Vancouver College's Jason Soriano (right) does his best to slow Brent Padilla of Holy Cross during a quarterfinal play-in clash between a pair of Top 10 Quad-A teams Friday morning in PoCo. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Holy Cross beats VC in all-Catholic battle, Oak Bay tops Tammy: Legal Beagle’s Friday night Final Four dance card now complete

PORT COQUITLAM — The Holy Cross Crusaders and Oak Bay Bays will attempt to go 2-0 over perhaps the most competitive single day of their 2018-19 senior boys Quad A basketball seasons.

Surrey’s No. 4-ranked Crusaders and Victoria’s No. 8-ranked Bays each won key contests Friday morning to advance to tonight’s semifinals at the 30th annual Terry Fox Legal Beagle in Port Coquitlam.

The Crusaders will face No. 9-ranked Kelowna in a 6:45 p.m. semifinal, while the Bays will take on the host and No. 2-ranked Ravens to close out the card at 8:30 p.m.

The two winners will face each other in Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. final.

Here’s a look at Friday’s two early quarterfinal play-in games:

Holy Cross’ T.J. Fujimura gets into his defensive stance against Hunter Cruz-Dumont of Vancouver College on Friday at the Legal Beagle. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)

No. 4 HOLY CROSS 71 No. 6 VANCOUVER COLLEGE 63

Uyi Ologhola and Brent Padilla have a way of making you forget that they are both still in Grade 11.

The Crusaders’ youthful duo each scored 22 points as the Crusaders beat the No. 6-ranked Fighting Irish for the second time this season.

Vancouver College’s impressive 17-2 run put the Irish on top 34-29 heading into the half, yet the Crusaders were able to come out in the third quarter and take back control of the proceedings.

When asked about the big Irish run early and the six total points his team scored in the second quarter, Crusaders’ head coach Anthony Pezzente put it down to youth.

“We weren’t being aggressive,” he said. “We stopped attacking the rim. But a part of that is that we are still very young. With a lot of Grade 11s that are figuring out how to play senior varsity basketball, you see moments of brilliance and you see moments of passivity. We can’t be passive. That is not who we re are. We just need to stay aggressive on offence and defence.”

Michael Risi and T.J. Fujimura each scored seven points in the win.

Hunter Cruz-Dumont led Vancouver College with 13 points while Toni Maric and Luc Therrien each scored 12 points.

Holy Cross and Kelowna last faced each other in the quarterfinal round of the TBI back on Dec. 4, in a game won 74-59 by the Crusaders.

Arbin Dhillon (right) and the rest of the Tamanawis Wildcats slowed the pace against Oak Bay’s Diego Maffia (6) on Friday, but the Bays still prevailed and found a way to tonight’s Legal Beagle semifinals in PoCo. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)

No. 8 OAK BAY 65 No. 7 TAMANAWIS 56

Maybe the highest compliment you can pay Diego Maffia is to say that even though he scored 45 points on Thursday and then 27 more Friday morning here at the Legal Beagle, there can be a feeling that he’s done it without really getting into a groove.

“There is always the chance that he may go for 50 or 60 points,” reminded Bays’ head coach Chris Franklin after Oak Bay prevailed Friday morning, finding a spot in this evening’s semifinal round despite the best efforts of a Tamanawis team dedicated to grinding any Bays’ tempo into the hardwood. “But as long as Diego’s getting good looks, is in rhythm, and is not pressing, then what he does is what he does.”

Tamanawis came as close as 44-42 in the second half, but Maffia, along with Jordane Burke (14 points) and Eathan Moore (10 points) had enough to never allow the Wildcats gain traction over the latter stages of play.

“They did a good job of marking Diego and I didn’t think we did a good job of moving the ball, and finding open shooters, and we missed a lot of layups which never helps,” added Franklin. “But a win is a win and it’s a great opportunity to play Terry Fox in the semifinals of the Legal Beagle.”

Oak Bay and Terry Fox have not yet met this season.

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