If Bal Dhillon was tasked with giving a State of the Union address, he’d beam about how so much is going well at Byrne Creek – bigly.
The senior boys basketball coach could point to big tournament performances, gritty decisions over rivals and a playoff picture on the horizon that looks full of promise.
Then there’s his Bulldogs’ work in the classroom, which after the first semester stood at a 99 per cent pass rate and a handful of honour or principal’s honour roll achievements. Although the biggest games remain ahead of them, the team is trending in the right direction, to put it modestly.
On the heels of Monday’s 77-68 triumph over the archrival Burnaby South Rebels, locking up home court advantage for the league playoffs, the Bulldogs staked their claim for Top Dog for B.C., leapfrogging into the No. 1-slot of the 3-A senior provincial poll, released Wednesday. They were previously listed second overall. The Rebels, meanwhile, slipped from third overall to fourth in the 4-A rankings, compiled by Howard Tsumura.
Although they trailed through the first quarter, including 18-8 at one point, Byrne buckled down and trimmed the deficit during a boisterous third quarter, where they went on a 28-18 run.
Where they were trailing early after a string of three-pointers, including a pair by Kyle Kirmaci by the six-minute mark, the Bulldogs pressured the outside and drew the Rebels back closer to the key. Then it became a battle of the boards and turnovers, where Byrne garnered an advantage that carried them over the second half.
“We didn’t really make too many adjustments, just a recognition that we needed to make a better effort to take away the three-ball,” said Dhillon.
“But (Burnaby South is) a tough team to play against. You take away the outside and they can go inside; you take away the inside and they can go outside. … Our guys did a great job; I thought their team did a great job and that’s a game that more or less came down to the wire.”
It was a huge third quarter that flipped it for the No. 2-ranked 3-A Bulldogs, where Martin Djunga got into scoring range after putting up just two points in the first half. The Grade 12 guard, who days earlier picked up his second tournament MVP award of the month, unleashed eight points in 23 seconds with a pair of treys that turned a two-point game into a 10-point lead.
Burnaby South would cut that to three points thanks to a string of buckets by Jusuf Sehic and Jiordano Khan, but Djunga restored his team’s lead with nine points in the final frame, for 23 on the night. Byrne Creek’s Bithow Wan led all scorers with 27 points, while Titgol Jok and Tyril Whitebear chipped in eight points apiece.
For the Rebels, Grade 10 post player Sasha Vujisic and Khan each tallied 13 points, while Jusuf Sehic, who fouled out with 4:30 remaining, scored 10 points.
“In the first half, I’d say they were winning. They are a really good team too, but the second half we got it going, we started boxing out,” remarked guard Sufi Ahmed. “We wanted to push the ball with pace, like we always do. Our shots weren’t falling that much but we found a way to do it.”
It boosted the Bulldogs’ league record to 7-0, while Burnaby South sit second at 6-1.
A few days earlier, a nice piece of redemption was the bow in an incredible team effort at the Robert Bateman tournament, where Byrne capped a four-game march with a powerful 106-75 win over No. 6-ranked Rick Hansen.
“Hansen had gotten us twice in tournament finals this year, so we were very fired up to play them. They’re such a good team and it’s high level basketball. … At the end of the day, it’s hard to beat a team three times in a row, so we had that to our advantage,” noted Dhillon.
The two teams had met just a week earlier, where the Hurricanes handed the host Bulldogs a 100-91 loss. That made the win all the more special.
“Definitely,” said Wan. “We played hard in the tournament. We can’t let our guard down; we’ve got to keep playing hard.”
It’s how the team responded, and that it carried over less than 48 hours later against Burnaby South, that impressed the coach so much. But nothing gave him more pride than hearing how the players have done academically over the first semester.
“They work hard and I’m proud of that. When I found that out, we pulled the report cards that made my day. That made my day. For me, that was it. This is what it’s about.
“For a student athlete you have a very busy schedule, so how are you going to manage that? They proved they can manage that.”
The league playoffs begin on Monday, with the final Feb. 8, 3:30 p.m. at Byrne Creek.
