MVP Cohee vows to become more multi- faceted player in final season
LANGLEY — Saturday’s game was all about the guard, not so much the classic centre, and the 68th B. C. high school boys basketball tournament had a slew of them, foremost being Jadon Cohee, a drive for the hoop guard who bounces off defenders like a bumper car.
The Grade 11 student was named the triple- A tournament’s most valuable player after he led the Walnut Grove Gators to their first provincial title Saturday with a 59- 53 win over the White Rock Christian Academy Warriors. Cohee had 22 points, four rebounds and four assists in the final, his production slightly below last year’s totals in the championship game, against the Terry Fox Ravens.
Still, Saturday’s result was a world of difference from a year ago, when the Gators relinquished their grip on the game in crunch time and lost 75- 74 on a bucket with three seconds left. The Ravens keep an actual statuette of the school’s namesake and iconic one- legged runner close by that players touch for inspiration.
Cohee was also motivated by Terry Fox this season, but in a very different way. He displayed one of the replica championship banners Terry Fox school had made up last season above his bed, so it would give him focus from the moment he woke up every day. “At the time, losing last year to Fox was the worst moment of my life,” Cohee said. “But it was really a blessing in disguise. It made me work that much harder. Every time I didn’t want to wake up in the morning, to go shoot at practice, I had that banner to remind me. It makes me wake up early, go to school, shoot and shoot again. It just motivates me.”
While slaloming through defenders, driving to the basket and throwing up a layup or onehand runner is his thing, Cohee knows that to be a more multifaceted player, in his final Grade 12 season, he has to evolve.
“I’ll be right back in the gym tomorrow ( Sunday),” he said. “It’s another day to get better. You can’t take any days off nowadays. There are so many good players out there. Next year, I’m going to have to develop a more consistent jump shot, so teams can’t wait for me just to drive to the basket. I’ve going to have to be really aggressive next year.”
Cohee was also named to the tournament first all- star team, for the second consecutive year. He joined teammate Josh Mayorga, Drew Urquhart of St. George’s, Tyus Allen of White Rock Christian and Luka Zaharijevic of Kitsilano.
RIM SHOTS: St. George’s, which lost in the semifinals to Walnut Grove, got 29 points from senior guard Deklan Chung to defeat Kitsilano, 85- 66, for third place. W. J. Mouat finished fifth, following a 81- 71 win over Yale.