Important learning moments can come at any time, but often under duress.
The Burnaby Central Wildcats have gained a lot of valuable experience this season in preparation for the senior boys Quad-A Lower Mainland basketball tournament. And no matter how today (Friday, Feb. 19) goes, the team will have known they laid it on the line.
It’s a must-win game, coming on the heels of a hard-fought 77-75 loss suffered Tuesday to start the tourney, days after the squad recorded a huge win. In a double-knockout series like the Lower Mainlands, momentum has a short shelf life.
Today’s tilt against David Thompson holds the same glimmer for both sides, and a similar quick ending to the one that falls short.
Mir Wais Mojadidi, the Wildcats head coach, has worked hard to prepare his charges for this exact game, with hopefully more to play.
“(Our) season started with a simple message to the team, ‘Don't give up and don't give in, there's always an answer to everything,’” Mojadidi told the NOW. “Literally that's how our season went, whether we were down 20 or up, we fight and kept fighting for the guy next to us.”
At 2-4 in Burnaby-New West league play, there were stretches where those gaps seemed insurmountable – like early January when they were on the wrong side of a 106-66 match with Burnaby South. Then there were a handful of close battles, topping Burnaby North 81-79, falling 75-73 to Moscrop, that showed just how slim the margin of victory was in the league.
At no time would Mojadidi or assistants Daniel Cooper and Jonard Petilla let the focus be forgotten.
“A lot of teams we have played always doubted us, saying ‘Central is weak and not great.’ But once they play us, they come back with a ‘Wow, I wasn’t expecting you guys to be this good,’” he said.
If the final league encounter foreshadowed anything, it was that the Wildcats and New Westminster Hyacks have a similar path to climb. New West prevailed 78-70 in that contest, but the two teams met again in the league playoffs’ third-place game, with the outcome a highlight for Burnaby Central.
Not that there wasn’t drama, though. In a typical tight game the Wildcats enjoyed a brief surge after trailing by six at the half to be just a point back with under a minute to play.
“(Petilla) was telling the guys ‘We have been here before many times, nothing to be scared. Give every ounce of heart and energy to get one stop so we can hit a game winner.’… (Our) energized bunny player is Mac Burns -- who was playing with stitches on his head from the previous game (against Byrne Creek) -- who stole the ball from the inbound play and went for a layup with the foul, and (made) his free throw to give us a two-point lead 88-86 with about 10 seconds left,” recalled the Central coach.
Two key defensive stops and a couple of free throws by Daniel Sango later the club had a 90-86 win and higher seeding for the Lower Mainlands.
Grade 12 Nikola Ignjatovic set the tone with 24 points, four assists and three steals, while Jesse Randhana counted 19 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks.
As fate would have it, the two teams were slotted against one another in the Lower Mainland tourney opener, with New West getting the upperhand 77-75.
In that contest, Burnaby Central led 32-26 at the half. The two rivals were knotted 72-72 before the Hyacks went on a five-point run and made it stick, with a last second three-pointer making it a two-point finish.
The last Central team to advance this far was in 2007, when Mojadidi’s cousin Jobair Satari played a key role in the league title. While getting back to the Lower Mainlands is a huge accomplishment, so are the other things that the team has embraced this year – like the coach’s pet project of raising funds to help kids whose families can’t afford organized sports.
“Not only do they love to play but (they) also give back to others to experience what this game is all about,” he said of the Wildcats.
For the game or games left, Wais Mojadidi wants his players to take it moment by moment and remember the game plan.
“Every possession is important and every silly mistake will cost us the game. I told the team we don’t have to make everything so complex but make it easy for us. Follow the recipe of success in basketball which is rebounding, defense and communicating.”
