Hello B.C. boys high school basketball fans.
Final Four Friday has arrived.
Myself and our Varsity Letters’ team of writers will be bringing you full coverage of all eight semifinals form the 1, 2, 3 and 4A tiers tonight.
Remember that whatever tier you’re reading about here, all you need to do is go there main page at VarsityLetters.ca to find portals to the other three off of our main page.
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Enjoy the games and keep coming back for updates through the night.
FINAL FOUR FRIDAY (at Centre Court)
ALL STORIES BY AARON MARTIN (Special for Varsity Letters)
No. 3 COLLINGWOOD 74 No. 2 PACIFIC ACADEMY 68
LANGLEY — The No. 3-seeded Collingwood Cavaliers won the right to play for their first provincial championship in eight years on Friday night, as they scored a razor-thin 74-68 win over the No. 2-ranked Pacific Academy Breakers in the BC Senior Boys Double-A Championships at the Langley events centre.
“That was just a tight game from minute one to minute 40,” recapped Cavaliers head coach Andy Wong. “They beat us really good at the start of the year, so we had to come up with something to play them tight. We know number 7 Jaden [Mesfin] just went off for 41 last night, and we tried to play him tight, but they have so many other weapons, so many good athletes. We had to be physical, make sure we rebounded well and keep pressure on their shooters. Our guys did a beautiful job executing.”
The Cavs got a dynamic all performance from captain Amir Mojarradi, as the Grade 11 guard posted 24 points, four boards, and a pair of assists while playing a lynchpin role on defense. James Holm (18 points), Finn Murphy (14), and Cy Bosa (12) each had solid offensive outings, while Logan Albiani dominated inside with just five points, but 15 boards in 26 minutes of floor time.
On the other side, the Cavs held Breakers star Jaden Mesfin to 23 points on 7-of-17 shooting, and sharpshooter Nathan Chiang to 14 points on just 5-of-21 from the field.
Wong broke down exactly where his squad had improved, after suffering two early season-losses to the same Pacific Academy side.
“We had to be more patient on offense, for sure,” said the Cavs coach. “Took our time with the shot clock, allowed it to come to us a little bit more than rushing just to get a shot off. Defensively, I think we really just locked in and minimized their second chances. We had months to get this system down, and you’d hope we were better today than we were in November. Thankfully, we were.”
A game in which neither side was able to pull away – the largest lead from either side was just eight points – the contest predictably came down to the last minutes.
Tied 57-57 with 4:56 to go in the fourth, Mojaraddi did well to fight his way to the rim on the offensive glass, getting a putback and sinking the ensuing and-one. Albiani and Murphy then knocked down layups on back-to-back possessions, putting the Cavs up 64-57 as the defense continued to hold.
With the Cavs up 69-63 with just 14.2 seconds on the clock, Mesfin hit his biggest shot of the tournament, knocking down a triple in traffic to bring the game to within a single possession. However, the electric guard was called for a technical foul on the backend of the play, and subsequently ejected. Seth Sorensen, the Breakers head coach, was also ejected after arguing the call and earning a tech of his own.
The Cavs iced the final few seconds from the free throw line, earning their way to the big dance in dramatic fashion.
“We believe in ourselves,” said Wong of his team’s chances in the championship bout. “We know we’ve built a team that can play with anyone. We built our schedule this season so we saw all of the top teams – like Pacific Academy – and we were ready to play on this stage. Brentwood is so well-coached and well-built. They’ve been here before and have the experience, but I think we’re ready. It’s going to be a fun game.”
No. 4 BRENTWOOD COLLEGE 72 No. 8 LANGLEY CHRISTIAN 65
LANGLEY — Brentwood is back.
No. 4-seeded Brentwood College earned their way to a second BC Double-A Senior Boys Basketball Highschool Championships final on Friday evening, taking down the hometown favourite No. 8 seed Langley Christian Lightning 72-65 in front of a wild Langley Events Centre crowd.
Julian Bishop led the team in scoring for a second straight night, pacing Brentwood with 22 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field, including an impressive 4-of-6 from downtown. Milan Pasquale did a bit of everything for BC, notching 17 points, eight rebounds, and four assists. For the Lightning, Casey Van Hemert was terrific with a team-high 20 points, while Carter van der Waarde and Willem Van Huizen chipped with 19 and 17 apiece, respectively.
Despite the few standout individual performances on either side, Brentwood truly won this game with their defense and opportunism on the other side. Brentwood held the Lightning to just 35% shooting from the field overall, 22-of-62, and notched 17 points directly off of forced turnovers.
The Vancouver Island champs were aggressive in all phases, and head coach Blake Gage’s philosophy of defensive fundamentals was on full display all night.
Brentwood will now have a shot to return to provincial basketball immortality tomorrow afternoon, as they’re slated to face the No. 3-ranked Collingswood Cavaliers for the Double A crown, which would be their first since going back-to-back in 2017 and 2018.
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