David Thompson 65 - 97 Churchill
The defending AAAA B.C. senior boys basketball champion Churchill Bulldogs ran away with the city title on a string of early three point shots, winning in their home gym over unexpected finalist David Thomson Friday night.
Churchill’s first 12 points all came from deep (nine from the hands of senior Gary Minhas) and their first two-point bucket almost become a three-point play when a foul was called on the shot. The free throw rimmed out but the string of three-pointers got longer.
For good measure, Churchill sunk three more treys to end the opening quarter with a 27-5 lead. By the half, the Bulldogs were up 56-21.
“We felt we had a few shots at the beginning, they kept going in so we just kept shooting,” said Minhas, who finished with 13 points and the MVP hardware, which his brother Mindy claimed the previous year.
“We were trying to push the ball and anything that we had opened, we felt good and we were just hitting shots. We were trying to push the ball the whole time. We didn’t want to overlook DT because underdogs always come out really hard.”
“They blitzed us,” said David Thompson coach Jimmy Choi. “Playing on their home floor, defending champs — they were ready. We still lost by a large margin, but the second half was better. Win or lose, we were not supposed to be here.
“I’m enjoying the ride and maybe there is still a Cinderella story for us.”
The Trojans knocked off the Kitsilano Blue Demons in a semi-final. Kits finished fourth overall, coming behind Windermere after a loss in the consolation final.
Choi took the counsel of his friend, Thompson alum and Killarney retired teacher and coach Ton Tagami.
“He said, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain. You’ve got to keep your head up and keep yourself ready for the big dance next week,” said Choi.
Tagami, he learned, played for the Trojans the last time they were in the city final. That was the 1968-69 season.
In the second half, Churchill coach Rick Lopez turned to his bench. The Trojans’ zone defence kicked up the ball and the visitors outscored the Bulldogs 28-20 in the third quarter by hustling fast-break layups and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it no-look passes. They also turned over the ball almost two out of every three trips down the court. In the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs took an 18-19 edge.
Churchill is ranked sixth in B.C. this week but the Bulldogs have nothing on their minds other than repeating.
“If we keep on playing the way we do and keep on working hard, we can achieve anything we want,” said Minhas.
Bulldog Harry Liu had 26 points in the win and Trojan Harry Brar led all scorers with 27.
Six-foot-three Brar said the Trojans honed their focus for the final.
“Yesterday at practice we made sure we worked hard, we focused on getting through our sets. We knew they were going to play man-to-man full-court [defence] and we had to protect the ball. The final result doesn’t show we put in the preparation, but we did,” he said.
“I don’t keep track of how many points [I score] I just try to get the W. I felt like my shot was fine but we didn’t get the W. Right now we’re playing really good basketball so I think we can make the provincials.”
Brar was a first-team all star with teammate Parmvir Hyare, Windermere’s Ravi Basra – Windemere and Churchill’s Lambert Pajayon and Harry Lui.
Second team all stars were Killarney’s Jakob Stamatakis, EJ Tejada from Windemere, Amit Sekhon from Churchill and Kitsilano’s Howard Wang and Alec Bayne.
The Lower Mainland tournament begins next week. The top three teams advance to provincials.
