By HOWARD TSUMURA
LANGLEY — Welcome to our Final Four Friday here in the Super 16 draw.
TAMANAWIS 62 TERRY FOX 52
By HOWARD TSUMURA
LANGLEY — The Tamanwis Wildcats senior boys basketball team showed up at the Langley Events Centre for the provincial Quad-A basketball championships last March like the walking wounded, and because of it, they lasted one game on the championship side of the draw.
As a result, one of the players fans of B.C.’s own version of March Madness didn’t get to see was the team’s sharp-shooting 5-foot-10 guard Gurjowan Cheema, who had been missed by his team after suffering a meniscus injury.
On Friday, in the TBI Super 16 Final Four, he was impossible to miss.
Wanting to make amends for a missed opportunity this season, Cheema has been a huge part of the ‘Cats maintaining a No. 1-ranking in the B.C. Top 10.
In fact he was so good in his team’s 62-52 win over the unranked Terry Fox Ravens of Port Coquitlam in the first of two Final Four contests, that on occasion his mere presence had the defence mired in a game of second guessing.
Cheema appeared to be taking turns hitting baseline corner threes all over the LEC’s South Court hardwood, and when he hit his fourth of the game to start the second half, he had gotten into the heads of the Ravens.
The next time down the floor, he got the ball again, in the very same spot, and this time it was a shot fake to freeze the defence, then the perfect lob entry inside to forward-centre Luka Guzina, who very easily deposited the ball home for two of his game-high 25 points.
No question Guzina is the team’s X-factor, yet it’s a player like Cheema who gives the No. 1-ranked Quad-A team that added dimension of depth.
“I mean, that’s kind of his game,” said Tamanawis head coach Mike McKay, whose team will face the St. Patrick Celtics in Saturday’s championship final.
“I mean, he’s a guy you really can’t help off of. That’s hopefully kind of our advantage going forward, that we have a big guy, if you want to double off him, he’s going to be deadly in the corner.”
Cheema finished with 12 points but, as McKay explains, his contributions went beyond his actual point totals.
Often times he was tasked with handling the ball in the front court, and from an efficiency standpoint, his shooting stroke put maximum value on all of his touches.
And with the senior trio of Cheema, Guzina and 6-foot-4 forward Victor Cortel (15 points) thriving within a deep rotation, Friday’s overall effort showed that Tammy’s potential is just now being tapped.
In fact the back-to-back plays Cheema was a part of triggered a 10-2 run to open the second half and did a lot to keep the scrappy Ravens at bey.
“Absolutely,” agreed McKay, and he’s still coming back off his knee injury, getting more comfortable with his knee. Hopefully he’ll just continue to get back to where he was last year. I mean, we stat all our games and he shot like 49% from for three last year. He’s very good from the outside.”
The surge put the Wildcats, who led by 10 at the half, up 44-24 in the blink of an eye.
“But then our guys kind of backed down a little bit, and then Terry Fox answered the bell there,” continued McKay. “We went up to 20, and then for some reason we kind of just, I know, thought the game was over and didn’t really continue our lead there and only scored 10 points in the fourth quarter. But, I mean, they’re good defensively. They switch hard, they get out. They guard. So, I mean, if we don’t get those post-pass entries better, we won’t be able to beat teams like.”
Ravens head coach Rich Chambers admitted afterwards that his team has learned a lot about its potential over the week preparing for and playing at TBI.
“Our defence was good, but I mean, in the first half, we were eight-for-41,” he said. “But, I mean, that’s because of them. We just did a poor job guarding the big guy (Guzina), but the big guy’s tough. But I’m pretty pleased because we’ve come a long way in a week here.”
Deklan Martin, one of the province’s top three-pointer shooters, hit four triples to lead his team with 12 points. Point guard Marvin Reyes battled fouls for much of the game and had 10 points.
ST. PATRICKS 89 MEI 69
By HOWARD TSUMURA
LANGLEY — Watching East Vancouver’s St. Patricks Celtics book safe passage into Saturday’s TBI Super 16 championship game, you couldn’t help but think that its 89-69 semifinal win over Abbotsford’s MEI Eagles was doubling as an acknowledgement that its Grade 11 guard Dhyne Cotin had officially arrived among the ranks of B.C. high school basketball stardom.
It was similar to moments of the not-too-distant past in which the likes of former star Irish Coquia (now with NCAA Division 1 New Orleans) and current senior Riley Santa Juana seemed to distinguish themselves as part of a grand tradition of great Celtics’ guards.
After Friday’s breathtaking, game-high 27 point performance helped lead No. 1 St. Pats past No. 2 MEI in a battle of B.C. Triple-A’s finest, it seemed more and more clear the 5-foot-11 Grade guard Cotin had at least cracked open the door on his way to standing in their company.
It wasn’t simply the 20 points he scored by halftime against a stingy and talented Eagles’ team, it was the sweeping, gravity-defying ways in which he attacked… floating along the baseline, double-clutching and then putting english-embellished back-spin on crazy reverse layins that had you at once captivated.
If you’re old enough to get the reference, watch an old Errol Flynn swashbuckler or two to get a better idea.
Cotin had to leave immediately after the game for the video introduction video being shot at the LEC as part of Saturday’s pre-game festivities, something of a TBI tradition, and thus was unavailable for comment.
Yet head coach Nap Santos, who played professionally in Cotin’s native country of The Philippines says its just the way kids learn to play.
“Most of the guards play like that…that’s normal,” said Santos, explaining that Cotin came to Canada about a year-and-a-half ago and last season began to make his climb by playing with both the Celtics’ junior and senior teams. “So when you see it here, people here, they think it’s flashy, but in the Philippines, it’s not. That’s just a normal thing that they do with all the finger rolls, you know in the air, doing a bunch of crazy stuff. It’s kind of nuts. But, I mean, we’re so blessed to have him and the guys love him.”
And when you consider the fact that St. Pats also got 24 points Friday from their senior leader Santa Juana, one of the best guards in the entire province, it’s no wonder the Celtics have built a huge head of steam heading into Saturday’s 4:45 p.m. title game at the LEC’s South Court.
The thing Santos loves most about Cotin’s game?
“Everyone sees how hard he works on defence,” said Santos “So they pick up on his little tendencies that he does, and then they’ll start doing it. I’ve been trying to teach them how to do it, but I can’t do it anymore. I’m too old. But he does exactly what I’ve been asking for, and now all the guys totally want to play like that… playing tough defence and helping each other.”
The Eagles?
Yes, their run through the field went a little off the rails after impressive back-to-back wins over Dover Bay and Vancouver College, an accomplishment which stands on its own.
Yet in the same way Dover Bay got back to work after losing to the Eagles in the opening round Wednesday, MEI coach Mike Lee says his team will use Friday’s loss as a key point of emphasis moving forward.
“We’ll be ready in March,” said Lee who Friday got 19 points from Kaden Vandervelden and 13 more from Mercer Thiessen. “That’s exactly what I needed to see and what our guys needed to see. That intensity level and pressure is what was I was hoping to get early in the season. So now we know where the bar is at and we’ll be ready. And we’re going to tidy up 25 turnovers. That’s not going to happen again.”
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