By Howard Tsumura
ST. THOMAS MORE 89 ARCHBISHOP CARNEY 32
BURNABY — In an era where offence rules the roost at every level of basketball, precisely how does a head coach get her team to make it the No. 1 part of their identity?
“I think it’s the most fun part of basketball to be honest,” said St. Thomas More head coach Cassie Lauang after watching her Knights put on a display of full-court pressure defence which simply ovrwhelmed PoCo’s Archbishop Carney Stars 89-32 in the Fraser North Double-A title game Sunday at Simon Fraser University.
“I think if we’re going to be undersized, which everybody in the province knows we are, we have to gain advantage somehow on the defensive end,” added Lauang, whose team claimed the zone’s lone berth to the B.C. championships, set to run Feb. 28-March 2 at the Langley Events Centre, with the win.
“So the more effort and the more hsutle that they show on that end dictates how they play on the offensive end,” continued Lauang whose team is making a repeat return to B.C.’s. “They get all of their attention from the defensive end. And they genuinely all like each other, and defence is a team thing.”
That pressure was waiting for the Stars just four seconds into the game.
After the Knights’ won the opening tip and Grade 10 guard-forward Mia Beliveau drove strong for the game’s opening bucket, Carney stared straight into STM’s aggssive full-court zone pressure and trapping schemes.
Beliveau, in fact, was the early finisher, hitting four of the team’s first five shots from the field, pushing the score to 10-2 with her lay-up off a steal from grade nine guard Demicah Arnaldo with the game just 2:17 old.
STM, which took a 47-14 lead into break, was led by the game-high 23 points of the 5-foot-5 Beliveau who was later named the Fraser North tournament MVP.
And when Lauang references her team as being small, she isn’t kidding.
Her 12-player roster averages 5-foot-6 but within its main rotation, that number shrinks considerably.
Yet if you watched the way the Knights transitioned from defence to offence with an unflappable 40-minute mentality, the most amazing thing to consider is that once upon a time, a team which was forced to adopt it’s current style of play to make up for a percevied weakness has, at some point, flipped that script into what is now an empowered strength.
“One-thousand per cent,” agreed Lauang. “I love it. For them they don’t see it as a disadvantage. They see it as, if we put the effort in, we gain the advantage. They want to pressure 94 (feet) and if we stop them on that side of the court then they don’t get the half-court advantage of size. The effort and hustle is there.”
Leading the way was Beliveau.
“There is no quit in that kid,” smiled Lauang. “She does everything to 100 per cent. It doesn’t matter if it’s basketball or being a student, she is 100 per cent locked in. There is no 80 per cent. If you meet her outside the court, she is a little bit withdrawn, but on the court her personality is explosive. She is a fantastic kid and an elite teammate.”
Arnaldo, the 5-foot-2 Grade 9 guard, added 15 points while Mackenzie Pagtakhan, the 5-foot-5 Grade 10 guard had 14. Senior Mara Nica added a further eight for the winners.
Archbishop Carney was led by the seven-point performances of Vanessa Adams, Hannah De Julius and Claudia Sosnowski.
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We are so proud of our grandaughter’s accomplishment. She is just quiet and very humble about it and take it as part of real life. We as Mia Beliveau’s grandparents are humbled by her too and we pray for her and her team ‘s success and safety. But we also wish the safety of the other teams.