By HOWARD TSUMURA
LANGLEY — As wild horses brought to this continent from Europe, mustangs have, in a broad sense, come to symbolize freedom in the new world.
If that’s the case, then L.A. Matheson Secondary’s Mustangs are indeed perfectly named.
The Surrey school’s senior boys basketball team is at its best when its pace hits a full-on gallop, and they can get a little antsy when the opposition — in this case Vancouver’s defensive-minded King George Dragons — finds a way to reign them in as a means of breaking their spirit.
And when it comes to the spotlight that accompanies success on the grand provincial stage, moments like Saturday were very much part of a new world for these Mustangs, a program which since converting from that of a junior high, has yet to qualify for the B.C. senior boys basketball championships.
In a nutshell, that was the story line of the 2025 Tsumura Basketball Invitational’s Select 16 championship final staged on Saturday at the Langley Event Centre’s South Court.
Triple A No. 5 Matheson, chomping at the bit to break out of a defensive purgatory inflicted by Double A No. 5 King George, snapped a 49-49 tie with a game-winning 7-0 run over the final two minutes of play to post a 56-51 victory that stands as one of the biggest basketball moments in school history.
“I told the guys before the game, they want to play a very slow pace,” Mustangs’ head coach Tyler Ram warned his team of the Darko-Kulic-coached Dragons who never veer from the defensive shell of their 2-3 zone defence.
“That’s their style,” Ram continued. “We had to speed them up. We tried to pressure them. We tried to run out and transition, and we finally broke free in that fourth quarter. Our game plan finally worked in that fourth quarter.”
And that break for freedom started behind the play of eventual Select 16 tournament MVP Jashan Mahal.
First, he hit one of two free throws with 2:11 left for a 50-49 lead.
Then, in what was perhaps the game’s defining play, he made a steal off King George’s pressure and raced down court for a fastbreak layin and a 52-49 lead with 1:59 left.
Teammates Joven Sanghera and Damien Onokpite added buckets of their own as the L.A. Matheson went on to close out the victory.
“When (King George’s) Darko called that last time out, I just told the guys, I’m like ‘Look, it’s tied right now’. I’m like ‘This is when we got to break free. Just trust the game plan. Trust what we prepared for. And it’s gonna come to fruition.’”
Added Mahal, who was the team floor general throughout the team’s four-game run through the championship side of the draw: “We just went back to what works for us. We know we like to play fast, we know we’re good defensively, and we know we like to push the pace, so that’s what we started doing.”
What a week it was for the Mustangs.
A 75-54 win over North Van’s Windsor Wolves, an 89-63 win over its South Fraser rivals, the Richmond Colts, then a pivotal 93-76 triumph over West Vancouver’s No. 3-ranked Double-A Collingwood Cavaliers in the Friday Final Four.
“It’s our first time being invited to this tournament,” Mahal said afterwards. “And we did lose a tournament last week (97-88 in the final of Q.E. Royals Invitational to crosstown Quad-A foes Grandview Heights), so we knew we had to come to win this one and put the province on notice.
“It’s unbelievable for our school, man,” he continued. “You know, not many people know our school. We’re not a really known school. We really haven’t had an established basketball program, but our group over the past five years since Grade 8, we’ve been working. Every morning, we’re getting shots up. After school, we’re in the gym. We’ve been in the weight room. We knew what we had to do to have a successful season this season as Grade 12s for our last chance and that’s what we wanted to do.”
At the 2024 B.C. junior boys championships, also staged at the LEC, L.A. Matheson lost a tough one to eventual champion Terry Fox in the quarterfinals.
Those are the same Terry Fox Ravens who went all the way to the Final Four on Friday in the TBI’s Super 16 draw.
From that moment Ram loved the cut of his team’s cloth.
“When they were in Grade 8, they didn’t win a game,” reminds Ram. “So they worked really hard to get better. They went to the junior provincials. We won South Frasers. We won Surrey. And we were heartbroken last year that we didn’t get here (for the B.C. Triple-A provincials).”
After watching them this weekend, they clearly belong in a Triple-A Top 10 that looks like B.C.’s strongest ever in the province’s four-tier era.
Besides Mahal, the 6-foot-7 senior forward Onokpite is freakishly explosive. En route to player of the game honous Saturday, he poured home a game-high 20 points, including a posterizing fastbreak dunk in traffic, and a coast-to-coast drive he finished with a finessed finger-roll.
Joven Sanghera, who like Mahal, finished with 10 points, along with Jason Hothi, Jaiden Shergill and Alvik Paglinawan are the core of a largely senior-laden team.
And don’t be alarmed, if during a game, if you hear some vocal gymastics between teammates.
“You know, this is one of those teams where we’re very player-led,” confirmed Ram. “A lot of them are very vocal. They do get on each other a lot, but that’s their style, right? And it works. They hold each other accountable and I think it works for the squad. There’s so many leaders on this team.”
And they are tough to prepare for.
“The biggest thing” added Ram, “is I don’t know who the leading scorer is going to be any night. Like, it could be anybody. And I think we’ve seen that over the course of the week. So I think the hardest thing about us to deal with is who are you going to prepare for? Because anybody could be the leading scorer that night. So I’m really proud of them.”
L.A. Matheson led 20-10 after the first quarter, but after King George tweaked its zone by situating it higher in the quarter court, the Dragons completely reversed the momentum, going on an 18-2 run to lead 30-26.
From that point forward the game tightened up, setting the stage for its pivotal final two minutes.
Mihailo Lukic led the Dragons with 15 points while Abud Shawwa added 13.
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