Dragons’ comeback a March miracle
Fleetwood Park shrugs off huge deficit to beat Sir Charles Tupper in 3A basketball final
the coach didn’t prepare them,” said Tupper head coach Jeff Gourley. “They are devastated right now, but the sun will come up tomorrow. But maybe I worked them too hard by leaving them in for the whole game.”
Gourley played his starting backcourt dropped his MVP trophy on the floor of the LEC’s arena bowl, causing the cherished bauble to smash on the floor and come apart.
“I think (Duke head coach) Mike Krzyzewski said it best, that when the team wins it’s because of the players, and when it loses it’s because
The Fleetwood Park Dragons exhaled at the opening tip of the Telus B.C. senior boys Triple A basketball championships expecting to breathe fire.
Instead, all the Fraser Valley champions from Surrey could manage was a muted whimper that nobody in the sellout crowd at the Langley Events Centre could hear.
The No 2-seeded Dragons fell behind 21-3 in the opening quarter to East Vancouver’s No. 1-seeded Sir Charles Tupper and looked ready to bow gently in a battle of schools each seeking their first-ever B.C. senior boys varsity basketball titles.
Yet, little by little, the Dragons kept coming, chipping away at the mountainous deficit and eventually fashioning a miracle comeback, stunning the Tigers 73-65 to become the first Surrey public school to win a B.C. boys senior varsity title at any tier since the North Surrey Spartans in 1981.
“I never lost hope,” said Fleetwood Park head coach Jordan Taylor, whose team will move to the Quad A level next season.
“We said we’ll take it play by play, just work your way back and that is all you can do. We won every single quarter after that. Once we started to attack, we found the seams and it all clicked.”
And things went to another level when senior guard Travis Erickson came off the bench and knocked down back-to-back three-pointers in the fourth quarter, a stunning blitz which put the Dragons ahead to stay at 58-53.
Between the first and second halves, Fleetwood Park went on a 22-4 run.
Forward Emeka Okuma was nothing shy of incredible down low for Fleetwood. En route to being named tournament MVP, Okuma had 20 points, 18 rebounds and seven blocks, shooting a sizzling 10-of-13 from the field.
Positioning Okuma inside the Tupper zone defence helped the entire offence come alive for the Dragons.
Unfortunately, the big man of Chris Schneller and Santoi Ubial the entire 40 minutes two straight nights, while John Tait, Niko Mottus and Taylor Ross were just a few minutes shy of 80 total minutes.
Noah Licas with 16 points, Erickson with 14, Tomas Fovenyi with 13 and Armaan Khangura with 10 hit double figures for the Dragons while Schneller led the Tigers with 21 points. Tait and Mottus each finished with 17 rebounds in the loss.
The Tigers arrived at Saturday’s championship final after a 63-40 win Friday in the semifinals over Prince Rupert’s Charles Hays Rainmakers.
The Dragons beat Richmond’s R.A. McMath Wildcats 78-75. Okuma was monstrous for the Dragons with 26 points and 16 rebounds, while guard Tomas Fovenyi had 24 points while hitting five treys. Khangura had 13 points, five rebound and five assists.