Langley (LEC Media, Vancouver Sports Pictures) – BC High School 3A Boys Tournament
From being on the verge of suffering an upset loss and seeing their season end prematurely to provincial champions – that has been the roller coaster ride for the G.W. Graham Grizzlies.
Just over two weeks ago, on another court at the same venue, the Grizzlies were five minutes away from not even qualifying for the provincial tournament. It was February
A little more than two weeks ago, the G.W. Graham Grizzlies season was on the verge of a premature ending. The Grizzlies trailed by a dozen points with five minutes to play in the Eastern Valley zone semi-final against the Brookswood Bobcats. A win would clinch the team a spot in the BC High School 3A Boys Tournament while a loss would end their season.
“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.
On Saturday night, back at Langley Events Centre, the Grizzlies capped off an incredible four-day run which saw them knock off the No. 2 seed Vernon Panthers in Friday’s semi-final round and then capture the school’s first-ever provincial basketball title with a 79-67 victory over the No. 1 ranked Duchess Park Condors. Mouritzen has been at the helm of the program since the school opened its doors in 2006 and its previous best finish was a bronze medal at the 2A level.
“I am going to be honest, I never thought I was going to get this feeling,” said a teary-eyed Mouritzen, his voice quivering. “This is my 20th season and I have been in a lot of big games and have come out on the wrong end a lot of times. I never thought I was going to get this day, so it is pretty awesome.”
It was a balanced attack for the Grizzlies with five players in double figures.
Clay Hurtz (who would be selected Most Valuable Player as well as Championship Player of the Game) had 24 points, a dozen rebounds, four assists and three steals while Matthias Klim (selected the Best Defensive Player) had seven blocked shots, along with 14 points and eight rebounds. Cairo Almarez (17 points), Zach Klim (10 points, 15 rebounds) and Hall (11 points, five rebounds, five assists) also reaching double figures.
What prompted Hall’s confidence at that crucial juncture in his team’s season?
“I have been playing with these guys since Grade 7. We are a tight-knit family, I knew no matter what happened, we were going to grind it out together. I trusted the guys around me and knew if we ran out sets and moved the ball well, we were going to get open shots and we were going to hit,” he said. “We live for big moments like this.”
The Condors led at the quarter-mark by two points but were down seven at the half and 16 with a quarter to play. They would get as close as 10 points with two minutes remaining but ran out of time in their comeback bid.
Duchess Park was led by Caleb Lyons’ 25 points and 24 courtesy of Jackson Kuc, but after shooting well over 40 per cent in their first three games, hit on just 30.2 per cent of their field goal attempts in the final.
Condors coach Jordan Yu felt his team didn’t have their best game with the Grizzlies boasting six-foot-10 and six-foot-nine twin brothers Matthias and Zach Klim, who altered the Duchess Park game plan.
“A couple of blocked shots early really changed how we were attacking the hoop. We slowed down, we walked the ball up and there were able to set up that zone. Our key to the game was it had to be a track meet if we wanted to beat them,” Yu said
The teams had played once earlier in the season with Duchess Park racing out to the 68-31 half-time lead before winning by 20.
“We put together a defence we have never run, a hybrid zone-man, we played a 2-3 zone the entire game but masked it as man-to-man and we never let a guy sit in a space, Jordan Yu is one of the best coaches I know and I knew we were going to have to outcoach him today,” Mouritzen explained.
“We had to give them looks so they couldn’t run sets and couldn’t get open. They still got their buckets. 9 (Caleb Lyons) is a phenomenal player and the only time they hit those shots was when we didn’t execute.”
“Coming into this season, our biggest worry was our defence and every single guy has improved and I have got to put it in print, Mark Rahmalo is my assistant coach and it is his first year … I luckily stumbled upon him this year as a TOC (teacher on call). He is the best defensive coach in this province one year in and we wouldn’t have done this without him.”
For the Condors, it is another year of coming agonizingly close. In 2019, a last-second shot sunk the team in the semi-final to the eventual champion. Duchess Park would recover to win bronze.
Yu said last year was tougher because of the way they lost.
“This year, we got outplayed. It still sucks but all credit to G.W. Graham because they won it,” he said.
The Sir Charles Tupper Tigers edged the Vernon Panthers 68-65 in the third-place game.
All-stars and Awards:
Isaiah Ornrik (Vernon), Luke Tobias (Sir Charles Tupper), Zach Klim (G.W. Graham), Caleb Lyons (Duchess Park) and Jackson Kuc (Duchess Park) were named First Team All-Stars.
The Second Team All-Stars were Zach Smith (Vernon), Dennis Laconsay (Sir Charles Tupper), Emir Zejnulahovic (Duchess Park), Iman Ostavari (Pitt Meadows) and Connor Lewis (Duchess Park).
The Mark R. Isfeld Ice were selected the Most Sportsmanlike Team.
An all-Chilliwack championship final on Saturday afternoon at the BC High School 1A Boys Basketball Tournament
With a provincial title on the line against their city rivals, head coach Dave Bron resorted to a game of rock, paper, scissors.
Bron’s Unity Christian Flames were locked in a tight, back-and-forth battle with the Highroad Academy Knights in an all-Chilliwack championship final on Saturday afternoon at the BC High School 1A Boys Basketball Tournament at Langley Events Centre.
The Flames (the third seed) were facing the top-ranked Knights for the fifth time with Unity Christian losing all four previous matchups, including the most recent game a few weeks ago when Highroad Academy thumped them by 29 points in the Eastern Valley zone championship game. Previously, the margins of defeat had been three points (in overtime), two points and 10 points.
Bron called a timeout but rather than lecture the team about x’s and o’s or chastise them for a missed assignment, the message was to take a deep breath and play rock, paper, scissors.
“Mentally, we needed to snap out of it,” he said. “Three or four guys started smiling and then we were like ‘here’s what we have to do’.”
“You need players to make plays and they listened.”
The result was a 65-61 victory for Unity Christian and the school’s first provincial banner. For Highroad Academy it was the second straight season they found the podium wining bronze in 2019 and now silver.
The Flames came out hot in the final, leading by 10 points late in the first quarter before their shots stopped falling and the Knights took a one-point lead at the half. Highroad Academy would continue to roll in the third, building a seven-point advantage with half a period to play.
The team’s deep ball (1-for-10 in the first half) also started falling as they hit three triples in each of the third and fourth quarters and finished the half a combined 6-for-13 from beyond the arc with Caleb Graham, Keegan Schuurman and Colton Vander Kooi knocking down a pair apiece.
Buoyed by the outside shot finally dropping, the Flames were up 44-40 after three quarters and never trailed again, leading by nine minutes with just under two and a half minutes to play.
Graham led the Flames with 18 points and grabbed six rebounds with four assists and a pair of steals as well. Schuurman had 15 points, four rebounds and two steals. The six-foot-four Grade 12 forward would be named Most Valuable Player, averaging nearly 17 points and just over 10 rebounds per game.
“It is surreal. We have been working for this for so long, being the underdog, it just feels amazing,” Schuurman said afterwards.
And while the offence heating up at the right time helped, the Unity Christian defence (especially in the semi-final and championship game) also played a major factor.
In Friday’s victory, the Flames held a Kelowna Christian team which averaged 90 points the first two games to a mere 34. Highroad Academy entered Saturday’s championship final at nearly 91 points per game and again the Flames held the offence relatively in check.
Bron’s defensive strategy has been for his players to be aggressive and trust in one another.
“It took a while in the season for us to leave our own man and trust there was a guy behind us to help us out, but once it clicked, we were a beast defensively. It paid off,” Schuurman said.
“Just for the boys to see that hard work does pay off and taking hard coaching pays off and doing the uncomfortable pays off. I love those boys, I really do,” Bron said. “They have taken some hard coaching from me and we have worked through some stuff and now we get the reward.”
Highroad Academy coach Mike Shannon was complimentary in defeat and admitted beating the same opponent five times in five tries in one season is a tough task.
“They were flying high, they played really, really good,” he said of the Flames. “My guys played their hearts out so we will take it as it comes.”
The Knights were led by Elijah Grimard’s 30 points and 10 rebounds. He also had three steals and two blocked shots.
In the bronze medal game, Kelowna Christian defeated Fernie 88-56.
Awards and All-Stars:
Unity Christian’s Colby Vander Kooi was named the Best Defensive Player while Gudangaay Tlaats’gaa Naay took home the Most Sportsmanlike Team award.
The Flames’ Wilclair Neufeld (three points, three assists and four steals) was the Championship Player of the Game.
Indy Hallett (Kelowna Christian), Elijah Grimard (Highroad Christian), Caleb Graham (Unity Christian), Dawson Hartskemp (Highroad Academy) and Aidan Morris (Highroad Academy) were First Team All-Stars.
The Second Team All-Stars were Cameron Kerslake (Barriere), Asher Hannemann (Fernie), Devan Boyko (Gudangaay Tlaats’gaa Naay), Jake Sabbagh (Kelowna Christian) and Colton Vander Kooi (Unity Christian).
The Burnaby South Rebels defeated the Kelowna Owls in the BC High School 4A Boys Basketball Tournament gold medal game at Langley Events Centre.
Prince Rupert’s Charles Hays Rainmakers defeated Vancouver’s King George Dragons in the BC High School 2A Boys Basketball Tournament gold medal game at Langley Events Centre.
For full results and rosters, visit www.bchighschoolbasketballchampionships.com
