LANGLEY — Welcome to Varsity Letters’ coverage of the 79th annual B.C. Senior Boys Basketball Championships here at the Langley Events Centre.
No. 1 St. Thomas More will face No. 2 Windsor for the B.C. title Saturday (5:15 p.m.) at the Langley Event Centre’s Arena Bowl.
Here’s our two game reports from Final Four Friday:
Thanks for your patience and our promise to deliver on a nightly basis.
Howard Tsumura
TRIPLE-A
FINAL FOUR
TOP HALF DRAW
No. 2 WINDSOR 74, NO. 11 MARK ISFELD 56
DAN KINVIG (Special for Varsity Letters)
The Mark Isfeld Ice’s stirring Cinderella run through the 3A draw came to an end in the semifinals on Friday, and it wasn’t for lack of effort, discipline, or belief.
When it came right down to it, Isfeld simply didn’t have an answer for Perrin Taylor.
Taylor, the Windsor Wolves’ 6’6” senior forward, was the Ice’s kryptonite on this night as his No. 2-seeded squad dashed No. 11 Isfeld’s dreams of a third consecutive upset win.
The supremely versatile Taylor ticked a lot of boxes for the Wolves, from rim protection and rebounding, to soft-touch post scoring and even a long-distance bomb sprinkled in.
In the end, it added up to a stellar individual stat line – 35 points, 15 rebounds, two assists, one block – plus a trip to the provincial championship game for his squad. Windsor will face the winner of Friday’s late semi between St. Thomas More and Wellington for the 2A crown (Saturday, 5:15 p.m., LEC Arena Bowl).
“Perrin’s been our guy all year long,” Wolves head coach Marco Fong enthused. “Honestly nothing he does surprises me, because he puts in the work. He works on his game every single day. He’s had 40-point games, he’s had 20-20 (points-rebounds) games.
“So for me, it’s not a surprise when he plays well – ever.”
Isfeld was in full Cinderella mode, with upset wins over No. 6 Magee and No. 3 St. Patrick already under their belts this week.
The Wolves, in the early going, appeared poised to crush their hopes in emphatic fashion, racing out to a 28-17 lead. Oscar Rouillard, Windsor’s 6’5” Grade 11 guard, had the hot hand, racking up 14 first-half points.
The Ice managed to cool down the Wolves by switching to a 2-2-1 zone press, forcing a few turnovers and getting rolling in transition. They were able to close to within 32-26 at halftime, and trimmed the deficit to 38-37 in the third quarter after a Nate Boan triple.
Windsor was eventually able to solve the Ice’s press, and didn’t just break it – they often scored directly off their press break, with Taylor frequently finishing the sequence.
Late in the third, Taylor put together memorable back-to-back possessions – first stepping outside to stroke a three, then heading down to the block the next trip to swish a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar style sky hook.
The three-pointer, in particular, reminded Fong of the exit meeting he had with Taylor at the conclusion of his Grade 11 year.
“I like to give my players homework over the offseason,” he explained. “He wants to play at the next level, and he’s always had the post game, he’s always had the soft hands. I told him he needs to add that outside touch, and he’s worked really hard at it.
“He’s actually the second-best three-point shooter, percentage-wise, on our team now. He doesn’t shoot many, but when he does, he usually makes them. It’s all due to his work ethic.
“He saw a flaw in his game, worked really hard on it, and now it’s become a strength. Most teams are happy when he gets the ball outside (as opposed to in the paint), so he gets nice open looks for himself.”
Taylor’s outside-inside outburst was part of a 19-5 Windsor surge to close the third quarter.
The Wolves led by as many as 17, but the Ice battled back to get to within 64-54 with three minutes left in regulation. Out of a timeout, Windsor went back to – who else? – Taylor. He scored the last eight points for his team, with a pair of tough buckets in the paint, a deft floater in the lane, and a breakaway dunk in the final minute to punctuate the victory. He racked up 27 points in the second half alone.
“At the beginning, I thought it was hard to shoot on these nets,” Taylor said with a smile, alluding to the fact it was his team’s first game in the cavernous arena bowl. “But I got used to it, and I got more confident. I realized I needed to step up if we wanted to win the game, and get more aggressive offensively.”
Taylor shot 14-of-24 from the field and 6-of-6 from the free throw line for the Wolves, who got 16 points from Rouillard and 10 from point guard Lukas Chung.
Daxin Moldenhauer posted a team-best 22 points and seven boards for the Ice, while Boan’s 16-point effort featured a pair of three-pointers.
Afterward, Isfeld head coach Blake Tobacca expressed deep pride in his team’s performance this week.
“Our program is strong, and we’ll be back next year,” he said.
“Windsor deserved that win today. They played hard. Their size got a hold of us, and they shot really well, played really well.”
Taylor, looking ahead to the final, said his team is ready to meet the moment.
“We just need to really bring it – be aggressive, be confident,” he said. “This is our first chance to do this in a really long time, so we’re really motivated and really think we can do it.”
BOTTOM HALF DRAW
No. 1 ST. THOMAS MORE 64, NO. 5 WELLINGTON 62
DAN KINVIG (Special for Varsity Letters)
In the game of basketball, physical stature and athleticism can take you quite a long way.
But there’s also something to be said for veteran poise, grit and chemistry, and those virtues were front and centre on Friday as the St. Thomas More Knights edged the Wellington Wildcats 64-62 to punch their ticket to the B.C. 2A championship game.
“I was getting jokes from spectators,” Knights head coach Denzel Laguerta said with a chuckle afterward.
“When you compare our warm-ups to other teams’ warm-ups, everybody on the other team is usually windmill dunking, and on our team we have maybe one-and-a-half guys who can dunk on a good day.
“But it’s a testament to our kids’ character and skill level, and their ability to play together.”
Indeed, the top-seeded Knights had to wring out every last drop of their collective resolve to outlast the No. 5 Wildcats, who boast an imposing frontcourt of Brayden Savage (6’9”), Jackson Peters (6’7”) and Grayson Ritzand (6’5”).
STM’s most eyebrow-raising numbers in the roster booklet are in the far right column, under “Grade” – 11 of their 14 players are seniors, making them one of the most seasoned squads across all four tiers.
Offence was slow to materialize on this night – the Knights led 13-6 after a grind-it-out first quarter. STM’s Shane Deza seemingly the only player who was in the flow, draining a trio of triples in the frame.
Wellington senior centre Savage got going in the second, racking up 11 points as the Wildcats rallied to take a 27-26 lead into the break.
The game briefly seemed to be slipping away from STM at the start of the third – Wellington opened on a 10-2 surge, sparked by a pair of Noah Robertson treys.
At that point, Laguerta switched to a zone press, a look he’s used sparingly in the second half of the season in order to save it for such a time as this. It worked wonders – with Deza and Daniel Kay wreaking havoc with their ball pressure and Zeru Abera stepping up for timely steals, STM was able to seize the momentum, closing the quarter on a 24-6 run to take a 53-44 advantage into the fourth.
Wellington wasn’t close to done, though. Grade 11 standout Ritzand willed his team back into it, scoring a dozen fourth-quarter points. At one crucial juncture, he bulldozed his way down the left baseline for a bucket, and on the ensuing possession, he spun to the middle for a two-handed dunk in traffic to draw his team back to within 56-55.
STM’s Logan Ball responded with a high-arcing floater over Savage, and Jacob Oreta’s midrange jumper would later extend the lead to 62-56.
Ritzand stepped up and drilled a super-clutch trey, and Savage converted a layup off a baseline inbounds play as the Wildcats were back to within a point (62-61) with 40 seconds left.
Abera was fouled with 13.8 seconds left and converted one of two from the free throw line.
Wellington raced down the floor and Holden West saw his runner in the lane rim out, but Savage grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 4.3 seconds remaining. He hit the first but missed the second, and Abera grabbed the rebound and went 1-for-2 from the line himself to provide the final margin.
“My heart’s racing still,” Laguerta said with a smile. “It was a gritty win – they’re such a good team, and their size gave us a lot of trouble. As much as you want to preach boxing out and all that good stuff, they still killed us on the glass. And Grayson Ritzand, he’s a phenomenal player, man. It’s hard to believe the kid’s in Grade 11, and he’s not actually 25.
“But such a gutsy win for the guys. Maybe ugly, but you survive and advance at this point.”
Deza went 5-for-12 from downtown on his way to a game-high 25 points, and Abera stuffed the stat sheet with 22 points, 13 rebounds, six assists and six steals. Oreta added 11 points for the winners.
Ritzand was heroic in defeat, posting 22 points and nine rebounds, and Savage posted a symmetrical 18-point, 18-rebound stat line.
The Knights advance to face the No. 2 Windsor Wolves for the title (Saturday, 5:15 p.m., LEC Arena Bowl).
“We haven’t played them yet,” Laguerta said. “We didn’t know much about them, but they made some noise in the Sea to Sky (zone tournament). They’re a well-coached team, seeing how they’ve played the last couple weeks.
“It’s going to be a methodical game. We have to keep 15 (Perrin Taylor) and 8 (Emmet Ward) off the glass, and just play together.”
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