LANGLEY — On a team filled with talent, being able to find the right player with that true point guard mentality is never a guaranteed thing.
Go ahead, try to find that selfless playmaker you can trust to put the team’s overall well-being above any pursuit of individualism.
But, in those times when schematics change and situations warrant, being able to know that his ability to personally instigate offence can lift his team in many of the same ways.
Luckily for the Dover Bay Dolphins, they have their man in 6-foot-1 Joe Linder.
For most of what is now a two-week run through the Fraser Valley — last week at the Kodiak Classic in Port Moody and all of this week at the Langley Events Centre — Linder, the Grade 10 brother of senior star forward Frank Linder — has been more than content to play the first role. And he’s done it to great effect.
On Friday night, however, as the Tsumura Basketball Invitational’s Super 16 bracket reached its semifinal stage against East Vancouver’s fire-plug tough St. Patricks Celtics, Dover Bay head coach Darren Seaman figuratively tapped his Grade 10 floor general on the shoulder to start the second half and told him that it was time to turn on the taps.
“We talked at halftime,” Seaman began when asked about Linder’s very apparent switch to a more attacking mode of basketball. “Joe is pretty aggressive and I said ‘Start to look to get downhill a bit more now, we’re going into more of a transition offence so just do your thing.”
The results?
After an opening half in which St. Pat’s hard-nosed defence had indeed kept Dover Bay and its more structured offensive sets under wraps as well as any team they have faced this season, the Dolphins took flight.
And none of this is to say that the Celtics weren’t game to go along for the ride, because when the play opened up, its own star guard, Grade 11 Riley Santa Juana, engaged in a one-on-one point guard battle with Linder which did more than suggest that the pair are at the very top end of their class provincially.
Santa Juana twice cut his team’s deficit to nine points (63-54, then 65-57) with dagger threes in the final six minutes of play.
But in the end, as part of an 82-65 win, there was no mistaking the fact that Dover Bay’s junior-aged star needed to simply flick an internal switch to morph from playmaker to point-getter.
Joe Linder scored 21 of his team-high 28 points in the second half.
In the third quarter, behind a couple of threes, he put up 14 points. In the fourth, as the Celtics decided fouling him was the best way to slow him down, he went five-of-six from the stripe.
And the only thing missing the battle between he and Santa Juana down the stretch drive was jumbo bucket of hot-buttered popcorn.
Dover Bay seemed to have St. Pats at arm’s length, yet there was a level of contest between the pair that was furiously beautiful.
Santa Juana, who scored 19 of his team’s 21 fourth-quarter points, and a game-high 35 on the night, pulled his Celts to within 69-61 with 4:25 left on a nifty pull-up.
Linder answered just under a minute later with a pull-up of his own to make it 73-61.
It was one of those great displays of one salvo being answered by another.
“He’s a really good player, hard to guard,” Linder said without hesitation after the win of Santa Juana. “It’s very fun to play like that because they are a great team and we love the competition.”
Frank Linder added 20 for the winners, who will now face the upstart, Triple-A No. 3-ranked St. Thomas More Knights in Saturday’s championship final, tipping off at Centre Court at 4:45 p.m. today.
Dover Bay forward Hudson Trood added 15 more.
For St. Patrick’s Jaiden Quan hit three threes and added 13 points in the loss.
St. Patricks faces Vancouver College for third place at 3 p.m. in South Court.
If you’re reading this story or viewing these photos on any website other than one belonging to a university athletic department, it has been taken without appropriate permission. In these challenging times, true journalism will survive only through your dedicated support and loyalty. VarsityLetters.ca and all of its exclusive content has been created to serve B.C.’s high school and university sports community with hard work, integrity and respect. Feel free to drop us a line any time at howardtsumura@gmail.com.
