LANGLEY — It’s not a stretch to say that the Burnaby South Rebels have faced more adversity off the court than on it this senior boys basketball season.
A mass of complications which arose from its initial self-reporting of playing an ineligible player in games suddenly took on a life of its own, and in the end threatened to snuff the team’s bid for a berth at the B.C. Quad-A championships before it could even get within sniffing distance of March Madness.
It wasn’t until the team won an appeal with the Burnaby School District that the Rebels were allowed to begin to take the first steps in earnest to try and win a spot at the provincials.
By Sunday, with all of its hurdles seemingly behind it, Burnaby South brought a fire to the court and used it to start fast and top Port Moody’s Heritage Woods Kodiaks 93-67 in the Fraser North championship final at the Langley Events Centre.
Both teams had already qualified for the provincials March 6-9 at the LEC, but key bracket positioning was up for grabs.
“It is everything we have been through since the start of this month, everything we went through, we just kept staying positive and all we wanted was a chance,” said Rebels’ head coach Mike Bell. “Today, the boys were hungry.”
Indeed.
Burnaby South went on a 14-4 run inbetween the first and second quarters to build a 35-15 lead and never looked back, its intensity and cohesion not only coming together quickly after an extended time off the court, but beyond where it seemed to be over the intital weeks of the season when the team looked like one searching for its identity while playing on the same LEC centre court complex that it did at December’s Tsumura Basketball Invitational.
Lordrikk Gutierrez, the compact but powerful 5-foot-11 guard poured home a game-high 20 points and was later selected zone tournament MVP.
“He’s so under-rated,” began Bell. “He can guard higher, can score on bigger, just an overall great kid, the most humble kid you could ever get. He deserves so much and I couldn’t be happier for the kid.”
Keoni Sacco scored 14 points for the winners, Llorikk Gutierrez added 13, Nathan Nowak 11 and Tyler Crossley nine for the Rebels.
Heritage Woods was led by the 17 points of Owen Maloney. Aiden Wilkie added another 11 points in the loss.
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This popped up in my google feed and I’m glad for it. I’m in to NBA and international hoops but often forget about the local basketball being played in my own backyard! Nice article on the Burnaby Rebels finding their stride. Hopefully I’ll find myself paying more attention now 🙂