Handsworth Boys Starting Five Dangerous Against OKM

Handsworth Royals vs Okanagan Mission Huskies

Written by Devin Delany, Handsworth ‘06

The second spirit game of the afternoon featured the Handsworth Royals against the visiting Mission Huskies in front of jam-packed Handsworth gym. The energy in gym was incredible and reminiscent of the Vancouver Grizzlies in the early 90s’. ‘Crazy P’ was once again in attendance roaming the sidelines of the bleachers not allowing for a second of quiet in the gym.

The first quarter was a back and forth battle with each trading buckets on a tense opening minutes of ball. The Royals big man Kieran was the driving force on the offence as he would pop out to the top of the key for a jumper or look for a cutter flying in from the wing. His height and presence certainly caused issues for Mission. The other threat was Handsworth’s Italian import Vittorio Fiammenghi who set the pace and was able to lead multiple fast break points. At end of the first frame it was all knotted up at 17 in a tightly contested battle.

The Royals offence was the story of the second quarter as it seemed everyone on the floor had the hot hand and most certainly wingman Ashton Bain. Vittorio, who certainly seemed like a fan favourite continually led the Royals momentum by being a menace on the defensive end and continuing his fast pace on the offence.

At half the Royals lead 42-25 which once again led into an incredible 10-minute dance performance by the Royals Dance crew. Thank you, Royals Dance Crew, for throwing down such a great performance!

The second half pace was much like the first with a run and gun tempo and lots of steals leading to odd man rushes. After more steals by Vittorio many people wondered if the Italian import Vittorio Fiammenghi was raised by a family of thieves based off his pick-pocketing prowess.

The visiting Huskies adjusted their playing style and settled for deeper jump shots as they knew they couldn’t battle the Royals bigs down low. This change in strategy seemed to work as they closed the gap to only 10 at the end of the 3rd quarter as a result of some smooth jumpers.

Despite all Husky efforts to close the gap to single digits the Royals seemed too dangerous with all of their starting 5 on the floor. The Royals poured it on in the late minutes in the game including a rare 4-point play from Ashton Bain on a made 3-point attempt and foul. The game came to a final whistle with Royals winning 80-70 in great battle!

Congratulations to the Royals on opening the tournament with a big win and all the best to both teams moving forward!