PORT COQUITLAM — Welcome to our live reports from the final day of the 30th annual Terry Fox Legal Beagle Invitational.
Check back on this posting through the course of the day as we provide reports on the Beagle’s five placing games, leading up to tonight’s 7:30 p.m. final between Oak Bay and Holy Cross.
3rd-5th PLACE
TERRY FOX 70 KELOWNA 51
The host and No. 2-ranked Terry Fox Ravens refused to treat Friday night’s buzzer-bead to have a short memory.
“As we move ahead,” continued Prinster, “there are so many teams in the mix. You’ve got to be able to put a loss behind you. You have to rally and you have to be ready to go again.”
The Ravens were all of the above.
Bolting out to a 12-4 lead, then later a 34-15 advantage in the second quarter, they were never threatened.
Cameron Slaymaker and David Chien each scored a game-high 15 points in the win. Forward Grady Stanyer added 12 points and guard Jaden de Leon 11.
“Our start really was important,” added Prinster. “We have had trouble in first quarters, so we tried to simplify things and get to the core of what we need to do to be successful.”
Hunter Simson led the Owls with 13 points while Parker Johnstone added 12.
4th-6th PLACE
VANCOUVER COLLEGE 104 LORD TWEEDSMUIR 80
The fine line between up and down?
Lord Tweedsmuir head coach Drew Gallacher and Vancouver College head coach Lloyd Scrubb can’t quite explain the elusive nature of basketball karma, yet here at the 30th annual Legal Beagle it was clear to see the contrasting paths that No. 1 Tweedy and No. 6 VC were taking when they clashed Saturday’s 4th-6th place game.
The Fighting Irish, clearly energized from a 25-point comeback win over Kitsilano earlier in the day, suffocated Surrey’s Panthers by a profoundly one-sided 104-80 count, officially signalling the start of the season’s second half.
“We knew when the rankings came out (last Wednesday) that they were inflated because of the lack of discipline we have been showing lately, and the lack of defence we’ve been playing,” said Gallacher whose team was tripped up by No. 9 Kelowna in its tourney opener on Thursday. “Unless we address those areas, we’re not going anywhere this year. So we’ve got to get back to the drawing board. We’ll never stop competing, and we’ll really focus on our defence.”
VC’s Toni Maric has truly rounded into a comfortable place within the Irish rotation, and his game-high 28 points were ample example of that.
Teammates Callum Chow-White (18), Luc Therrien (16) and Hunter Cruz-Dumont (12) brought true balance to the attack.
Arjun Samra led the Panthers with 19 points but fouled out down the fourth-quarter stretch. Alex Le added 17, Austin Swedish 15 and Elijah Devison 11.
Afterwards, Scrubb said the fourth quarter put forth by his team against Kits helped the Irish set a template for the Lord Tweedsmuir game. Kits led Vancouver College 64-39 midway through the third quarter but as part of the Irish’s game-closing 36-8 run was a 31-8 fourth quarter.
“They said we wanted to have another quarter like that,” he said of his players. “Our goal was to have four quarters like that in this game. But of course I was skeptical. I didn’t believe it. So the challenge they took on was to put four more together and I am glad it worked out.”
8TH-10TH PLACE
TAMANAWIS 70 KITSILANO 48
Jeevan Sidhu isn’t putting any kinds of limits on just where he thinks he can help lead Surrey’s Tamanawis Wildcats.
“I want to give them 100 per cent of my effort… that is what I want to give,” said Sidhu, the smooth-shooting 6-foot-4 senior forward after he looked spectacular in scoring a game-high 34 points as part of Tammy’s 70-48 win over Vancouver’s Kitsilano Blue Demons in the 8th-10th place game at Beagle 2019.
“If that is scoring points on offence or taking charges on defence, I want to do whatever I can to get this team to the provincial finals. That is the goal. That is always the goal.”
Like everyone here at The Beagle this week, Sidhu has seen how wide-open the race is at Quad A.
First, No. 1 Lord Tweedsmuir losing to No. 9 Kelowna, then No. 8 Oak Bay getting a buzzer-beating trey from Diego Maffia to take down host and No. 2-ranked Terry Fox.
“It’s still early in the year, so we just need to work harder,” said Sidhu, who back in late December almost engineered a win over then-No. 1-ranked Burnaby South. “Competition-wise this week, every team we’ve played here has been great for us. Now, we’re excited to move forward to March, excited to making that big run. As long as we’re hitting shots and playing defence, we’re right up there.”
Paytom Lum with 16 points, and Owen Cutler with 13 led the Blue Demons.
7TH-9TH PLACE
No. 10 W.J. MOUAT 70 NEW WESTMINSTER 57
The completion of Terry Fox’s Legal Beagle Invitational means there is about a month to the start of the Fraser Valley championships.
So the chance afforded over the past three days to play outside of the conference against some of the province’s best teams is a valuable measure in terms of gauging just where your team’s growth is trending.
For Abbotsford’s W.J. Mouat Hawks, it is easy to see how much bigger a role 6-foot-6, 230-pound post Gavin Dulku is starting to embrace.
“He is improving immensely,” said Mouat head coach Surinder Sarowa after his team secured seventh place at the Beagle with a win over the ninth-place finishing New Westminster Hyacks. “He is starting to dominate on the inside block and that is where we want to be with him.”
While wing/forward Manvir Johal led the winners with 23 points, and guards Jevan Uppal and Gershaun Sarowa added 13 and nine points respectively, it’s the promise of Dulku’s improving inside play which can add another layer of versatility to the Hawks’ post-season aspirations.
On Saturday, his success rate from the charity stripe was not where he wanted it (4-for-10) but he still finished with 14 points and used his physicality to good effect.
“I think in the Valleys he is going to play a key role,” said coach Sarowa, “because I don’t think there are a lot of big guys that can match up with him size-wise and weight-wise. So if he can be an enforcer on the block, he can be a real key part of it for us.”
The Hyacks were led by the 16 points of A.J. Chol. Ethan Rivas added 13, and Kirk Bothwell and Luke Burton nine each.
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