There was no win to end the season on, but there were plenty of victories along the way for the St. Thomas More Knights.
The senior boys basketball team wrapped up the season last week with a whirlwind of action at the B.C. 3-A championships in Langley.
Finishing with a 2-2 record, the underdog Knights should be able to look back on the year as a success, despite closing out with a tough 78-56 loss to the Pitt Meadows Marauders, leaving the Knights in sixth place overall.
“It was a relief to get it done and get back to the B.C.s after two-year hiatus,” remarked St. Thomas More head coach Aaron Mitchell. “For us that felt like a long time.
“Any time you can win that first round game (at the B.C.s) and get into the top-8 is a good thing. But once you get there you see the teams left, there are no easy games. We had our ups and downs but I was really proud with how we competed.”
After opening the tournament with a 76-73 win over Steveston-London, the Knights came up against No. 2-seed Vernon. They struggled out of the gate and trailed 20-6 after one quarter and 34-17 at halftime. They fired just 21.4 per cent from the field, while the Panthers were good on 44.9 per cent on field goal attempts, and over 50 per cent during the first half.
Grade 12 guard Gabe Nicario tallied 12 points and three steals, while Dante Digirolamo counted six points and six rebounds.
It put STM on the clock the next day with an early morning game against the Magee Lions. The Lions, who fell to eventual provincial champion G.W. Graham by eight points, took a slim 19-17 advantage into the second quarter. They stayed ahead after 30 minutes, leading 51-48 after three frames before the Knights caught fire.
Throwing out a post-heavy lineup to start the final quarter, Mitchell said he almost second-guessed the strategy until the players showed that they were game.
“It was a funny game. (Magee) played a two-three the whole time and they were bigger than us,” he noted. “It took us a while to adjust. … After the third quarter I just had in my mind this lineup of (posts Nick Osho, Kaishaun Carter and Bryson Vanloo) and when I saw the three out there, I had a double-take.
“I thought ‘What am I thinking?’ But it worked. Bryson hadn’t played a ton of minutes but he came out and did everything – diving for the ball, getting rebounds; Nick got some big rebounds and put up a big basket, and (Digirolamo) hit a couple of big threes. It went from us trailing by six to going up by eight in a flash.”
STM came out with a 72-60 win, outscoring Magee 21-12 in the fourth quarter. Chayze Deza tallied a game-high 24 points, pulled down eight rebounds and added five assists, while Digirolamo contributed 18 points, including hitting on six of 13 three-point shots. Nicario added nine points and six boards.
That lined them up against Pitt Meadows for a fourth and final time this year.
While they scored first, the Knights trailed for 36:40. Deza, one of two starting Grade 11s on the roster, netted 13 points and five steals on the day. Nicario hit for 11 points and six rebounds, while Josh Rebol chipped in with six points.
Although disappointed after falling to the Marauders, the team can take pride in how they overcame a very rough start to the season to claim the first-ever Fraser North zone banner, including a four-game win streak that catapulted them into the provincials.
“It was an interesting season,” Mitchell, who returned as head coach after serving the past two in a supporting role, said. “We coaches weren’t sure if we were fooling ourselves when we set out (provincial qualifying) goal. Are they going to do it? Do they have it? But they grew together as a team, worked hard and found that chemistry. Something just clicked in early February, and it was a cool moment where you could see they believed in themselves and bought into what we were trying to get them to do.”
The team loses half its lineup -- eight players -- to graduation, including starters Nicario, Carter and Digirolamo. Players like Deza and Osho will be tasked with leadership roles, while other Grade 11s will be given opportunities to play more minutes and help mentor the upcoming junior grads.
“We’ve got two starters coming back in (Osho and Deza),” noted Mitchell. “We had our exit meetings and everyone is excited. We’re going to need guys who played lesser minutes to step up. But a lot of teams are in the same boat.”
