LANGLEY — Welcome to Varsity Letters’ coverage of the 79th annual B.C. Senior Boys Basketball Championships here at the Langley Events Centre.
No. 1 St. John’s will face No. 3 Unity Christian for the B.C. title Saturday (12:30 p.m.) at the Langley Event Centre’s Arena Bowl.
Here’s our two game reports from Final Four Friday:
Thanks for your patience and our promise to deliver on a nightly basis.
Howard Tsumura
SINGLE-A
FINAL FOUR
TOP HALF DRAW
NO. 3 UNITY CHRISTIAN 93 NO. 2 HAIDA GWAII 83
By GARY KINGSTON (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY – There’s something about the familiar confines of the hoops hall that is the Langley Events Centre that brings out the best in the Unity Christian Flames from Chilliwack.
Especially this year, when the ups and downs of a roller coaster of a regular season found a much-needed equilibrium when the team walked through the doors and onto the LEC’s multiple hardwood courts.
Winners of three of the last four 1A titles in senior boys basketball – and a finals loser in the other – Unity was seeded No. 3 this season and coach David Bron was often flummoxed at the inconsistency of a squad that started three Grade 12s.
Now, they’re in a final for a remarkable fifth consecutive year after dispatching the plucky, undersized and undermanned Haida Gwaii Breakers, 93-83 in a Friday semifinal.
“Maybe a bit delusional,” said a grinning Bron when asked if he thought at the start of the season his team could make it five finals in five years.
“I looked at what we had and said, ‘OK, we can’t make it if we don’t play consistent.’. When we were bad, we were bad. And when we were good . . . that’s what gave me such hope. When we were good, we were so good and we’ve just managed to rattle off three (wins) in a row (this week). Hopefully, we’re consistent again tomorrow.”
Things certainly didn’t start for Unity against the Breakers, whose storybook dream in 2024 as a longshot finalist was ended by Unity’s dramatic 74-71 win in the final. Haida Gwaii, an amalgam of two small high schools in the region, drained seven first-quarter enroute to a 26-17 lead.
After the lead extended to 17 early in the second quarter, Unity started battling back by stepping up its on-the-ball pressure and finding some success inside with 6-foot-7 centre Aaron Flokstra (18 points, 14 rebounds) and 6-foot-4 forward Rio Kingma (15 points).
“We had to power through some adversity,” said Kingma. “We just kept going and came out on top.
“It wasn’t a guarantee during the season that we’d get back here, but we all have faith in each other, love each other, . have trust in each other.”
The unquestioned offensive star for the Flames was their smallest player, 5-foot-8 Grade 11 point guard Matthias Hulka-Mendoza. The little guy with perhaps the fastest wheels in 1A went off for a game-high 36 points.
He drained five three-pointers, but was also dynamic in carving through bodies in the lane for contested layups and adroit dishes to Flokstra and Kingma.
“He’s had spurts of that, little flashes of brilliance,” said Bron. “But what I love with him, he’s such a competitor. He has not done that for a while, but I knew he could. That was the first full game of that.”
The Breakers, who had three players play at least 39 minutes and another 36, appeared to run out of gas a bit in the fourth quarter. And with Grade 11 forward Trace Swain hobbling a bit with an injury, it left 6-foot-4 post Loay Almahamid to do the majority of the dirty work inside.
Almahamid had a double-double with 15 points and 17 rebounds. Guard had 24 points and 10 assists.
“I felt like we had the skill to beat Unity and (No. 1 seeded St. John’s of Vancouver) as well,” said Breakers’ head coach Devi Collinson, while conceding the lack of size and depth contributed to the loss
The one positive for Haida Gwaii is that if they make it back to provincials next year, they won’t have to worry about facing Unity Christian.
With a new tiering system coming in next year that uses a point system based on a school’s recent finishes at the B.C. tournament, Unity will be moved up to 2A.
“That may be a little bit unfortunate for the division,,” said Collinson. “They’ve been reigning champs and you want to beat the best. But maybe some teams will feel a little bit relieved at the same time.”
Bron said he understands why the new points system to move teams into or out of the tiers is coming in.
“I get it,” said Bron. “I’m not sour grapes about it. But, if we could take this, what a way to go out.”
BOTTOM HALF DRAW
NO. 1 ST. JOHN’S 78 NO. 4 SOUTHPOINTE 67
By GARY KINGSTON (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY – In the Langley Events Centre halfway post-game, St. John’s School head coach Jonathan Kinman choked up a bit and fought back tears as he considered the Eagles lengthy journey to a Single A B.C. senior boys basketball championships final.
“Twenty-four years,” he said of his longtime stint as the head coach of a Kitsilano-area school that didn’t even have a gym when he started.
Now after a gut-it-out win, 78-67, over Southpointe Academy from South Delta, the Eagles will play for a title Saturday against the powerhouse Unity Christian Flames.
“Those guys who played for me 10-15 years ago, they’re responsible for this because they set the tone,” said Kinman.
“I remember five years ago, four years ago when we won our zone, there was a little red-headed kid sitting in the stands and he decided that day he was going to be a basketball player.
“That’s my No. 11 right now.”
His name is Viv Anderson-Francois and on Friday he went off for 36 points, 11 assists and two blocks in a virtuoso performance.
It followed a couple of admittedly pedestrian outings by the 6-foot-3 Grade 12 in the Eagles first two wins of the tournament.
“To be completely honest, I didn’t love my offence in the earlier games, so I really took today – I just wanted to distract my mind so I wasn’t mentally tired. I mean we have all day not doing anything, so just trying to relax and come out mentally focussed.”
Kian Alshar had 14 points and nine rebounds for the Eagles. Southpointe was led by the 26 points of Devin Khunkhun, while Jora Bains added 17.
“We knew we were going to be in a battle,” said Kinman. “They beat Unity three weeks ago, so I know.”
But St. John’s got the better of Unity in a game at the end of January, so Kinman’s got a blueprint for how to defeat the team that has won three titles in the last four seasons.
“I know the championship pedigree and they look better now than when we played them before. It’s just a matter of our guys playing at the level that they can play, handling the pressure and defending.
“We’re going to give them every single thing we’ve got (Saturday). It’s going to be an absolute battle.”
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