Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»­

Skip to content
Join our Newsletter
  1. Home
  2. Courier Archive
  3. Sports

Tigers claw their way to fifth place

The Sir Charles Tupper Tigers wrapped up the 2013-14 Boys AAA basketball season Saturday morning at the Langley Events Centre.
Ron Hole
tiger
Sir Charles Tupper Tigers guard Ron Ronquillo drives the lane against Sutherland’s Braeden Toikka (left) and Ben Gatto (right) in the Tigers 54-41 win over the Sutherland Sabres at the boys 3A Provincial championship held at the Langley Events Centre March 15. Photo: Ron Hole

The Sir Charles Tupper Tigers wrapped up the 2013-14 Boys AAA basketball season Saturday morning at the Langley Events Centre. Tupper’s season ended with a fifth place showing after a 54-41 win over North Vancouver’s Sutherland Sabres at the 2014 BC High School Boys 3A Basketball Championships.

The Tigers, after winning the Lower Mainland zone, came into the provincial tournament as B.C.’s No. 2 seeded team.

On Thursday night, however, a heart-breaking loss on a buzzer-beater to Courtenay’s Mark Isfeld secondary, relegated the Tigers to the consolation side of the draw. The Tigers did bounce back Friday night with a win over Vernon.

The consolation side of the draw is always a tough road to travel, but as usual the Tigers were upbeat and excited with what would be the last game of the year for some, and of their high school careers for others.

When asked after the game to sum up the Tigers’ season, coach Jeff Gourley focused on the positives.

“I’m very happy,” he said. “We have never won a Lower Mainland Championship before — the fifth place finish is the highest finish ever at the provincials for the team.”

As much as it would be nice to credit the defenses in this early Saturday morning game, both teams’ offenses were slow out the gate, shooting bricks or missing layups.

The first quarter would end a pedestrian 12 -9 in favour of Sutherland.

A gentlemen’s agreement between Tupper’s coach Gourley and Sutherland’s coach Brad Thornhill led to full-scale substitutions in the second quarter, and by the time the half ended every eligible player had hit the floor.

The benches continued to press at the offensive end throughout the second quarter. Neither team hit 30 per cent in the half but Tupper, on a few hustle plays, were able to score seven second chance points and led after the first half 22-19.

It seemed the Tigers received a wakeup call from Gourley at the half as they came out on fire in the third. With the starters back in for both teams, the Tigers led by DJ Sugue, surpassed its entire first half score, putting up 25 points. Sugue was named player of the game on the back of his 17 points.

Scoring again slowed in the fourth quarter as the coaches used substitutions to honour their seniors and starters.Â