For St. Pat’s stars Labrador, Cotin senior service helps junior Celts outlast Fox, earn spot in BC JV title tilt!

LANGLEY — Five Final Fours in the past six years, and now a chance to win its second provincial title over that span.

St. Patricks are indeed a program in every sense of the word, and on Tuesday here at the 55th annual B.C. Junior Boys semifinals, the Celtics outlasted PoCo’s Terry Fox Ravens 68-62 behind a pair of players who have a keen sense of what the hardcourt wars can be about when it gets down to the final few minutes of a high-stakes game.

“Part of our program is making sure that our junior guys get to go up to the senior team,” said head coach John Boateng, “and that gives them the poise to play in these big moments. They get that experience at a higher level.”

Boateng was speaking in particular to the team’s two most accomplished players, both 5-foot-10 Grade 10 guards in  Jericho Labrador and Dhyne Cotin.

Labrador led the winners with a truly efficient 28-point outing, seemingly switching to glide when all around him, fatigue threatened to set in.

And Cotin, who plays with a more physical edge, and with a required hybrid mindset on a height-challenged team, was there to score 19 more.

Both were excellent in early January when senior head coach Nap Santos gave them the nod to junior the seniors and each played a role in helping the Celtics win the Rich Goulet St. Thomas More Chancellor Invitational.

Those two, along with ice-veined 5-foot-9 Grade 10 guard Dion Gonzales (four threes, 14 points) led a determined rotation throughout. Yet was all they could do to hold down the Ravens.

“I have so much respect for that team and that program,” said Boateng. “Just a gritty group of players. They just kept fighting and every time we would think that okay, maybe we’ll be able to put them away they never died. They fought back every single time. It took everything we had.”

A 10-0 Terry Fox run between the halves tied the score 34-34. After falling behind by 11 at 51-39, the Ravens did it again, this time tying the game on a coast-to-coast driving layin by 6-foot-2 Grade 9 forward Robi Felipe.

St. Pat’s led 62-61 with 1:05 left, but this time, the Ravens didn’t have another run left in them, and three missed free throws and an errant sidelines inbounds pass that resulted in an uncontested breakaway lay-in for Labrador made it 64-61 with 37 seconds remaining.

“Twice we were down about 10 and then we got stops, we got baskets, we just didn’t have enough at the end and that is a very, very good team,” Ravens’ co-coach Mark Prinster said. “They just have more scoring weapons than we do, but we’re real proud of our guys. They made a great run in this tournament.”

Joel Pelland, the Ravens under-sized 6-foot-1 centre/power forward, inch for inch, turned in one of the gutsiest performances of the season, whether senior or junior varsity.

Pelland not only scored a team-high 20 points, he likely had in excess of 20 rebounds, with the potential that more came off offensive glass than defensive. His motor was topped by no one on the floor.

Felipe brought great energy and 16 points, a total matched by compact guard Ricky Adam, whose four clutch triples all seemed to ignite Terry Fox rallies.

Terry Fox faces Lord Tweedsmuir on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in the bronze medal final.

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