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.
NORTH DELTA 67 G.P. VANIER 42
LANGLEY — Play the 8:15 p.m. finale here at the 2018 B.C. senior boys basketball championships and you are aware of all the day’s the upsets.
And when the North Delta Huskies took to the court for their AAA Sweet 16 clash with Courtenay’s G.P. Vanier Towhees, they did so with the knowledge that two No. 3’s (AAA Argyle, AAAA Handsworth) and a No. 4 (AAAA W.J. Mouat) had already fallen out of the championship chase.
“We saw the upsets,” said Huskies head coach Jesse Hundal. “So we made sure to remind our guys that it’s anyone’s game. They took our game plan with fire in their hearts and I am proud of them.”
Suraj Gahir’s 18 points led the winners into a 6:45 p.m. Elite 8 clash Thursday against Richmond’s R.A. McMath Wildcats.
North Delta, which bolted out to a 27-8 lead after the first quarter, got 14 more from point guard Arun Atker and 10 from Vik Hayer.
“The main thing is we didn’t want this game to be bigger than it is,” said Hundal. “We have played the toughest schedule in the province, we’re on a high from winning the Fraser Valleys, and we prepared just like we prepare for any other game. We focused on ourselves, we cared for each other and we did anything to win.”
Levi Timmermans finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Towhees.
R.A. MCMATH 97 MEI 92
LANGLEY — Bryce Mason is on a mission.
R.A. McMath’s gritty guard poured home 30 points, grabbed 16 rebounds, dished five assists and made five steals Wednesday as Richmond’s Wildcats rallied for a win over Abbotsford’s MEI Eagles.
Trailing by 19 points midway through the first quarter, McMath was down by eight heading into the fourth quarter.
Centre Vic Radocaj added 22 points to go along with 20 rebounds, Rohann Balaggan scored 18 points, Jordin Kojima 12 and Natrone Gonzales 11.
The Wildcats needed everythign they could manage just to nullify the 46-point engine of the MEI Eagles. Isaiah Reimer scored a game-high 46 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the loss.
The Eagles also got 17 points from Ethan Bucknam and 10 points apiece from Travis Veerman and Jordan York.
SIR CHARLES TUPPER 90 CLAYTON HEIGHTS 70
LANGLEY — When a shooting team shoots the basketball well, good things happen.
And when Vancouver’s Tupper Tigers shot it as well from three-point range (13-of-27, 48 per cent) as they did from the field overall (36-of-72, 50 per cent) the results followed suit.
Six Tigers hit double figures in scoring, led by the 14 of guard Norben Bulosan as Tupper toppled Surrey’s Nightriders by 20 points.
Gaurab Acharya added 13, Jovan Dhillon and Simon Crossfield 11 each, and Matt Dunkerley and Benson Laconsay 10 apiece for the Tigers.
Kris Galindez and Richard Mageto had 17 points apiece for Clayton Heights.
BYRNE CREEK 77 CALEDONIA 44
LANGLEY — Martin Djunga and Burnaby’s Byrne Creek Bulldogs left little doubt that their No 1 seed in the AAA draw is well deserved.
While No. 2 South Kamloops struggled mightily in its earlier win over No. 15 Carihi, the No. 1 Bulldogs spread their scoring through the entire lineup in a 77-44 win over Terrace’s Caledonia Kermodes.
Djunga, the senior and team scoring leader, finished with 21 points, seven steals and five assists, and Byrne Creek, which had 13 players score, held the well-coached Kermodes to just seven points in the third quarter.
Solomon Johnson had 12 points, eight rebounds and five assists in the loss for the Northwest reps.
RICHMOND 81 ARGYLE 80
LANGLEY — The game plan was pretty simple, the execution on point.
And in the end, Richmond Colts’ head coach Brandon Harbour admitted that a ton of nervous energy all got channelled in the right direction.
Murad Mohammed scored a game-high 27 points and added 10 rebounds and eight assists, while teammate Daniel Afanasiyevsykk added 26 points and 14 rebounds as the No. 14 Richmond Colts stunned the No. 3 Argyle Pipers of North Vancouver.
“Push the ball in transition, get down the court before they set up in that 2-3 (zone) because they have some big guys down at the bottom, attack the middle and get short corner,” blurted Colts’ head coach Brandon Harbour, whose charges trailed by 10 entering the fourth and won with a thoroughbred’s finishing kick. “That was the entire game plan and it worked.”
The entire school had caught Colts’ fever as the school made its first senior varsity appearance since 2001.
The Pipers got huge performances from three players.
Howe Sound MVP Alex Wallace had 26 points and eight rebounds, David Finch supplied 21 points and 11 rebounds and Anton Mellinghuas had 20 points and 15 rebounds.
“The energy could have gone the other way but it didn’t,” said Harbour, “except at the free throw line (14-of-26). We’ll make adjustments but it’s the first game of senior provincials so you expect some nerves.”
PITT MEADOWS 69 MARK ISFLED 59
LANGLEY — Its beefy front court was dominant on the glass, and it was a winning combination for Fraser Valley runners-up Pitt Meadows.
Giovanni Manu had 34 points and 13 rebounds, while Conor Laverty and Colton Leon each scored 12 points as the Marauders beat Courtenay’s Mark Isfeld Ice 69-59.
Leon and Ben Pollard each had 10 rebounds in the game, and en route to out-rebounding the Ice 42-22, the Marauders totalled 19 offensive rebounds to Isfeld’s 22 total boards.
Thaskani Mtawali had 17 points, Dawson Fox 12 and Alessandro Bovio 11 in the loss.
DUCHESS PARK 88 RICK HANSEN 65
LANGLEY — Prince George’s Condors trusted in their ability to withstand one of the province’s most deadly three-point attacks, and in the end, it carried Duchess Park into the Elite 8 here at the B.C. senior boys AAA championships.
Abbotsford’s defending B.C. champion Rick Hansen Hurricanes opened on a tear, dropping threes from all over the court to build a 12-point lead near the latter stages of the opening quarter.
Yet the Condors’ belief in their game plan wound up carrying the day in a game that remained tight through much of the third quarter.
“We knew that they were a great shooting team, but also a streaky shooting team,” said Duchess Park head coach Jordan Yu. “We knew that we just had to weather that first storm. I think in the end we just wore on them.”
Trailing 44-36 at the half, Duchess Park went on an 8-0 run to start the third quarter, and that surge was enough to win the day.
Colburn Pearce, the team’s high-scoring point guard, got off to a slow start but was the man to watch over the second half, finishing with 26 points.
Yet the Condors had five players in double figures. Malcolm Macdonald, Cody Boulding and Garet Anderson each scored 16 points, while Soren Erricson added 11.
Gurkaran Mangat and Gurlal Mann scored 16 each for the Hurricanes while Harjas Dhillon added 15.
“For us it was trusting in the process and the guys bought in a long time ago,” said Yu, whose team will now face South Kamloops in the Elite 8 final. It will be the first meeting between the two teams since the Titans beat the Condors at the Tsumura Basketball Invitational in December.
SOUTH KAMLOOPS 58 CARIHI 51
The South Kamloops Titans may have thought a No. 2 seed would carry them past the Carihi Tyees in the opening round of the B.C. senior boys AAA basketball championships.
Actually, it might have been more about lucky horseshoes.
The Titans went 0-for-24 from beyond the arc yet somehow managed to topple their Campbell River foes 58-51.
It certainly didn’t hurt that the Titans forced 27 turnovers, and outscored the Tyees 42-20 in the paint.
Nick Sarai led the Titans with 27 points while centre Ripley Martin had 17 points and 11 rebounds.
Jonah Shankar led the Tyees with 17 points while Connor Hall added 12.
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