The New Westminster Hyacks didn’t leave anything in the tank in a season-ending 105-99 loss to Eric Hamber last Friday in the Quad-A Lower Mainland senior boys championships.
In a game where the lead changed hands several times, the end result was more about execution and a hot shooter than deficiencies.
But for New West, the loss of top scorer Francis Federipe early in the second quarter to injury seemed to foreshadow the final score.
“That was kind of an unfortunate hit we took,” said coach Ted Cusick. “When (Federipe) got injured it kind of threw us off. He just banged into one of his teammates and was down.
“I don’t know if we’d have won but he consistently scored 20-plus points for us.”
At one stage New West trailed by 10 points, but turned the table to take an eight-point lead on No. 11 seed Hamber. The Hyacks, who entered the 12-team tourney seeded ninth, battled back but the Vancouver rival regained the upperhand and used some late timely shots to hold on in the end.
New West’s Norman Manacsa counted 33 points, including nine treys, while Harman Sandhu scored 23 points. Also reaching double-digits were Mark Agoo, with 13, adding 13 rebounds and 11 assists, Trew Dancey with 11 points, and Jacob Long-
Aitchison, who chipped in 10 points.
It was a do-or-die tilt, coming on the heels of No. 1-seeded and ranked No. 2 in B.C. Sir Winston Churchill’s 113-84 victory over New West a week ago.
In that match-up, the underdog Hyacks were given little chance of success but maintained a heavy presence at the Bulldogs’ key, putting up points and forcing the kingpins to adjust on the fly.
“It was a very good effort on our kids’ part – we kind of forced (Churchill) to put their starters back on the floor, just by battling back,” noted Cusick.
Going all out as an offence-first team was how the veteran coach sized up his charges at the start of the season, and they stuck to it right to the end.
“We didn’t have really much size to speak of, so at the start of the year I took one look and saw we were not going to be big on defence. At that time I thought, I like how they shoot the ball and we’d sacrifice defence and go run-and-gun… If I had to do it again I don’t know…”
New West led off the Mainlands by clipping Burnaby Central 77-75, getting 24 points from Federipe and 22 from Manacsa. It avenged a four-point loss just four days earlier in the league playoff bronze medal match.
“That was an important win for us and one of our better games,” the coach said.
Cusick, who has volunteered as a coach nearly every year since retiring as a teacher in 2001, said he’ll hand over the reins to someone else next year and hang up his coaching whistle.
“I think I’m past my expiry date, as you might say,” he said with a laugh.
He said this year’s squad, which for the most part is eligible to return, should get a boost from the graduates of New West’s solid junior team.
“I think they’ll have a strong team. These are real good kids,” he added.
