LANGLEY — We’ve gone final on Final Four Friday here at the 2024 Tsumura Basketball Invitational.
The Collingwood Cavaliers and King George Dragons are set to do battle at 3 p.m. in a Sea-to-Sky conference final for the Select 16 crown.
Both game reports are now published below.
Howard Tsumura
KING GEORGE 51 BROOKSWOOD 44
LANGLEY — The King George Dragons, like most of the rest of the B.C. high school boys basketball world, have yet to discover anything resembling their final polish in this, the second week of the new season.
But until they find a little more shine, head coach Darko Kulic’s Dragons look like a team willing to lead with their grit.
Over a fourth-quarter battle against the hometown Brookswood Bobcats in the first of two TBI Select 16 Final Four matchups on Friday, King George came away victorious despite the fact they scored just one bucket from the field over the entire fourth quarter.
Instead, they got the ball inside to the team’s do-everything 6-foot-5 senior forward Faisal Shawwa, who on his way to a game-high 27 points, went a combined 10-for-12 from the free throw line.
Kulic and Co. schemed up ways to take advantage of Shawwa’s tough-minded play in the paint, but also his ability to kick the ball out to open teammates.
“We always preach ‘Little things make big things happen’, shout out to John Wooden,” Kulic said in attribution to the wisdom of the late UCLA coaching legend.
“Faisal does all the little things,” he continued. “In today’s game, they crowded him, they put a bunch on him.”
So Kulic dug out an old set he had designed for former Dragons’ star Jose Zuluaga, now an assistant with the team, and plugged Shawwa into the middle of it with great success.
“(Shawwa) went in there and was hitting everybody like a young Nikola Jokic, being very smart and aggressive and very clutch, proud of him and the whole team. Gritty, gritty.”
Guard Filip Puaca added 12 and forward Charlie Comrie 11 more for the winners.
Brookswood was playing without the services of its star 6-foot-5 senior guard Logan Stewart who suffered a badly sprained ankle in Thursday’s quarterfinals.
The date for his return is not yet known, and in his stead, backcourt mate Jayden Kenyon doubled his efforts, finishing with 23 points in a low-scoring game.
For his part, Kulic didn’t want to say anything about his team’s performance until he first spoke about Stewart, one of the province’s most talented players in the Class of 2025.
“We are all thinking of him,” said Kulic. “He should be proud of his brothers over there playing so hard. I hope Logan gets back soon. He deserves it. All of us at King George, we’re cheering him on.”
The Dragons are set to face the Collingwood-Rick Hansen winner in Saturday’s 3 p.m. Select 16 title game.
GAME 2
COLLINGWOOD 101 RICK HANSEN 62
LANGLEY — It’s a rare trick to lose your share of high-rotation seniors from a provincial championship suqad, then come back the very next season with a team that just might be a better, albeit stylistically different squad.
That’s story behind the 2024-25 edition of West Vancouver’s Collingwood Cavaliers, who have stormed their way through the field here at the Tsumura Basketball Invitational’s Select 16 pool at the Langley Events Centre.
While they aren’t quite Paul Westhead’s Loyola Marymount Lions of 1989-90 vintage, the new-look Cavaliers operate under the same kind of high-octane mindset, and at Friday’s Select 16 Final Four, their offence is a ‘hundo’ waiting to happy.
“It’s so interesting because this year is such a different team than last year’s,” head coach Andy Wong explained after his team broke the century mark for the second time in three games following a 101-62 win over Abbotsford’s Rick Hansen Hurricanes.
“Last year we had tons of size (6-8 post Avi Barha, 6-5 forward Logan Albiani, and 6-4 guards James Holm and Cy Bosa) and we used it to our advantage,” said Wong, whose team won the B.C. Double-A title last March after coming in as the No. 3 seeds.
“This year, we’re just all about playing with pace and going up and down the court,” added Wong, whose opening-round game Wednesday was a 107-55 win over Maple Ridge, one which was followed by a 92-67 win Thursday over Richmond.
On Friday, Rick Hansen could not match Collingwood’s efficiency in a tempo-plus environment for all four quarters.
A plethora of fast-break hoops, 13 treys and just a constant run-and-fun mindset all contributed to the Double-A No. 1 Cavaliers beating the No. 9-ranked Hurricanes by 39 points.
“Someone different steps up every game,” said Wong. “Today it was out back court, Tony Li and Sam Li.”
They are not brothers but they play with a real connection.
“They were just on fire, they have great chemistry,” said Wong of Sam who his five triples and scored a game-high 29 points, and Tony who hit three treys and finished with 22 points.
“The players all really feed off of each other and it’s just a fun team to coach.”
Julian Hinders, who gives the team some size in the front court at 6-foot-6, added 15 points while Finnegan Murphy, another returnee, added 12 more.
Harjap Thind, the ‘Canes top shooter, hit four triples and finished with a team-high 26 points. Jeet Dhaliwal added 19 more.
The Cavaliers will face the King George Dragons of Vancouver in Saturday’s TBI Select 16 championship final, set to tip at 3 p.m. on Centre Court at the Langley Events Centre.
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