No. 7 BURNABY SOUTH 86 No. 10 LORD TWEEDSMUIR 73
By HOWARD TSUMURA
LANGLEY — Pound for pound, inch for inch, it’s hard to find a better player in the Class of 2024 thaN Burnaby South senior Lordrikk Gutierrez.
Fire-plug wide and perhaps somewhat generously listed at 5-foot-10, the Rebels’ play-me-anywhere-and-I’ll-still-get-it-done-coach star was at his best as the B.C. Quad-A championships opened up Wednesday at the Langley Events Centre.
Gutierrez hit four triples before the half, and as South was forced to regain its collective composure after building a 21-4 lead to open the game, Mr. Everywhere found himself in the middle of wherever his team needed him.
Afterwards, after pouring home a game-high 30 points, there was once again ample proof that it’s the size of the fight in the dog that will always matter most.
“I just got to be fearless out there,” he said after the win, which sends the Rebels into a 3:30 p.m. quarterfinal on Thursday (3:30 p.m.) against the No. 2 seed Spectrum Thunder. “I am playing against Goliath every time, and I am David, and I just gotta fight. I gotta bring my all. I gotta trust my teammates and hope that we win.”
Tweedy’s Munroop Gill led a Panthers’ uprising, scoring 11 of his team-high 23 points in the second quarter, but Gutierrez’s greasy play in the paint coupled with his long-range shooting, and the further 21 points of 6-foot-7 Grade 11 inside presence Keoni Sacco got Burnaby South back on track.
Rebels head coach Mike Bell was asked after the game what made Gutierrez so special, and he thought about for a while.
“He ain’t scared of nobody, that belief is strong,” said Bell with pride. “There ain’t nobody in the province he’s scared of. He’s a workhorse. So under-rated, so under-sized and has the heart of a champion. He’s someone you just want to be around, he’s a has positive kind of light and energy.
No doubt his presence was magnetic on Wednesday.
Nathan Nowak-Baker added 17 points and Tyler Crossley another 14 points as part of a very well-balanced Rebels’ attack.
Tripit Sooch added 15 more in the loss for head coach Raj Bagry’s team, while Apollo Greenlay scored another 11.
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