Host West Van Welcomes Prince George with Barrage
December 7, 2023
West Van Highlanders v Prince George Polars
Legendary high school boys’ and college mens’ hoops coach Paul Eberhart will be at the helm of the West Van Highlanders for the Spirit Game at West Van High to open the No Regrets Tournament.
Prince George and West Van are roughly the same size in terms of student population, with PG having the edge. Coach Joe Luong described the 9-hour two-van trip to Vancouver from Prince George as being normal for the Polars who have to travel to get good competition.
He described their team as a good mix of grade 11s and 12s with 1 grade 10 added for spice.
West Van is currently ranked #4 in AAAA and Coach Ebe, in his 6th year at West Van, is hoping to take the tartan all the way to the Langley Events Centre in March. But that is a long time from now. He has a long bench for this Tournament at 17 dressed. But with 4 returning starters…. we’ll see.
In Q1 Calvin Kuzyk gave early notice for West Van that, with time to shoot, he will hit the three. In the early going WV played Grand Theft Basketball with some unwise passing by the northerners. If they can tighten that up they can keep up. But WV’s thievery continued throughout Q1.
Big crowd, full gym, for the West Van Spirit Game but the memo of a White-Out may have not reached all students. It looked like a gentleman’s club on the court with only a total of 3 fouls between the two teams in Q1. That seems low, yeah?
16-6 WV at the end of Q1.
Coach Ebe showed no hesitation in playing his bench players who, as it turned out, were also thieves. The Polars tried to keep up to the pace up and down of the Highlanders but had ball control issues at that speed. A three with 6 min. left in Q2 boosted the PG spirits but WV had an answer.
WV’s Ahmed showed off his defensive tenacity by disrupting numerous PG advances. Then JB Burguillos, the smallest player for PG and a grade 10, hit a badly needed 3 in the last minute of Q2.
End of Q2: WV 36, PG 18 (total of 7 fouls in Q2)
Polar’s Gage Cooke looks like he may have solved one issue for the Polars as he drove to the basket and pulled up down low for the score rather than trying to penetrate the forest of Highlanders. But WV continued to stretch its lead in Q3 although the Polars kept giving all to keep up.
PG exuded the kind of sportsmanship that is admirable when faced with a tough opponent. PG’s Atlin Mogus hit a Polarized 3 which was followed by an impossible lay-up by his teammate Cooke. The Polar 11 were courageous and level-headed in an uphill battle. Good on them.
57-35 at the end of Q3 (the score in the third quarter was WV 21, PG 17).
Final: 81 – 51 for WV.
Both teams should be proud of their performance and, who knows, there might be plaid in Langley in March. For the Polars we look forward to seeing them play in the No Regrets Tournament on Friday and Saturday.
Player of the Game: Calvin Kuzyk of WV
High scorers: Harsh Cheema of PG with 13 and Fin Chapman of WV with 19