It was a tale of two cities, but both aiming for similar destinies.
Monday saw the Burnaby South Rebels knock off the New Westminster Hyacks 100-91 in senior boys basketball, in a league game where the temperature rose as the game went on.
Looking early like a Burnaby South rout, the Hyacks flashed their own shooting skills to shrink a 20-point deficit and pull within four points before the visitors regained control. And while both teams shot the ball well, both coaches were a bit uncomfortable with some of the finer points.
From New West’s perspective, a rash of turnovers and a handful of unconverted layups played a painful role in a tight and energized battle of Burnaby-New West league rivals.
“We’re not bad, but we’re still a ways away,” remarked New West coach Ted Cusick. “We break the press a little better now. We had a tough time over the holidays with the press against some real tough teams. Now we’re breaking the press and that’s out of the way, but now we have to play defence.
“I’m not sure how you spell that word.”
While the last comment was a joke, to catch the likes of Burnaby South and Byrne Creek – provincial finalists last year and the kind of programs you need to measure yourself against in preparation for a playoff run – is a serious task.
New West refused to toss in the towel despite trailing 57-39 at halftime. After the Rebels hit the first bucket of the second half, it looked like a long slog. But the Hyacks clutched up and went on a 20-8 run, then carved another few points off the deficit on back-to-back treys from Simon Cruz early in the fourth quarter.
With the gap at just four points, the boisterous crowd in the Pearson gym brought the noise. Burnaby South, however, shouted back with nine straight points for a more comfortable buffer, which would hold up the rest of the way.
“(New West) came out flying that second half, they really brought it to us,” noted Rebels head coach Mike Bell. “We talked about getting at it, keeping what we established and working on that, but they took it to us. … (Our) kids kind of struggled because we were playing kids out of positions. It was kind of hard but we’re seniors so we need to be able to handle that.”
Luke Burton led all Hyacks with 22 points, while guard Mo Al-Ghreibawi cashed in 17 points, including 11 in the third quarter. AJ Chol contributed 11 and 10 rebounds and Cruz finished with 14 on the night, along with seven assists.
“We really wanted to win this game because we’re in the same district,” said Burton, a Grade 11 forward. “We never like to give up. We’ve been down 20-plus before, so we tried to bring the intensity and bring it back.”
While the Rebels parked six-foot-eight centre Aidan Wilson on the bench for the second half after he reported some soreness to a lingering injury, and were without star forward Sasha Vujisic, who has missed the past seven weeks due to a knee injury, New West had its own holes to fill.
Six-foot-seven Misho Rusov is still recovering from an injury, while Kirk Bothwell, at six-foot-six one of the team’s more consistent players, was recuperating from a bruised tailbone suffered at last week’s Terry Fox Legal Beagle.
It created some tough matchups for New West. But they gave it a valiant try.
“I had to go to man-to-man because their shooters were killing our zone. We came back, and I feel good about coming back. They’re the No. 6 team in the province,” said Cusick.
“We have to bring the intensity right off the bat every game,” added Burton. “If we play how we played South just now, we can do good. That’s one of the best teams in B.C. We play like that every game, even better, we can do well.”
It’s been a steady diet of ranked opponents for the unranked Hyacks.
They didn’t fare well, at least in the win column, at last week’s Legal Beagle, going 0-3. However, Cusick said the consistent tough competition has really revealed how close the New West squad is to the upper echelon.
“(The Beagle) was good for us. We had a No. 1-ranked team (Lord Tweedsmuir) and lost by 15. In the past five days we’ve played five top-10 teams and only got blown out once. Turnovers, that’s what hurt us.”
At the Port Coquitlam tourney, which featured nine of 10 top 4-A ranked teams, New West fell 95-76 to Vancouver College. Burton counted 15 points, while Ethan Rivas hit for 14.
They followed that with the 109-94 loss at the hands of Lord Tweedsmuir, who entered the tourney as No. 1 – but would be bumped to No. 7 after losing the first game of the Beagle tourney. Rivas ripped the twine for 31 points and hauled down 15 rebounds, while Burton added 25 points.
In the last game, W.J. Mouat knocked off New West 70-57, with Chol leading the Hyacks with 17 points and 12 rebounds.
New West’s next test comes on Monday, when they visit Burnaby Central in another league test.
