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Championship Finals Saturday At 2020 BC High School Boys Basketball Championships Including An All Chilliwack Final

Langley (LEC MEDIA)- The match-ups are set for the championship finals of all four tiers at the 2020 BC High School Boys Basketball Championships at Langley Events Centre.

The 1A final features an all-Chilliwack final between No. 1 Highroad Academy and No. 3 Unity Christian at 1:30pm

The 2A final will have No. 1 Charles Hays (Prince Rupert) and No. 2 King George (Vancouver) at 3:45pm

The 3A final is No. 1 Duchess Park (Prince George) against No. 3 G.W. Graham (Chilliwack) at 6:00pm

And the 4A final is No. 1 Burnaby South against No. 3 Kelowna at 8:15pm

More than just a provincial title will be at stake on Saturday as so too will be city bragging rights.

It will be an all-Chilliwack affair as the No. 1 Highroad Christian Academy Knights face the No. 3 Unity Christian Flames in the BC High School 1A Boys Tournament. The championship final tips off at 1:30 p.m. at Langley Events Centre.

This will be the fifth meeting of the season between the two local rivals with the Knights winning all four: by three points in overtime, by two points, by 10 and then most recently, a 29-point blowout victory.

But if the Flames play defence like they did in Friday’s semi-final victory, it could be a whole other story.

Unity Christian held an explosive Kelowna Christian Knights offence (which entered the game with 92 and 88-point performances under their belts) to 34 points, including just 13 in the second half.

And while Kelowna Christian could not buy a shot, the Flames were hot, connecting on nearly 65 per cent of their field goals in the first quarter and at just over 28 per cent for the half.

“I have not seen our defence play that well. That was a surprise how well everyone bought in. The buy in and the trust? It takes a lot of trust to rotate and leave your guy and that trust that someone is going to have your back and they did it tonight,” said Unity coach Dave Bron.

The team also drew six offensive fouls, five of which came in the first half.

With the defence getting stops at one end, it led to countless fast break opportunities for the Flames.

Keegan Schuurman led the Flames with 24 points and a dozen rebounds as well as three assists, three blocked shots and two steals. Colby Vander Kooi had 20 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, four blocked shots and a steal.

Jake Sabbagh led Kelowna Christian with 14 points, 19 rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals.

Next up for the Flames will be the task of slowing Highroad Academy’s Nico Kattenberg. The six-three forward had 25 points and 25 rebounds in his team’s 79-68 win over the No. 5 Fernie Falcons. He has pulled down 52 rebounds in the first three games.

Asher Hannemann led the Falcons with 21 points and a dozen rebounds while Jake Lampman had 18 points and 10 rebounds. The Knights’ had five players reach double digits with Aidan Morris (18 points, three assists, three steals) complimenting Kattenberg’s massive game.

It was a one-point game with a quarter to play and the Knights scored a dozen of the next 17 points to take the lead for good.

For the second straight game it was a defensive adjustment which sparked the Knights as they switched to 3-2 zone and half-court 1-2-2.

“It got us a couple of points and then the guys just gritted it out,” said head coach Mike Shannon.

Highroad Academy won the provincial banner in 2002 and their last appearance in the championship game came in 2008. Shannon returned to the Knights bench this season after coaching that silver-medal squad a dozen years ago.

The Knights won bronze in 2019 and returned eight players from that squad.

Meanwhile

The G.W. Graham Grizzlies were five minutes away from not even qualifying for the provincial tournament. It was at Langley Events Centre just over two weeks ago as the Grizzlies found themselves trailing by dozen points with five minutes to play in the Eastern Valley zone semi-final in a win or go home game.

“We take a time-out, they sit down, and I don’t have to say anything,” recalled Grizzlies head coach Jake Mouritzen. “(One of the players) Jude Hall says: ‘we got this.’

Following the time-out, Graham rattled off a game-closing 20-3 run (which included a pair of three-pointers from Hall) for the 66-61 victory, punching their ticket to the provincial championships.

“They believed that, and we have now run off 11 in a row,” Mouritzen said.

The most recent of those 11 consecutive victories came in dramatic fashion as the No. 3 seed Grizzlies scored a 50-49 win over the No. 2 Vernon Panthers in Friday night in the second semi-final at the BC High School 3A Boys Basketball Tournament at Langley Events Centre.

Matthias Klim hit a baseline jumper for the decisive points as Vernon failed on their two subsequent possessions, falling one point short of a return trip to the championship game. The Panthers lost by two points in the 2019 gold-medal game.

The Grizzlies draw the top-ranked Duchess Park Condors from Prince George in the title game, which tips off at 6:30 p.m. The teams played once before this season back in January at the St. Thomas More Chancellor Tournament. In that game, the Condors built an early lead on their way to the 108-88 victory.

“We were down 30 before we could even blink. The whole season after that was about getting a chance to play them again and we knew it was going to be out here if we were to get that opportunity,” Mouritzen said.

Mouritzen has been at the helm of the Grizzlies program since the school opened its doors in 2006 and this marks the fifth time, they made the provincial semi-finals but the first time they have won the game. The four previous trips came when the school competed at the 2A level and they have a pair of bronze medals at that level.

While Graham is in search of a first title, the Condors are seeking a third provincial crown and could become the first program to win at the 2A, 3A and 4A levels. They won the 2A level in 2006 and the 4A title in 1980. Members of that squad are in town at Langley Events Centre to celebrate the 40th anniversary of that first title.

Duchess Park advanced the final with a convincing 61-43 win over the No. 4 Sir Charles Tupper Tigers. The Condors scored the first 11 points and led by double digits for nearly the entire game.

It was a balanced offensive effort for the victors as Jackson Kuc and Caleb Lyons each scored 15 points. Dennis Laconsay led the Tigers with 16 points while Luke Tobias had 15.

Last season, the Condors lost their semi-final game on a late-game shot, falling 62-61 to the eventual provincial champion North Delta Huskies. Duchess Park had led by eight points in the third quarter only to see the winning shot fall with two seconds to play.

While the Condors rebounded from that defeat to capture bronze, the loss stuck with the team.

“It helped us work through the last 365 days to get here,” said coach Jordan Yu. “We had it in the back of our mind for motivation.”

The fourth-ranked Tigers would cut the lead to seven in the second quarter and 10 in the third but could get no closer. But there was no panic nor was there a comeback surrendered by the Condors.

“Some of the calls weren’t going our way, but you just have to battle through it, it’s part of the game. We just stuck to our game plan. We have been sticking to our game plan all year and it has been working out,” Yu said.

The Grizzlies led for nearly three quarters of their game but were down five late in the third quarter before a back-and-forth final quarter which featured nine lead changes over the last 10 minutes.

Clay Kurtz led Graham with 15 points and 10 rebounds while Matthias Klim had 12 points, four rebounds and six blocked shots and Zach Klim had eight points and 10 boards. The Panthers were led by Isaiah Ondrik’s 20 points and 11 rebounds and 10 points from Kevin Morgan.

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