Brentwood Earns Spot in Semi-Finals After Win Against Collingwood

Collingwood Cavaliers v. Brentwood

December 9, 2022

Pre-game:

A second Round No Regrets matchup between the host Collingwood Cavaliers and Mill Bay’s Brentwood College should be another great one between talented AA teams. Collingwood is riding the high of a resounding school Spirit Day victory over Pitt Meadows the day before, while Brentwood is coming off a hard-fought win over a tough Pacific Academy squad. The Cavs are wearing their home whites with navy trim, while Brentwood is in their away black jerseys. Students were starting to pile into the gym – it might not be quite as packed as yesterday’s lunch time game but the school has been abuzz all day with sports chatter about high school basketball and World Cup penalty kicks.

1st quarter:

Collingwood’s #23 Andersen Stewart opens the scoring and gets the crowd going. #15 Alex Yu follows it up with a driving layup and Stewart scores again to make it 6-0 Collingwood. Brentwood’s talented swingman #10 Dylan Gage goes 0/4 from the line in the first few minutes... credit to the 8th grade PE class making noise with the boppers in the front row??

#5 Jayden Lust gets things going with a corner 3 ball for Brentwood. Stewart answers with a long 3 of his own, but Brentwood’s #6 Milan Pasquale comes right back with another triple for the visitors.

A second foul on the Cavs #5 James Holm, their opening round Player of the Game, sends him to the bench with 6:18 left in the first quarter tied at 9-9. Holm was tasked with the defensive matchup on Gage – let’s see how the Cavs respond without one of their key players.

Lust puts Brentwood up with back-to-back 3s, his third trey in the first five minutes. The Cavs respond with a baseline set for their star senior Anderson Stewart – he’s got 7 points for the Cavs.

Collingwood coach Andy Wong makes an urgent switch to their halfcourt zone defense and Brentwood coach Blake Gage immediately responds with the first timeout of the game. Bit of a chess match brewing here between two veteran coaches.

Brentwood comes out of their timeout ready to tackle the Cavs’ 1-3-1, moving the ball well and getting good looks. Brentwood sticks to their excellent man-to-man defense and the Cavs are struggling to get a good look… a tremendous hustle play from Brentwood’s #2 Avik Bakshi as he crashes into the scorers’ table and keeps the ball in play! Coach Gage checks for damage to the table – all good, Coach.

Brentwood is starting to open a lead as Pasquale and Gage hit back-to-back 3s – but the Cavs high-flying Stewart throws down a huge dunk with just seconds left in the 1st quarter to bring the crowd alive! Not to be outdone, Pasquale rattles home yet another 3 at the buzzer to silence the crowd! At the end of the 1st, Brentwood leads 28-17.

 There are two clear takeaways from the 1st quarter: Collingwood needs to find a way to keep Brentwood’s sharp three-point shooting in check and to get better looks in their motion offense. 

2nd quarter

Stewart opens the scoring with a pair of free throws and Brentwood’s Gage answers with a 3. Brentwood uses a quick timeout and comes out in a soft full court press. The Cavs hit #6 Logan Albiani in the pick and roll for some much-needed offense, cutting the deficit to 33-21. 

Brentwood’s #4 Thomas Macdonald responds with a bucket, followed by yet another trey from Gage. Coach Wong takes a timeout to try to figure out a solution for Brentwood’s stifling defense, down 38-21.

[The owner of a white Volvo really needs to move their car…]

Collingwood’s Stewart hits a Curry-range 3 out of the timeout, bringing the crowd to their feet. He follows it up with a pair of free throws, and then an and 1 putback! 38-28 Brentwood – the blond menace is carrying the scoring load, with 19 of the Cavs 28 points. The teams go into halftime with Brentwood in control 40-28 – the Cavs need other players to step up and shoulder the scoring load and find a way to slow down Brentwood’s hot shooting.

3rd quarter

Brentwood's Gage opens the scoring in the second half, followed up by some smothering defensive possessions by Brentwood… Collingwood takes a quick timeout just two minutes into the second half.

Collingwood’s fan base starts a loud chant directed at Brentwood’s bench during the timeout… can’t quite make it out at first, but the score table eventually agrees it’s a loud “Coach’s kid… coach’s kid…” directed at Brentwood’s Dylan Gage, son of coach Blake Gage. Pretty sure it was meant as a compliment considering Gage’s stellar performance through a game and a half.

Gage hits an ambitiously deep 3 out of the timeout – a 12-0 run by Brentwood has blown this game wide open, 48-28. Their weakside help to stifle the Cavs ball screens has been textbook.

Collingwood gets some additional scoring from Alex Yu from deep and a drive from James Holms, but Brentwood responds with their own scoring each time… the Cavs need to string a run together to get themselves back in the game. Jayden Lust and Milan Pasquale have been huge this game, hitting timely 3s to keep Brentwood’s 15-20 point cushion safe.

Lust hits another buzzer beating 3 at the end of the 3rd, his sixth of the game! Brentwood is firmly in the driver’s seat going into the 4th, leading 66-40.

4th quarter

The fourth quarter is more of the same. Collingwood goes back to man-to-man defense and Brentwood goes back to their flex offense. This has been a frustrating game for the Cavs coming off such a dominant victory, but hats off to Brentwood College for putting on an absolute clinic on man-to-man defense.

Coach Wong empties the bench with a little over four minutes remaining, and Coach Gage puts in some of his bench as well to finish the game.

Andersen Stewart led the Cavaliers with 29 points. Brentwood’s Jayden Lust had 27 points, including six 3-pointers. Dylan Gage and Milan Pasquale chipped in with four 3-pointers each, good for 18 and 16 points respectively.

Brentwood will face a young and talented Handsworth Royals squad in the semi-finals tomorrow morning at Handsworth, while Collingwood will take on the Belmont Bulldogs on the consolation side.

Final Score: Brentwood 80, Collingwood 54 

Player of the Game: Brentwood’s Jayden Lust