NO. 10 SIMILKAMEEN 75 ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL 63
By GARY KINGSTON (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY – At the Sanderson Farm Market and Indian Restaurant in Keremeos, the place was packed Saturday afternoon with hyped up basketball fans.
The tables were full, about 90 people jammed inside in eager anticipation, watching the game via the Langley Event Centre’s livestream tournament feed.
The local senior boys basketball team, the Similkameen Sparks, was in the final of the provincial Single A championship, having improbably advanced as the No. 10 seed by beating the seventh, second and third seeds on consecutive days. In the final, they faced the No. 1 seed St. John’s Eagles of Vancouver, the reigning Single A champs.
Watching on a big screen, the crowd at the farm market exploded after the Sparks scored the final 15 points of the game and setting off a raucous mid-court celebration at Langley Events Centre with the 150 or so family and friends who made the trip and witnessed a 75-63 win.
“It was crazy,” said Arsh Dhillon, a worker at the farm market owned by the family of the team’s captain and leading scorer Balkaran Lidhar, when reached by phone following the game. “It was so loud in here I couldn’t even hear my uncle talking to me.
“We’re so proud of them. There’ll be a big party for them when they get back home.”
Back at the Langley Events Centre, Sparks’ head coach Aaron Kessler said he expected there to be “complete pandemonium” at the farm market.
“The town lives for sports, all sports. It’s a great community.”
Similkameen had not made a Single A final since 2001, when it won the second of back-to-back titles.
And while the Sparks were certainly better than their No. 10 seed would indicate, this was still a shocking result. They needed to knock off Kelowna’s Aberdeen Hall Gryphons in a win-or-go-home play-in game to capture the No. 3 Thompson-Okanagan seed. They then eliminated South Pointe Academy of Delta, Daaxigan Sk’adaa Nee of the Queen Charlotte Islands and Vernon Christian to get into the final.
There, all they did was hand the talented Eagles their first loss against Single A competition this season.
“This feels fantastic, it doesn’t feel real,” said the six-foot-four forward Balkaran Lidhar, who had a game-high 27 points and 13 rebounds, and was later named tournament MVP. “It feels like a dream right now. It feels insane.”
The Sparks trailed 63-60 with 3:45 remaining in the game, but then tightened up defensively, though at least part of the reason for St. John’s going scoreless to the end was a result of its shooters going colder than the inside of an Amana freezer.
“Man did that bucket shrink,” said dapper St. John’s coach Jonathan Kinman, outfitted in his traditional finals suit. “We had lots of looks in the fourth quarter to be honest. We’ve never gone one-for-18 (for the game) from beyond the arc all year. Picked a fine to do that didn’t we?
“But credit to them. They played so well and so aggressive, and they reality made it difficult.”
While the Eagles were air-balling and clanging shots off iron from long-distance, the Sparks were suddenly finding the range in the second half.
Grade 12 guard Krishon Terbasket (is that a great basketball name or what?) dropped a pair of corner treys in the third quarter and another one in the fourth.
“I was feeling it,” said a grinning Terbasket. “Whenever I hit one, I always get hot. I knew I’d have to get hot some time, especially since this was the finals.”
Lidhar made two clutch baskets from in the paint with 2:40 to go and guard Jasdeep Dhaliwal, who dished out seven assists, went eight of 10 from the free throw line in the final 64 seconds.
“He’s always like that, the most calm, composed guy I know in the last seconds,” said Kessler. “I don’t need to say anything. He knows exactly what to do.”
The Sparks also got a blue-collar like performance from the six-foot-three widebody Sukh Dhaliwal, who didn’t score – he didn’t even take a shot – but who pulled down 14 rebounds and was a monster in setting screens to give his teammates room and open looks.
“The rebounding was really important,” said Dhaliwal after taking his turn at the traditional cutting down of the twine at the west basket. “If we don’t rebound well, we’re not going to win the game, obviously, so rebounding was really crucial for me.”
The first quarter was fast-paced and tight – both teams shot 40 per cent from the field – and ended with a bang as Lidhar drained a three-pointer from about Aldergrove that allowed Similkameen to exit the first 10 minutes down by just two, 21-19.
The athletic play and intensity continued in the second quarter, highlighted by a power move to the basket by Lidhar, who blew by Harry White like he was standing still and finished with an emphatic two-handed dunk.
That made it 32-28 Similkameen and a minute later they took a six-point lead after a huge offensive rebound by the Sparks’ Derrius Wallace that led to a three-pointer from Jasdeep Dhaliwal.
A filthy baseline reverse layup by St. John’s Philip Wong and free throws from Lucas Pawlowski made it 35-33 Sparks at halftime.
Like other players, Sukh Dhaliwal was still shocked that the Sparks had beaten the reigning champs.
“It feels amazing, it still hasn’t sunk in completely yet. It just all feels like a dream.”
And it’s a dream that could be resurrected next year. Jasdeep Dhaliwal, Sukh Dhaliwal and Lidhar will all be Grade 12s and fifth starter Kirn Dulohan (10 points) will be a Grade 11.
“We’re running it back,” said Sukh Dhaliwal. “We’ll be back here next year.”
The Eagles, who also return a bunch of Grade 11 and Grade 10s, who saw considerable action this year, could also make a return to the final in 2027.
“I certainly hope so,” said Kinman. “And just let me say this, what a great moment for Keremeos and their town. It’s going to sound stupid coming from me, but what a great moment for public schools and the Indigenous community. If I was going to lose, this was going to be the perfect team to lose too.”
Oh, and about that big celebration at the Sanderson Farm Market, a place Kinman knows well when he’s travelling through the tiny orchard-rich town: “I stop in there all the time.”
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