Tenth Avenue isn’t the only link betweeen Byrne Creek and St. Thomas More.
The two share the same route when it comes to the senior boys AAA basketball journey, it seems.
Both are ranked on the provincial charts, and the two teams met on Saturday in a predictably tight battle.
The St. Thomas More Knights edged the Byrne Creek Bulldogs 65-56 in a tilt that stoked some of the emotion from last year’s playoffs which saw the Knights move on to the B.C.s and the Bulldogs on the outside looking in.
Byrne Creek’s recent inclusion in the latest provincial poll, at sixth overall, made for an interesting semifinal on Saturday at the Robert Bateman Timberwolves Classic in Abbotsford.
“We still feel as a team and as coaches that we’re not executing like we can, but the win over Byrne Creek was good to get,” noted STM coach Aaron Mitchell.
The Knights built a sturdy lead with a sound start and led by 12 to begin the second quarter. But the Bulldogs kept digging and scratched out 13 unanswered points to lead by one at halftime.
“(Byrne Creek) can score in bunches, we know they can make a run but I was impressed that we took back the lead and didn’t fold,” said Mitchell.
Cam Morris scored a team-high 19 points in the win.
The Knights later in the day ran out of gas, falling 81-55 to No. 1 Rick Hansen in the final.
Bulldogs coach Bal Dhillon said that loss, coupled with a skittish 83-66 win over No. 8-rated R.A. McMath, gives the team something to work on over the next few weeks.
“We were leading (at the half) and the lead changed three or four times until they hit a couple of threes,” said Dhillon of the STM game.
The Knights later in the day would run out of gas, falling 81-55 to No. 1 Rick Hansen.
The final lacked the intensity of the semifinal -- with exhaustion a big reason. STM spent nearly eight hours in Abbotsford, played twice and fell behind quickly.
“We were down right away,” said Mitchell. It was good for the players and coaches to see that (level of competition), as we can only say so much about how good you need to be to get to that level. Now we’ve seen it and we all can see we’ve got a ways to go.”
The Knights finished with a 3-1 record, beating L.V. Rogers 62-44 and Bodwell 68-56.
Grade 12 Edward Ju and Morris were named to the all-star team, as was the Bulldogs’ Malik Holmes.
Mitchell said Ju continues to demonstrate great leadership abilities as one of the team’s only two seniors.
“I was really impressed with (Ju’s) work, his leadership,” said the coach. “We expect a lot from our seniors, and he showed it when we were down against Hansen he played hard right to the end.”
For Dhillon, the continued forays against top-level competition is what will prime the team for that next step – winning a berth to the provincials.
“To be honest, I’m a bit of a purist and I didn’t personal enjoy the (McMath) game,” he said. “Both teams came in with low energy and never ramped it up, but we pulled away with it… It was like two boxers feeling each other out but it never went to the next level.”
The team’s emergence onto the rankings list – they had been listed as an honourable mention for part of the season – isn’t going to faze them, he asserted.
“Past years we’ve been ranked. Normally I think we would have (gotten excited) but it’s not a big deal. We’ve learned lessons from being ranked and then missing the provincials, we have experienced it, that it isn’t going to be a factor one way or another.”
Byrne Creek also defeated Thomas Haney 87-49, then picked up their fourth league win on Monday, topping Burnaby Central 91-65.
Holmes counted 15 points and Majok Deng added 12 in a game where every Bulldog got on the scoresheet.
League action pits the last two undefeated teams, Byrne Creek and Burnaby South, in a 5:15 p.m. tilt tonight (Wednesday) at South, while Moscrop visits Burnaby Mountain and New West heads up to Burnaby North, both 7 p.m. tip-offs.
