We’re up-to-date on the busiest post-season day in B.C. boys high school basketball. Here’s reports from all eight of today’s games.
OAK BAY 89 MT. BAKER 36
LANGLEY — The No. 1-ranked Oak Bay Bays opened on a 29-0 run and cruised to an 89-36 win over Cranbrook’s Mt. Baker Wild.
Cam Henderson with 14 points, Diego Maffia with 12, Caelan Scott with 11 and Jordane Burke with 10 led the Bays.
Anders Damstrom led the Wild with nine points.
The Bays will face the Burnaby South Rebels in a quarterfinal at 5:15 p.m.
TAMANAWIS 83 NORTH PEACE 48
LANGLEY — Miguel Tomley scored a smooth 39 points, and teammate Jeevan Sidhu scored 26 points to go along with 22 rebounds as the tourney’s No. 2 seeds cruised to a comfortable win over a a well-coach North Peace Oscars team.
The Fraser Valley champion Wildcats led 20-5 after the first quarter.
Mackenzie Jibrin had 12 points and 20 rebounds for the Oscars.
Tamanawis advances to face Walnut Grove in a 6:45 p.m. quarterfinal.
BURNABY SOUTH 80 LORD TWEEDSMUIR 60
LANGLEY — The same urgency they showed to topple Kitsilano and capture the Lower Mainland’s final berth to the B.C. AAAA championships?
It was on display Wednesday as favoured Burnaby South came out a clear winner in the always-tough No. 8 vs. No. 9 clash, with Surrey’s Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers.
The Rebels, led by the 22 points of Noah Pastrana, topped Surrey’s Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers 80-60 to advance to a Thursday quarterfinal against the winner of Wednesday’s final game, an 8:15 battle between No. 1 Oak Bay and No. 16 Mt. Baker.
Jusuf Sehic suuplied 18 points and 16 rebounds, Sasha Vujisic 16 points and nine rebounds.
Dylan Kinley scored a game-high 24 points in vain for the Panthers, while Michael Mugabo scored 11.
HOLY CROSS 81 HANDSWORTH 80
LANGLEY — The Holy Cross Crusaders started their season on Nov. 28 at the Heritage Woods Kodiak Classic with the preseason No. 1 ranking.
Promptly, however, they lost a game 68-59 to North Vancouver’s Handsworth Royals.
On Wednesday, by the time the 2018 B.C. senior boys AAAA basketball championships opened, the Crusaders had been out through the ringer.
Way more downs than ups, but enough at the end to get them into the Big Dance as the No. 14 seed.
And what did the Crusaders do but beat the same team they opened their season with a loss against.
“They beat us in our first game and so today we just wanted to battle hard,” said Crusaders’ Uyi Ologhola after his team beat the No. 3 seeded Handsworth 68-59. “It was a tough, physical game but we pulled through in the end.”
And a further sign that what didn’t happen in the regular season has begun to unfold, however maddeningly late, in the sudden-elimination atmosphere of the post-season.
“This year, we didn’t play great in big games or close games,” said head coach Anthony Pezzente. “But we finally won our last two (at the Fraser Valley championships) to get into the (B.C.) tournament, and now tonight, this one. That is maturity.”
Ologhola led the winners with 17 points, 13 rebounds, five blocks and four steals. Brent Padilla added 15 points and Jamal Osei-Anim 13 points.
Stanley Choo’s 24 points led five Royals in double figures.
Blake McLean had 17 points, and Ben Grant 13 points and 13 rebounds.
WALNUT GROVE 89 ST. GEORGE’S 76
LANGLEY — James Woods scored 21 of his game-high 44 points in the fourth quarter, carrying the defending B.C. champion Walnut Grove Gators to an 89-76 win over Vancouver’s St. George’s Saints.
Woods hit three triples and earned another from the fre throw line over the final three minutes of play.
Jarrett Jacobs added 22 for the winners while Luke Adams scored 10.
Luis Sujir with 26 points and Jerric Palma with 22 led the Saints.
(More to follow on this game later)
VANCOUVER COLLEGE 79 TERRY FOX 63
LANGLEY — Jack Cruz-Dumont is playing such controlled basketball these days, that his numbers Wednesday in the Irish’s win over PoCo’s Terry Fox Ravens were identical between by the halves.
The Irish senior who shot 16-of-26 from the field for a game-high 32 points, was 8-of-13 for 16 points in both the first and second halves as Vancouver College stretched a 39-32 halftime lead into a 16-point victory.
Cam Wright had 25 points for the winner and Callum Chow-White 14.
Jacob Mand with 25 points and Grady Stanyer with 16 and nine rebounds led the Fox effort.
BELMONT 70 W.J. MOUAT 60
The first upset of the AAAA draw has happened, and it’s a stunner.
Victoria’s Belmont Bulldogs, who had to win a challenge game just to get off Vancouver Island, knocked out the Fraser Valley runners-up W.J. Mouat Hawks of Abbotsford 70-60.
“We knew we were in for a really good game but we were prepared,” said Belmont head coach Kevin Brown of the Bulldogs, who never faded dow the stretch, building their lead to as many as 15 points down the stretch to stun the Hawks.
That was especially apparent with the way the much smaller Bulldogs defended the paint, taking away lanes and playing fundamentally sound defence by never leaving their feet.
“They have some tough kids but we have a couple of tough ones as well inside,” he said of Max Leeder and Lucas Gage. “They have the biggest hearts.”
Belmont was led by the 24 points of guard Nick Tarak who faced junk defences from the Hawks throughout the fourth quarter.
Post Isaac Ickovich added 18 points and 11 rebounds, while Leeder added 14.
Dhivaan Bhogal led the Hawks with 17 points and 13 rebounds.
Belmont played its season in the shawdows of crosstown rival and No. 1 seed Oak Bay, and while Brown didn’t mind, he also said the Bays have been a supportive resource.
“Chris is a friend,” he said of Bays boss Chris Franklin. “He helps me out. I am not trying to sound cocky here at all, but after Oak Bay, I feel like almosy anybody can beat anyone.”
The Bulldogs proved that point on Wednesday.
SEMIAHMOO 95 RUTLAND 74
LANGLEY — Vlad Mihaila has a pretty simple motivation here this week at the B.C. senior boys high school basketball championships.
“I know I have three more games remaining in my high school career now, and I just want to make sure that every time I go on the floor, I have no regrets.”
Mihaila left nothing to chance Wednesday as the Semiahmoo senior guard poured home 18 points in the first quarter alone, finishing with a game-high 30 as the Totems toppled Kelowna’s Rutland VooDoos 98-71.
Semiahmoo came out with a purpose, it’s full-court pressure generating numerous steals and easy buckets and pushing the Fraser Valley’s No. 3 seed out to a 33-13 lead after the first quarter.
“It’s been so effective for us,” admitted Mihaila of the pressure. “It’s what we’ve been focussing our practices on.”
Yet that was only half of the equation for the Totems, who were making their third B.C. tournament appearance in the past four seasons.
The other was that of 6-foot-7 forward Adam Paige.
The VooDoos simply could not put a body on Paige down low and he responded with 26 points and 21 rebounds. Yet Paige wasn’t just a terror on the offensive glass. His face-up skills and his ever-evolving dribble-drive game made him a constant threat.
Tyson Brown added 17 points for the winners.
Rutland, making its third appearance at the tourney since 1977, put five scorers in double digits.
Isaac Young, Arjan Thouli and Robin Loney each scored 12 points while Prab Deol and Eric Wambacher added 11 each.
Playing the 8:30 a.m. game, Semiahmoo held a 7 a.m. practice on Tuesday to prepare. And Mihaila said defence was going to be the final arbiter of who won the game.
“We know that there is a chance that in this gym that your shot won’t fall, so the only way to win it is with defence,” said Mihaila. “That’s why it’s such a priority for us.”
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