivi Viria 6, Humza Kiani 5, Manjodh Dulay 4, Satvir Sahota 3, Charanvir Sanghera 2 and Sukhjot Bains 1, while Faraz Chattha, Sim Mann, Sehaj Thind, Bhavanjit Johal, Noah Mursal and Karn Cheema were scoreless. Scott Watmough paced the Wild with 25 points and 17 boards. James Stechly added 6, Chris Rushworth 5, Eddie Petryshen 4 and Tyler Lussier 1, while Mike Hamm, Andrew Lamb, Andrew Macdonald and Luke Baxter were scoreless.
In the second round: …………………………………………………… The 2nd-seeded Richmond R.C. Palmer Griffins (Lower Mainland-1) dumped the Surrey Tamanawis Wildcats 62-44 after leading 18-9, 27-18 and 47-32 at the quarters. Ranjodh Hare is “a rebounding machine,” Palmer coach Paul Eberhardt said. All year long he’s done that for us. He’s the heart of our team — rebounding, defence, hitting the floor, taking charges. He never gives up on a ball.” Hare says he often gives up inches to opposing players, “so I can’t overpower them, I just have to outwork them. It’s that way for the whole team. We’re not a big team, but we’ve been together for five years and we know we have to outwork and out-quick other teams.” Ranjodh Hare played all but 53 seconds of the 40-minute contest, and he was a defensive presence that can’t be measured by the fact that he finished with just two blocked shots. “I think because I know I can’t foul out of games, I don’t go for blocks,” said Hare. “I take charges and just hard work. I don’t worry about the score. I just get after them and keep working hard.” Added Palmer head coach Paul Eberhardt: “Ranjodh doesn’t always get notice, but he does all the little things well. I’m not sure how many rebounds he had, but he never gives up the ball.” Hare said “rebounds is the one thing I look at before even scoring because it is a symbol of how hard you are working in the game.” The Wildcats did a good job of shutting down the Griffins transition game but Palmer showed it could play in the half court. “It was tough because we hadn’t played in a while, and Tamanawis has a very good team,” said Palmer coach Paul Eberhardt. “I knew we had to defensive rebound and we did, but we couldn’t hit anything.” As Eberhardt stressed, the key was that Tamanawis also went through an extended offensive drought. “In the last two minutes of the first quarter and the rest of the second, we only scored 10 points,” said Eberhardt. “But they only scored nine.” Wildcats coach Surinder Grewal said “we played pretty horrible against Palmer, we didn’t play our game at all. It was probably just nerves. I think guys started to focus a little too much on that game and the pressure just kind of took over. Palmer is a small, quick team and while they didn’t shoot particularly well either (24 of 76), they capitalized on our turnovers.” Vijay Dhillon paced the Griffins with 19. Ranjodh Hare added 17, along with 18 boards, Billy Cheng 14, Mike Zayas 6, Maziar Arjmandi 3, Jamie Madewan 2 and J.P. Javier 1, while Chris Randing, Ben Samy, Daniel Tait, Joey Dhillon, Timmie Choi, Jacky Lee, Kevin Luong, Harmed Amiri and Tyler Debeer were scoreless. Manjodh Dulay paced the Wildcats with 13. Navjot Bains added 9, along with 17 boards, Satvir Sahota 8, Gagan Sahota 6, Ravjot Dhaliwal 6, along with 10 boards, and Humza Kiani 2 while Faraz Chattha, Shivi Viria, Sim Mann, Sehaj Thind, Bhavanjit Johal, Noah Mursal, Charanvir Sanghera, Kam Cheema and Sukhjot Bains were scoreless. …………………………………………………… The Port Moody Heritage Woods Kodiaks (Fraser Valley-3) edged the North Vancouver Argyle Pipers 60-57 after leading 16-5, 29-26 and 49-42 at the quarters. The Kodiaks shoot the ball poorly (27%) but took care of it (plus-12 vs. Argyle) and outscored the Howe Sound champions 20-5 in second-chance points. The took a 17-5 lead in the second quarter but Argyle kept mounting runs, while Heritage Woods fought foul trouble to its two bigs: 6-7 Taylor Heinrichs and 6-5 Mitch Ligertwood. The defensive play of the Kodiaks’ bench, though, and the efforts of point guard Liam Viippola and small forward Moahammad Dadfar proved the difference. “We really had to work hard for this,” said 5-8 Viippola, who consistently set the tone on defence with efforts to not only stop the ball, but steal it. “The entire last week of practice was about being able to try and stop their three bigs.” The Kodiaks did just enough of that, although forward Cole Faminoff was outstanding on both ends of the floor. A Kealan Wild layup with 2:10 remaining pulled Argyle to within a pair at 55-53. Heinrichs restored the four-point cushion off a great feed from Alex Thong with 1:42 remaining, but then fouled out of the game with 1:26 left. Faminoff scored in transition off a perfect touch pass from guard Jon Neves with 1:07 left to make it 57-55. Ligertwood then made the biggest play of the game, grabbing an offensive rebound with 36.7 seconds remaining to keep the ball with the Kodiaks. From there, Dadfar made one of two free throws to make it a three-point game with 16.7 seconds left. Argyle’s Wes Dekleer, fouled by Ligertwood, hit two free throws, but in the process, the Kodiaks got the ball back down by one with 6.2 seconds left. Dadfar hit two more free throws to make it 60-57 with 4.9 seconds remaining, and Argyle’s Dekleer courageously stepped up and front-rimmed a three-point attempt at the buzzer. Kodiaks coach Chris Martin praised his team and the when asked about Viippola’s play, replied: “I may be biased, but I think he is one of the best defenders in the province. He has really come to form this year. He just wears guys down.” Taylor Heinrichs paced the Kodiaks with 16. Mohammad Dadfar added 13, Mitchell Ligertwood 9, Alex Thong 9, Brandon Lau 5, Greg Sheffer 4 and Liam Viippola 4, while Tamer Gasmalla, Lucas Reis, Felix Tang, Sebastian Hernandez and Adam Gaudet were scoreless. Cole Faminoff paced the Pipers with 18. Kevin Leask added 13, along with 11 boards, Wes Dekleer 9, Kealan Wild 6, Nik Ottenbreit 6, Matt Wright 3 and Jon Neves 2, while Josh Whang, Tom Walter, Daniel Vandervelden, Blake Wyman, Anthony Vancise and Will Sadler were scoreless. …………………………………………………… The Pitt Meadows Marauders upset the Nanaimo Dover Bay Dolphins 65-52. The Marauders led 16-12 after one quarter. The Dolphins led 28-27 at the half. The Marauders led 42-40 after three quarters. Malcolm Williams found his way around a T-and-One junk defence which featured three baseline defenders and another situated just above, with one player assigned to shadow Williams wherever he went on the floor. “They thought he was the only guy that could score for us, and up until that time they were right,” said Pitt Meadows coach Rich Goulet before Trevor Severinski drained a pair of late second-half treys to give the Marauders the cushion they needed. “So we had to find someone else who could score and Trevor, he can shoot the three. I have a feeling they didn’t know he could do that.” Malcolm Williams paced the Marauders with 23. Trevor Severinski added 12, Matthew Blackaby 12, Mitsu Iwai 7, Luke Gillespie 3, Erwin Van Ramshorst 2, Brandon Severinski 2 and Ryan Hopson 2, while Mitchell Hole, Ryo Nishimura, Matthew Arter, Brett Reddeman, Brett Snowball, Evan Wendt and Jordan rich were scoreless. Jon Bethell and Jason McKee each scored 15 to pace the Dolphins. Seme Raheb added 9, Matt Billman 6, Eric Kuzminski 4 and Rory Bell 3, while Brandon Kumar, Ian Christison, Felipe Campos, Chris Erickson and Billet Connor were scoreless. …………………………………………………… The Port Coquitlam Terry Fox Ravens dispatched the Vancouver Sir Charles Tupper Tigers 69-51 after leading 15-7, 29-26 and 46-45 at the quarters. Clinging to a 46-45 lead after the third quarter, the Ravens exploded over the final 10 minutes, finishing on a game-closing 23-6 run. “We wore them out and that is what coach wants us to do, that is what we have done to teams all year,” said Ravens’ senior point guard Bret Macdonald, who the catalyst in enabling Terry Fox to get into its transition game, while 6-foot-6 Grade 11 forward Ryan Sclater did a great job in helping to limit the touches and final tally of Tupper’s 7-0 Grade 11 centre Cameron Smythe. “Right now, we’re just happy to still be playing and finding a way to get to Friday night,” said Terry Fox head coach Rich Chambers. “Ryan and Bret really stepped up today,” with star forward Warren Liang suffering from the flu. “It was unfortunate Warren was sick,” said Chambers. “He was maybe 30 per cent.” Added Tupper head coach Jeff Gourley: “It’s questionable whether he should have been allowed to play, but as a senior in the most important game of his life, you’re going to tell him he can’t play? I can’t get over how well he played based on how sick he was. But it literally broke his heart when we took all five starters off the floor.” Ryan Sclater paced the Ravens with 18. Bret MacDonald added 16, Scott Hind 14, Matt Trimble 13, Tanner Moss 3, Tyrel Ratich 3 and Jesse Crookes 2, while Daniel Collins, Emeka Adindu, Hallo Palani, Aaron Roberts, Dalton Dewsbury, Trevor Casey, Matt Jeffers, Kaleb Gebrewold and Alex Nesterenko were scoreless. Cameron Smythe paced the Tigers with 14 points and 15 boards. Warren Liang scored 14, J.J. Inclan 9, Daryl Agbunag 7, Eric Chau 4, Daniel Kim 3 and Gabriel Corpuz 1, while Arty Dimatulac, Patrick Liu, Dominik Balino, Garrett Wong, Rajb Bellesa, Skyler Bagyan, Daniel Aurea and Kevin De Vera were scoreless. …………………………………………………… The 5th-seeded Kelowna Owls (Okanagan-1) clipped the Coquitlam Gleneagle Talons 46-30. The Owls led 12-3 after one quarter. The score was knotted at 19 at the half. The Owls led 29-25 at the half. Owls coach Harry Parmar said “we missed a lot of layups. But we played defence. … We had 18 turnovers in the first half. And they didn’t press. So hopefully we got it out (of our systems). We got the first one out of the way, and now hopefully we can get rolling.” Mitchell Goodwin paced the Owls with 12. Braxston Bunce added 9, Charlie Lewthwaite 7, Tanner Leimert 7, Deboe Truss 6, Dylan Holleymeyer 3 and Ross Ciancio 2, while Taylor Loffler, Luke Hennig, Austin Axenty, T.K. Raiva and Nevin Knezevic were scoreless. Scott Turell and Zach Usherwood each scored 9 to pace the Talons. Alex Klocek added 7, Brandon Arce 3 and Justin Brar 2, while Artem Zaporozhets, Josh Langhans, Arash Mohammadi, Steven Haer, Brenden Yee, Ardy Hossein-Pour, Dennis Kim, Jeffri Agibi and Kevin Kim were scoreless. …………………………………………………… The 4th-seeded Vancouver College Fighting Irish dumped the Langley Walnut Grove Gators 76-62. Walnut Grove led 20-15 after one quarter and 34-29 at the half. Vancouver College led 58-43 after three quarters. Trailing 34-29 at the break, Vancouver College rediscovered itself in the second, its aggressive mindset coming to the fore down the stretch drive as the Irish finished the game with a 36-to-7 advantage in free throw trips, including 10-11 by guard Isiah Solomon. “We had nerves, but we regrouped at halftime,” said Irish forward Vince Tolentino. “We had no film of them, no nothing. But it was a good first game. At least we got the feel of the new floor.” Irish coach Bill Drisbow said “we came out tight, and you could see it and they are good. We are definitely challenged, but these guys like each other. They’re not selfish.” Drisbow said his troops knew nothing about the Gators. “I called a couple of guys. Nobody seemed to know. But we were not moving on offence. We were standing around a lot. We didn’t know who their best players were. But we came in here having had our best week of practice this season.” Walnut Grove coach George Bergen said “we didn’t handle the pressure very well. Although the first half was impressive, we had 17 turnovers. That speaks volumes about not being able to handle it. And it keeps wearing you down.” The Gators committed 28 turnovers, leading to 21 Irish points. Isiah Solomon paced the Fighting Irish with 21. Reiner Theil added 17, Cole Penman 11, Vincent Tolentino 10, along with 18 boards, Erickson Evangelista 10 and Adam Konar 7, while Brenton Wong, Scott Lum-Tong, Tony Kang, Justin Sanvido, Abu Khan, Allan Rudzki and J.C. Horton were scoreless. Larry Blyth paced the Gators, coached by George Bergen, with 23 points and 17 boards. Jack Tsai added 10, Paul Getz 10, Andrew Dixon 6, Derek Muxworthy 6, Sean Monsanto 4, Brendan Ramm 2 and Ethan McKean 1, while Charles Luu, John Boss, Cole Parker, Braeden Donnelly, Mike Elliott and Brad Hoffman were scoreless. …………………………………………………… The Abbotsford W.J. Mouat Hawks (Fraser Valley-1) edged the Surrey Fleetwood Park Dragons 57-52. The Dragons led 19-18 after one quarter. The Hawks led 28-27 at the half and 39-35 after three quarters. The Hawks got clutch play down the stretch drive and an enormous second half from senior guard Gurminder Kang. “It’s been a long year for us and we had a goal set that we knew we’d have to take our lumps for,” said Mouat coach Sean Beasley. “We did a lot of experimenting and when Cam (Friesen) went down, we had to find a different way to play.” Kang took command in the second half. Ashtin Singh’s three-pointer with 4:35 left in the game pulled Fleetwood Park to within 45-42. But Sunny Johal’s layup with 2:59 left put Mouat on top 50-43 after the Dragons missed three free throws and a layup off a Harp Grewal steal. Avi Grewal’s trey with 2:01 left made it 50-46, but Hawks’ guard Josh Beasley drew contact with 1:42 and although he missed them both, Johal rebounded the second miss and put it back for a 52-46 lead. Harp Grewal’s driving left-handed layup with 40 seconds left made it 52-48, but Grewal, who drew contact on the play, failed to complete the three-point play from the free throw line. Kang then knocked down a pair of free throws with 37 seconds left to make it a two-possession game at 54-48. “We knew it was going to be a little bit of a jittery start,” Hawks coach Sean Beasley said. “We kind of worked out some kinks in the first half, and I thought we adjusted pretty well in the second.” The Hawks clearly missed Jesse Coy in the early going against Fleetwood – the sharpshooting Grade 11 guard has been sick in bed the past three days, and Beasley elected not to use him until the fourth quarter. “It was tough playing without him, but I thought we’d rest him as much as we possibly could,” Beasley said. “Beating Kits was huge for us because moving up to the main draw was a big deal,” said Dragons coach Nick Day. “Then we only lost by four points to Mouat in our next game, which was also big because we were missing two starters. Even without those guys we gave Mouat a really good run. We controlled the tempo for the most part and almost pulled off the upset.” Gurminder Kang paced the Hawks with 25 points and 11 boards. Sunvir Johal added 17 points and 15 boards. Jamin Lockert scored 7, Josh Beasley 5, Tanner Hamade 2 and Desmond Bassi 1, while Zak Loewen, Cam Friesen, Jimmy Gill, Nick Howden, Kolton Goodbrand-Braun, Jesse Coy, David Park, Mack Thompson and Luke Friesen were scoreless. Avi Grewal paced the Dragons with 17. Harp Grewal added 12, Eldred Gomez 8, along with 16 boards, Ashtin Singh 6, Manna Sahota 6 and Gavin Saran 3, while Cole Shapitka, Robby Randhawa, Nathan Sarn, Greg Rodgers, Travis Lukey, Ryan Berar, Kanwal Sahota and Karamveer Virdi were scoreless. …………………………………………………… The top-seeded Burnaby South Secondary Rebels defeated the Victoria Oak Bay Bays 78-72. Oak Bay led 21-18, 38-37 and 61-57 at the quarters. Burnaby South head coach Greg Matic had predicted a first round upset. It was almost his Rebels. In fact, it wasn’t until South point guard Ater Degal, who had shot 2-7, stepped up to the free throw line and knocked down both of his shots from the charity stripe for a four-point lead with 20 seconds left that Matic felt comfortable. “I said ‘Oh my God. We struggled. … We hadn’t played them, and we couldn’t get any information on them. We had heard about a couple of their guys and we saw the shootaround last night, but we couldn’t tell anything. … I thought we were going to make a push in the second half. But same old, same old. Nick (Irvine, 9 points, 16 rebounds) played great, Danny (Edwards) played one of his most dominant games he played all year, and the young kid Manroop, he plays with ice in his veins.” Manroop Clair said “we should have beaten them by about 20. They had more intensity than us from the get-go.” Oak Bay, led by guards Evan Woodson and Drake Downer, took repeated advantage of sloppy South defending to hold period leads into the fourth quarter. The Bays made it plain they meant business, raining four treys in the opening quarter. The two teams traded baskets, swapping the lead back-and-forth until Woodson and Downer pulled the Bays ahead in the final minutes of the period. In the fourth quarter, it was up to Clair, and the 16-year-old made good, answering a Woodson three-pointer with a bomb of his own late in the game as South outscored the Bays 21-11 down the stretch. Matic said “sometimes that first one is the hardest. I told (the boys) we wouldn’t get an opportunity to win if we lose this one.” Oak Bay made a game of it on the strength of 10 three-pointers on 34 per cent shooting from beyond the arc. The Bays also outscored South off the bench 30-2. Manroop Clair paced the Rebels with 28. Daniel Edwards added 20, along with 12 boards, Ater Degal 18, Nick Irvin 9, along with 16 boards, Quentin Nugayen 2 and Jok Malek 1, while Mukhraj Dosanjh, JoJo Kibangula, Lazar Duk, George Kovac, Thomas Schmidt, Gino Pagbilao and Nick Garcha were scoreless. Drake Downer paced the Bays with 22 points and 10 boards. Evan Woodson added 22, Max Campbell 10, Kazutoki Kobayashi 8, Matthew Hampton 7, Liam Butler 1 and Crosby Stewart 1, while Muhammed Aref, Stephen Grdic, Tavish Budgeon, Alex Swiatlowski, Charles Gudgeon and Luke Campbell were scoreless.
In the quarterfinals, the 2nd-seeded Richmond R.C. Palmer Griffins eliminated the Port Moody Heritage Woods Kodiaks 71-63 after leading 21-13, 38-34 and 59-50 at the quarters. “We got off to such a great start,” said Palmer coach Paul Eberhardt, whose team led 36-19, but then fell victim to a 15-2 half-closing run to lead 38-34 at the break. Palmer put another run together in the second half, but the Kodiaks rallied within 66-64 before the Griffins iced it at the line. Griffins forward Mike Zayas said “we want to stay humble. Momentum feels good. We had a good draw coming in, but we have to deliver and I think pressure is good. I think pressure helps keeps us on top.” Vijay Dhillon paced the Griffins with 21. Mike Zayas added 18, Ranjodh Hare 11, along with 11 boards, Jamie Madewan 9, Billy Cheng 9 and Maziar Arjmandi 3, while J.P. Javier, Chris Randing, Ben Samy, Daniel Tait, Joey Dhillon, Timmie Choi, Jacky Lee, Kevin Luong, Harmed Amiri and Tyler Debeer were scoreless. Mitchell Ligertwood paced the Kodiaks with 18 points and 15 boards. Taylor Heinrichs scored 15, Mohammad Dadfar 13, Lian Viippola 7, Alex Thong 5 and Brandon Lau 5, while Tamer Gasmalla, Lucas Reis, Felix Tang, Sebastian Hernandez, Greg Sheffer and Adam Gaudet were scoreless.
The Port Coquitlam Terry Fox Ravens whipped the Pitt Meadows Marauders 74-54. Terry Fox led 15-14 after one quarter. Pitt Meadows led 38-34 at the half and 49-46 after three quarters. Bret Macdonald was teased by the Ravens fans for having put his shorts on backward. He responded by dominating the floor. A night earlier, he’d put them on backwards and the result was an easy win, so he opted to do it again. “Yesterday, I put them on backwards and we got the win. So, I decided that we’re going to keep them on backwards. I heard our Goon Squad yelling at me and I looked down and said ‘Dang, you got me.’ I gave them the thumbs up, and they’re going on backwards for the next two games.” When Macdonald knocked down a trey 53 seconds into the fourth quarter, he tied the score at 49-49. From that point on, the Ravens closed the game on a 25-5 run. “I wanted so badly to win, but’s it’s hard to beat a good team three times in the same season,” said Macdonald. The Marauders had come out strong in the opening half, building a 25-18 lead in the second quarter, fuelled by the three-point shooting prowess of Trevor Severinski, who knocked down five treys. But Marauders Luke Gillespie, Mitsu Iwai and Ryan Hopson all fouled out of the game down the stretch drive of the contest, and Pitt Meadows head coach Rich Goulet expressed his displeasure with the officiating. “We were playing two teams. We were playing against Fox and we were playing (against) the referees. And you can quote me.” Ravens’ head coach Rich Chambers felt his team was able to exert its will over Pitt in the fourth quarter. “For some reason this season, we match up well against Pitt Meadows. But they had to play on Tuesday, and then they wore down (Vancouver Island champion) Dover Bay (on Wednesday evening). I think their legs were tired.” Scott Hind, Bret MacDonald and Matt Trimble combined for 24 of the Raven’s 28 points in the fourth quarter and were key to a critical 23-3 run over the final eight minutes. “Rich [Chambers, Fox’s longtime head coach] challenged the seniors to step up and play,” said Mike Hind, Scott’s dad and a Ravens assistant. “Bret, Scotty and Matt all had big fourth quarters. And we do tend to wear some teams down at times. “It’s really special to see them growing up from little guys … grow up to be good young men and playing a game they love. It’s been a long journey, two more games to go, but it’s been a lot of fun.” Bret MacDonald said “we worked five, six months for this and that’s so motivating. You put all that work in -two, three hours a day -and you’re not going to lose, you’re not going to give up. … We were coached well, too (by Mike Hind, while growing up). We just had fun. He taught us all the fundamentals. And we’re having a heck of time here, too. … Scott and I have an unbelievable connection. We just always know what each other is doing, where each other is going to be. It’s awesome because it looks great and everything. And Trimble is, I don’t know, the guy’s a beast out there. Like wow. He’s only six-two but he wears out any other big men.” Hind says the Ravens turned up the intensity in the fourth quarter and “teams struggle to score points against us when we’re clicking defensively.” Bret MacDonald paced the Ravens with 25. Scott Hind added 22, Matt Trimble 7, Trevor Casey 6, Tanner Moss 5, Ryan Sclater 4, Tyrel Ratich 4 and Dalton Dewsbury 1, while Daniel Collins, Jesse Crookes, Emeka Adindu, Hallo Palani, Aaron Roberts, Matt Jeffers, Kaleb Gebrewold and Alex Nesterenko were scoreless. Trevor Severinski and Matthew Blackaby each scored 15 to pace the Marauders. Malcolm Williams added 12, Luke Gillespie 5, Erwin Van Ramshorst 5 and Brandon Severinski 2, while Mitchell Hole, Ryo Mishimura, Matthew Arter, Mitsu Iwai, Brett Reddeman, Ryan Hopson, Brett Snowball, Evan Wendt and Jordan Rich were scoreless.
The 4th-seeded Vancouver College Fighting Irish crushed the 5th-seeded Kelowna Owls 82-65. Kelowna led 21-19 after one quarter and 42-34 at the half. Vancouver College led 60-57 after three quarters. The Irish shot out the second-half lights at the Langley Events Centre, raining down the three-ball to erase an eight-point halftime deficit and win going away. “It hasn’t been our strong suit this year but if we didn’t shoot like that, we wouldn’t have won the game,” said Vancouver College coach Lloyd Scrubb. Reiner Theil “He stepped up,” said Scrubb. Theil did a great job when senior post Vince Toletino was forced to the bench with four fouls with 1:01 remaining in the third quarter. “He was tough on the boards, he started our fast break, he hit outside shots, and he plays inside. He’s had his struggles this season but he’s coming together when it counts.” The play that defined Theil’s evening came with 8:38 remaining in the contest. The Irish grabbed three offensive rebounds on one series, including the capper by Theil that he put back against Kelowna’s 6-foot-11 Grade 11 post Braxton Bunce for a 65-57 lead. The overall balance for the Irish from distance was what was most outstanding. Five players scored in double figures and five players nailed treys. Kelowna coach Harry Parmar said inexperience undid his Owls. “None of our guys had been there before, so they maybe weren’t ready for the atmosphere and everything that goes with it. It’s a learning process knowing how to play at the provincials, at that level, and how to stay composed when things get tough. We weren’t really able to do that, and when you have a single-knockout event, you don’t get second chances. … We hadn’t been down in too many games this year and when we got down in this one, we didn’t respond well. We didn’t have the leadership we needed and that starts from the coach. In those situations, some people step up and some get tight. We rushed things too much instead of trusting what we’ve been able to do all year. It’s a learning process.” Reiner Thiel paced the Fighting Irish with 21 points and 15 boards. Cole Penman scored 21, Adam Konar 15, Isiah Solomon 10, Vincent Tolentino 7, Erickson Evangelista 6 and Justin Sanvido 2, while Brenton Wong, Scott Lum-Tong, Tony Kang, Abu Khan, Allan Rudzki and J.C. Horton were scoreless. Mitchell Goodwin paced the Owls with 24. Braxston Bunce added 15, Charlie Lewthwaite 9, Deboe Truss 8, Tanner Leimert 7 and Luke Hennig 2, while Dylan Holleymeyer, Taylor Loffler, Ross Ciancio, Austin Axenty, T.K. Raiva and Nevin Knezevic were scoreless.
In the last quarterfinal, the Abbotsford W.J. Mouat Hawks dispatched the top-ranked Burnaby South Secondary Rebels 75-68 after leading 20-7, 35-21 and 47-39 at the quarters. The Hawks built up a 33-14 lead in the first half and then held on for the win. “I guess we’re supposed to feel like a Cinderella,” said Mouat coach Sean Beasley. “But we know what capable of. Apparently, we’re not expected to win these games, but we just keep going along one at a time.” With five minutes left in the fourth quarter, Hawks coach Sean Beasley called a timeout after his son Josh, Mouat’s starting point guard, launched an ill-advised shot. Most of the Hawks’ 19-point lead had melted away under the heat of a Rebels rally, and the elder Beasley got in his son’s grill, letting him know in animated fashion what he thought of that particular decision. Josh Beasley responded impressively, taking over the game down the stretch. In a four-possession sequence, Beasley scored a pair of driving layups, swished two free throws, and whipped a pretty pass to Desmond Bassi for a layup. Ater Degal rallied Burnaby South to within 61-57 with 3:42 on the clock on a Nick Irvine layup. But by the end of Beasley’s spurt, Mouat was up 67-59 with 1:54 remaining, and they cruised from there. Afterward, dad said he was extremely proud of his son. “It’s a special time. I was certainly impressed with how he handled himself mentally down the stretch. He made some great plays for us. He raised the bar.” Mouat got off to a great start with their 1-3-1 zone defence. The Rebels seemed baffled by the zone in the first half, and the Hawks led by as many as 19 points en route to a 35-21 advantage at the break. Burnaby South came out of the locker room with a better idea of how to attack the zone, and point guard Ater Degal led a furious comeback that drew the Rebels to within 56-53 with five minutes remaining. But Beasley took over at that point. “I wouldn’t call it an upset,” Josh Beasley asserted. “We played as a team. We’ve got a lot of individual talent, but we’ve brought it all together.” Father Sean Beasley added “we know what we’re capable of. Nobody seems to want to give us the credit due, so we’ll just keep working away at it, one step at a time. … We knew what they were going to throw at us and our goal was to make sure we got to the basket as hard as possible every time. Our shot chart in the first half, I think we might have taken three outside shots. I told my guys if they got charges, I wouldn’t be upset, and we three got of them. I was proud of the way they went to the basket with the ball. I think our guys did a great job of adjusting to that kind of tempo.” Desmond Bassi said, “we just had to push the ball and stay focused. It feels awesome. It feels just as good as it did in football (a Final Four appearance in the provincials). I really feel like this is where we’re supposed to be. It helps that people underestimate us. We take advantage of it.” Jesse Coy capped the win with a coast-to-coast fastbreak layup that put Mouat on top by double digits at 69-59 with 1:31 remaining. Rebels guard Ater Degal said “we worked hard, this was our goal, to win a championship. We didn’t accomplish it. Today, we just couldn’t come together as a team. I think that’s why we didn’t get to the finals. It’s the little things that get you there. … We accomplished a lot, but we just couldn’t get it accomplished at the provincials. But that’s life.” Burnaby coach Greg Matic said “mentally, we weren’t quite ready. It takes a lot of years and hard work to reach this level. You have to be prepared. Gurminder Kang paced the Hawks with 23 points and 20 boards. Jesse Coy scored 19, Desmond Bassi 16, Josh Beasley 8, Sunvir Johal 4, Jamin Lockert 2, Mack Thompson 2 and Nick Howden 1, while Tanner Hamade, Zak Loewen, Cam Friesen, Jimmy Gill, Kolton Goodbrand Braun, David Park and Luke Friesen were scoreless. Ater Degal paced the Rebels with 27. Nick Irvine added 17, along with 18 boards, Manroop Clair 12, Lazar Cuk 6, Daniel Edwards 4 and George Kovac 2, while Mukhraj Dosanjh, JoJo Kibangula, Quentin Nugayen, Jok Malek, Thomas Schmidt, Gino Pagbilao and Nick Garcha were scoreless.
In the semis, the 2nd-seeded Richmond R.C. Palmer Griffins defeated the Port Coquitlam Terry Fox Ravens 77-66. Terry Fox led 19-10 after one quarter and 34-29 at the half. The Griffins led 57-54 after three quarters. Guard Bret Macdonald sank a free throw with 5:27 remaining to pull the Ravens within 63-60 in the fourth quarter. But the Griffins, in a span of just seven seconds, turned the game around with an opportunistic break and some plain, old-fashioned hustle. Fox guard Kaleb Gebrewold was whistled for a foul on Palmer’s Vijay Dhillon outside the three-point arc. Dhillon made the first, missed the second, then made the third. Off that third make, Palmer’s Mike Zayas made the game’s biggest steal, feeding Dhillon who scored a bucket, and completed a three-point play from the charity stripe after being fouled by Fox forward Matt Trimble. In the time it took to get from 5:13 to 5:06 remaining on the game clock, the Griffins pushed their lead out to 68-60 and then stepped on the gas. “We’re down five and then a turnover and we’re down eight,” said Fox coach Rich Chambers. “The whole momentum of the game changed. We had come back from eight down to get it to two, and then we lost our minds for a bit. But they are a seasoned team and deserving of the victory.” When the Griffins only true big man, post Ranjodh Hare, picked up his fourth foul of the game trying to guard the Ravens’ Scott Sclater and was forced to the bench, only 1:35 had expired off the second-half game clock and the Ravens were leading 37-32. But the Griffins got their perimeter game going. Over most of the rest of the third quarter, Dhillon and Maziar Arjmandi caught fire from outside, combining to hit five treys. Arjmandi went 4-5 in the span and Dhillon 2-4, and when the dust had cleared, the pair had not only shot am incredible 6-9 from the arc and the Griffins were leading 55-51. “When Ranjodh went off, boy did Maziar Arjmandi ever step up in a big way,” said Eberhardt of his guard. “We were dribbling the ball too much and not attacking in the areas we needed to and Maziar was very worried all tourney. He was saying ‘What’s wrong with my shot? And (assistant coach) Ryan (Strachan) just said there’s nothing wrong. Just shoot it.” Fox’s Chambers blamed himself for the barrage. “We should have changed defences. My fault. We should have gone man. They got hot for a three-minute stretch. That was my fault. The kids played hard.” Mike Zayas hit several critical buckets and had a major impact on the game with his rebounding, positioning and his array of tipped and deflected passes. “Mike had been disappointed in his play the first two games,” said Eberhardt, “and once Ranjodh went out, he was like ‘Oh my God, I have to be the guy’ and he went for ball with a vengeance. He got tips, deflections, rebounds. He really stepped up.” Dhillon felt that disappointment Palmer experienced when it played at the Double A level last season and lost to Southern Okanagan in the BC final, helped keep his team focused this season. “That is every single day and we want to redeem ourselves in this redemption year, and we’re going to get it.” Eberhardt, in his 30th year of coaching, said “how bizarre is this? (to coach a final against Bill Drisbow?). Who would have thought I would be at Palmer, a former junior high (feeder) to Richmond and Bill would be at Vancouver College? There is no way I thought that would happen. I mean the guy has won five championships, so he should do the right thing and let me have one, I think that’s only fair.” Trailing 34-29 to start the third quarter, Palmer got a three-pointer on its first possession from the 5-9 Maziar Arjmandi, who went on to add three more treys in the quarter. “Oh my God, this feels so good,” said Zayas. “Palmer has been under a curse almost — semifinals we lose, semifinals we lose, this time we actually feel like we can do it. We persevered and we came through. We got a ripping at halftime from coach Paul) Eberhardt and came through.” Zayas said his team “went through pain last year” in losing the Double A final. “It’s coming out big and we’re ready to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Vijay Dhillon paced the Griffins with 22 on 4-10 from the floor, 3-9 from the arc, 5-6 from the line, 4 boards and 3 assists. Mike Zayas added 18 on 6-12 from the floor, 1-2 from the arc, 3-4 from the line, 9 boards, 6 assists and 2 steals. Maziar Arjmandi notched 15 on 0-3 from the floor, 5-12 from the arc and 2 assists. Billy Cheng added 9 on 3-5 from the floor, 3-4 from the line, 3 boards, 4 assists and 3 steals. Jamie Madewan scored 6 on 3-3 from the floor and 0-2 from the arc. Ranjodh Hare notched 6 on 3-5 from the floor, 0-2 from the line and 5 boards. J.P. Javier, Chris Randing, Ben Samy, Daniel Tait, Joey Dhillon, Timmie Choi, Jacky Lee, Kevin Luong, Harmed Amiri and Tyler Debeer were scoreless. The Griffins hit 19-38 (.500) from the floor, 9-27 (.330) from the arc and 11-16 (.690) from the line, while garnering 40 boards, including 15 on the offensive glass, 17 fouls, 18 assists, 14 turnovers and 9 steals. Matt Trimble paced the Ravens with 17 on 6-12 from the floor, 0-2 from the arc, 5-7 from the line, 7 boards and 3 assists. Scott Hind notched 16 on 5-9 from the floor, 2-6 from the arc, 4 boards, 2 assists and 2 steals. Ryan Sclater added 15 on 5-9 from the floor, 0-1 from the arc, 5-5 from the line, 6 boards, 4 assists and 3 blocks. Bret MacDonald scored 14 on 4-10 from the floor, 1-2 from the arc, 3-4 from the line, 7 boards, 3 assists and 2 steals. Trevor Casey added 2, while Daniel Collins, Jesse Crookes, Emeka Adindu, Hallo Palani, Aaron Roberts, Dalton Dewsbury, Tanner Moss, Matt Jeffers, Kaleb Gebrewold, Tyrel Ratich and Alex Nesterenko were scoreless. The Ravens hit 21-43 (.490) from the floor, 3-12 (.250) from the arc and 13-16 (.810) from the line, while garnering 36 boards, including 9 on the offensive glass, 18 fouls, 14 assists, 18 turnovers, 5 blocks and 8 steals.
In the other semi, the 4th-seeded Vancouver College Fighting Irish dumped the Abbotsford W.J. Mouat Hawks 74-56 after leading 26-14, 37-22 and 54-39 at the quarters. In early February, Vancouver College coaches Bill Disbrow and Lloyd Scrubb were sizing up the strengths and weaknesses of their team and Disbrow felt that some good, old-fashioned emphasis was needed to shore up one of the most basic skills in the game. “Six weeks ago, I said to Lloyd that we as coaches don’t have our guys shooting the ball enough in practice,” Disbrow said. “In the end, the ball has to go through the hoop. So, every day since, we have been doing quite a lot of it, and it’s paid off the last few weeks.” The Irish bombed 9-22 from the arc. “This is probably the best we’ve shot all season,” said Reiner Theil. “I mean a lot of threes are falling for us and even when they’re not, we’re finding other ways to score. We’re just creating for others and that is really working for us.” Added Isaiah Solomon, the Grade 11 Irish guard who scored a game-high 24 with 4-of-6 long-distance accuracy: “The thing about this team is that there are so many of us that can shoot the ball.” Disbrow lauded Theil. “Reiner has really been a stud for us. He’s been an amazing rebounder, he’s always been capable of being a scorer and it just hadn’t happened for him this year. He’s got a beautiful shot, he’s got quick feet, he’s strong. He has been the Player of the Tournament so far.” The Irish coupled that downtown-shooting effort with an unrelenting press that picked up mostly in the full- and three-quarter court regions. While the Hawks were mostly able to break the initial wave, it was the resulting passes they made and field goal attempts they tried to sink that were mostly affected. “I think they ended up hurrying, being nervous, being discombobulated,” said Disbrow of the effect the pressure had on the Hawks. Mouat missed a half dozen layups that would have made a rally from the 45-26 deficit more feasible. The Irish lost guard Cole Penman to an ankle injury. Said Disbrow: “It was an ankle and it looked pretty bad but he’s walking so we’ll keep our fingers crossed. He is a tough kid.” Mouat coach Sean Beasley said “I was really pleased with our effort. We did a good job of coming together as a team. … Unfortunately, it one of those days where nothing wanted to fall for us. We couldn’t make a breakaway layup drop for us. I don’t know what to say, except I’m proud of these guys. You’re going to have those days, and unfortunately it was in the semifinal where it happened to us. … I think our guys showed a lot of character. … There was a lot of criticism being thrown our way, and there’s nothing that makes me feel better as a coach than to see those guys rise up to the level they did and knock off some pretty highly ranked teams.” Isiah Solomon paced the Fighting Irish with 24 on 4-7 from the floor, 4-6 from the arc, 4-4 from the line, 5 assists and 2 steals. Reiner Theil added 23 on 6-8 from the floor, 3-5 from the arc, 2-4 from the line and 7 boards. Adam Konar notched 7 on 2-5 from the floor, 1-5 from the arc, 1-2 from the line, 8 boards, 6 assists and 2 steals. Cole Penman added 7 on 2-7 from the floor, 1-3 from the arc, 3 boards and 3 steals. Vincent Tolentino notched 6 on 2-9 from the floor, 6 boards, 2 assists and 2 steals. Erickson Evangelista added 6 on 3-4 from the floor, 0-2 from the arc, 3 boards and 2 assists. Brenton Wong, Scott Lum-Tong, Tony Kang, Justin Sanvideo, Abu Khan, Allan Rudzki and J.C. Horton were scoreless. The Fighting Irish hit 19-42 (.450) from the floor, 9-22 (.410) from the arc and 9-12 (.750) from the line, while garnering 41 boards, including 14 on the offensive glass, 19 fouls, 18 assists, 21 turnovers, 2 blocks and 11 steals. Gurminder Kang paced the Hawks with 19 on 6-15 from the floor, 1-2 from the arc, 4-8 from the line, 13 boards and 2 steals. Jesse Coy added 14 on 5-10 from the floor, 1-9 from the arc, 1-2 from the line, 3 boards and 2 steals. Sunvir Johal notched 10 on 5-9 from the floor and 10 boards. Nick Howden added 4, Desmond Bassi 3, along with 3 boards, 3 assists and 3 steals, Luke Friesen 2, along with 7 boards, Josh Beasley 2, along with 4 boards, 5 assists and 3 steals, and Tanner Hamade 2, while Zak Loewen, Cam Friesen, Jimmy Gill, Kolton Goodbrand-Braun, David Park, Mack Thompson and Jamin Lockert were scoreless. The Hawks hit 20-57 (.350) 2-11 (.180) from the arc and 10-22 (.450) from the line, while garnering 56 boards, including 31 on the offensive glass,15 fouls, 11 assists, 26 turnovers, 2 blocks and 13 steals.
In the bronze medal match, the Port Coquitlam Terry Fox Ravens smacked the Abbotsford W.J. Mouat Hawks 75-65 after leading 19-17, 34-29 and 53-50 at the quarters. “The goal (Saturday)? Honestly, it was to flush it, flush the (semi-final) loss,” noted guard Bret Macdonald. “It was done, it was heartbreaking but third place is a heckuva lot better than fourth place and we wanted the medal.” The Ravens also avenged a loss to Mouat two weeks earlier in the Fraser Valley final. “Last time we played them they kicked our ass,” Macdonald said. “We weren’t prepared, we played without
[forward Matt]
Trimble and he’s huge. He takes care of their bigs, we knew them very well and we just came out and were the better team.” Mouat traded the lead with Fox seven times. Macdonald’s buzzer-beater trey gave the Ravens a five-point lead at the half, and was followed by Scott Hind’s long bomb to start off the third quarter with Fox ahead 37-31. The Hawks would close the gap to one midway through the frame, but the Ravens stayed a step ahead — thanks to Hind and Macdonald’s outside shooting clinic. The pair’s three-point performance accounted for 15 of the team’s 19 points in the quarter, keeping the margin at three with 10 minutes left. But the Hawks ripped off a 10-0 run to start the fourth quarter to take a 60-55 lead with just over six minutes to play. After Grade 10 Trevor Casey cashed in a timely rebound, Hind, Macdonald and Tanner Moss rang off three straight treys to restore a six-point bulge that would only widen down the stretch. “It was pretty tough, we were all down after we lost,” said Trimble. “We thought we had the game in hand, but it got away from us. But we just refocused and came back to win third place. It feels pretty good right now.” Macdonald added that the win was “awesome, awesome. I can’t think of a better way. These are my friends, they’re my second family and I can’t think of a better way to go out.” Scott Hind paced the Ravens with 31 on 1-3 from the floor, 8-15 from the arc, 5-6 from the line and 2 boards. Bret MacDonald added 21 on 3-5 from the floor, 5-8 from the arc, 0-2 from the line, 3 boards, 10 assists and 3 steals. Trevor Casey scored 10 on 5-7 from the floor, 0-1 from the arc, 0-2 from the line and 4 boards. Matt Trimble added 5 on 1-4 from the floor, 1-3 from the arc and 0-2 from the line. Tanner Moss added 4 and Ryan Sclater 4 on 2-6 from the floor, 7 boards, 2 assists and 2 blocks. Daniel Collins, Jesse Crookes, Emeka Adindu, Hallo Palani, Aaron Roberts, Dalton Dewsbury, Matt Jeffers, Kaleb Gebrewold, Tyrel Ratich, Alex Nesterenko and Cam Nicole were scoreless. The Ravens hit 12-28 (.430) from the floor, 15-33 (.450) from the arc and 6-14 (.430) from the line, while garnering 36 boards, including 18 on the offensive glass, 21 fouls, 22 assists, 12 turnovers, 4 blocks and 9 steals. Gurminder Kang paced the Hawks with 21 on 6-9 from the floor, 9-10 from the line, 10 boards, 3 assists and 3 steals. Jesse Coy added 16 on 2-5 from the floor, 4-7 from the arc, 2 boards and 3 steals. Sunvir Johal notched 14 on 7-13 from the floor and 8 boards. Josh Beasley scored 12 on 1-3 from the floor, 1-7 from the arc, 7-9 from the line, 7 assists and 4 steals. Jamin Lockert added 2, while Tanner Hamade, Zak Loewen, Cam Friesen, Jimmy Gill, Nick Howden, Kolton Goodbrand-Braun, David Park, Mack Thompson, Desmond Bassi and Luke Friesen were scoreless. The Hawks hit 17-35 (.470) from the floor, 5-15 (.330) from the arc and 16-19 (.840) from the line, while garnering 38 boards, including 13 on the offensive glass, 17 fouls, 15 assists, 20 turnovers, 1 block and 10 steals.
In the final, the 2nd-seeded Richmond R.C. Palmer Griffins defeated the 4th-seeded Vancouver College Fighting Irish 71-63. Vancouver College led 20-13 after one quarter and 33-32 at the half. Palmer led 53-43 after three quarters. “I have pictured this moment since I was in ninth grade when I watched my Magee team in 1979 at the Pacific Coliseum,” said Palmer head coach Paul Eberhardt. “I visualized (winning a title) and I practiced it. I thought if it happens, I am just going to run on the court and do a Valvano. But the emotion overcame me and I turned into Dick Vermeil. I am just so proud of the boys. Our motto this year was ‘Leave it all out on the floor. Play basketball like you live your life. No Regrets.” So instead of running on the floor like the late Jim Valvano did after his Cinderella North Carolina State Wolfpack won the NCAA title, Eberhardt started to cry like the football coach Vermeil. For his team. For his dad Don, who wanted so desperately to be in the LEC watching his son accomplish from the sidelines what he did exactly 50 years ago as a player with the 1961 Magee Black Shirts. Instead, Don had to watch the game from a hospital after coming down with a case of pancreatitis on Wednesday. “I completely dedicate this to him,” said Eberhart. “Fifty years ago, he did it, and now I’ve done it.” The Irish opened the game on a 12-0 run over the first 5:15 of the opening quarter, and when Reiner Theil hit the second of two free throws, it was suddenly 19-2. “I think we were just overwhelmed by the atmosphere,” said point guard Billy Cheng. “We were so stunned at how they kept scoring and we kept missing. The key was those (three-pointers) as it gave us confidence.” But reserve Jamie Madewan, a grade 10 phenom, was subbed in when senior forward Mike Zayas picked up his second foul of the game, knocked down three straight treys in a span of 1:08, the final one coming from the wing with just a second left on the game clock, reducing a 17-point deficit to seven points at 20-13. In the second quarter, Madewan did it again, sinking another trey to make it 22-16. Point guard Billy Cheng’s three 6:40 before the break, tied it at 25-25. “Our rookie grade 10, he was huge,” said Zayas of Madewan. “The deficit was huge, but Ebe tried to keep that out of our minds and do it quarter by quarter.” Vancouver College, which led 33-32 at the half, did not hit a shot from the field over the final 8:42 of the second quarter, instead going 7-10 from the free throw line. “I haven’t shot well all week so I thought ‘Just keep shooting it, just keep shooting it’,” said Madewan. “This is incredible. … Last night Nazir (Arjmandi) went off and I wanted to do the same thing. I just worked on getting my shots up in warm-up. It felt good and when I got into the game, I told them to get me the ball.” With the score knotted at 40 two minutes into the third quarter, the Griffins used an 11-2 run, with all the points coming from Vijay Dhillon and Ranjodh Hare to pull away. Point guard Billy Cheng said “all the hard work at the beginning of the year to the end of the year, it paid off.” Eberhardt said he reminded his troops of a loss to Brittania in the 2010 Double-A final. “I was having flashbacks to our championship game last year, the loss to Britannia. When I called that timeout and huddled with them on the floor, that’s all we talked about. I can’t repeat most of it, but I just said ‘Guys, just go play and stop worrying about everything. Just do what you’re trained to do’,” Eberhardt added that the timeouts turned the tide. “Us being down happened so fast, but I think the timeouts helped settle the guys. During the timeouts I said, ‘Guys, this is exactly what happened to us last year (when Palmer lost the AA final to Britannia) and we’re better than this.’ I could kind of see in their eyes they were angry and when (Jamie) Madewan made that first three-pointer it kind of loosened us up and we took all the momentum. … When I called the second timeout and talked to them on the court, I could see it in their eyes. They were playing nervous and scared and just needed to relax. When Jamie came off the bench and hit those threes, everyone opened up and went right back to their instincts and played good basketball. … I think it’s amazing the way they held their discipline. It’s very easy to lose it when things aren’t going well but our guys rarely did that. They believed in the system.” Palmer started the game playing a zone defence, but wasn’t getting much pressure before switching to man-to-man. Even then, Eberhardt said the Griffins still weren’t getting a full press. That was the focus at halftime, after a lengthy discussion with associate coaches Ryan Strachan and Brian Meier. Cheng said “I think we were overwhelmed by the atmosphere to start. We got lucky when we came back because V.C.’s a very good team, but I think all the work paid off. We deserved this.” The tournament’s top defensive player and a second team all-star, Cheng also gave a shout out to teacher-coach Steve Glover, who opened the gym every morning for the boys, and to the alumni for their ongoing help and support. Third team all-star Mike Zayas said “it feels great, especially after the pain we went through in Grade 11. But our previous experience helped us out so much, and it kept us humble. We knew we had a pretty good draw going into this tournament but Ebe always reminded us we had to work hard to everything. Our chemistry is what won us this game.” Vijay Dhillon said “we have been through this so many times and (the first quarter deficit) was nothing new to us. We knew we were coming through. This feels amazing. We needed this after losing last year.” Ranjodh Hare was dominant on the boards. “The one key thing I like in my game more than scoring points is rebounding,” smiled Hare. “My job is to rebound and I keep going at it with hard work. Just keep jumping and running.” Co-coach Ryan Strachan said “It’s a lot of hours to do this but to feel like this makes it all worthwhile.” Cheng was chosen the tournament’s top defensive player. Vijay Dhillon paced the Griffins with 26 on 5-12 from the floor, 2-6 from the arc, 10-11 from the line and 4 boards. Ranjodh Hare added 13 on 6-11 from the floor, 1-6 from the line, 17 boards and 2 assists. Jamie Madewan added 12 on 4-9 from the floor, 4 boards and 2 assists. Billy Cheng added 11 on 2-7 from the floor, 1-4 from the arc, 4-6 from the line, 3 boards, 8 assists and 2 steals. Mike Zayas added 9 on 3-7 from the floor, 0-2 from the arc, 3-4 from the line, 7 boards and 3 assists. J.P. Javier, Maziar Arjmandi, Chris Randing, Ben Samy, Daniel Tait, Joey Dhillon, Timmie Choi, Jacky Lee, Kevin Luong, Harmed Amiri and Tyler Debeer were scoreless. The Griffins hit 16-40 (.400) from the floor, 7-22 (.320) from the arc and 18-29 (.620) from the line, while garnering 47 boards, including 20 on the offensive glass, 20 fouls, 16 assists, 16 turnovers, 3 blocks and 7 steals. Vincent Tolentino paced the Fighting Irish with 20 on 8-16 from the floor, 4-4 from the line, 10 boards and 4 assists. Reiner Theil added 16 on 5-9 from the floor, 1-4 from the arc, 3-5 from the line and 11 boards. Adam Konar notched 12 on 2-6 from the floor, 1-7 from the arc, 5-8 from the line, 7 boards and 2 steals. Cole Penman added 9 on 2-4 from the floor, 1-5 from the arc, 2-4 from the line and 8 boards. Erickson Evangelista scored 6 on 3-3 from the floor and 0-3 from the arc. Isiah Solomon, Brenton Wong, Scott Lum-Tong, Tony Kang, Justin Sanvideo, Abu Khan, Allan Rudzki and J.C. Horton were scoreless. The Fighting Irish hit 20-40 from the floor, 3-23 (.130) from the arc and 14-21 from the line, while garnering 50 boards, including 20 on the offensive glass, 25 fouls, 8 assists, 18 turnovers, 1 block and 7 steals.
The bronze medalist Port Coquitlam Terry Fox Ravens: Bret MacDonald, Matt Trimble, Ryan Sclater, Scott Hind, Tanner Moss, Kaleb Gebrewold, Tyrel Ratich, Trevor Casey, Jesse Crookes, Alex Nesterenko, Emeka Adindu, Aaron Roberts, Matt Jeffers, Daniel Collins, Hallo Palani; Dalton Dewsbury; Cam Nicole; coach Rich Chambers, assistant Mike Hind;
The silver medalist Vancouver College Fighting Irish: Vincent Tolentino; Isiah Solomon; Reiner Theil; Cole Penman; Adam Konar; Erickson Evangelista; Justin Sanvido; Brenton Wong; Scott Lum-Tong; Tony Kang; Abu Khan; Allan Rudzki; J.C. Horton; coach Bill Drisbow; assistant Lloyd Scrubb
The gold medalist Richmond R.C. Palmer Griffins: Vijay Dhillon; Billy Cheng; Ranjodh Hare; Jamie Madewan; Mike Zayas; Maziar Arjmandi; Joey Dhillon; Tyler Debeer; J.P. Javier; Chris Randing; Ben Samy; Daniel Tait; Timmie Choi; Jacky Lee; Kevin Luong; Harmed Amiri; coach Paul Eberhardt; coach Ryan Strachan