The Steveston-London Sharks aren’t ready to vacate the city senior boys basketball throne just yet.
The Sharks capped a dominant two-year run with a seventh-place finish at the B.C. 3A Boys Basketball Championships. They lose all five starters to graduation, including 6-foot-10 Richmond MVP Fardaws Aimaq who added to his hardware collection with a second team provincial all-star award. Even with the departing talent, head coach Mike Stoneburgh maintains the bar will continue to be set high for his program. He does have returning and incoming talent that went 18-2 in Richmond junior boys regular season play over the last two years.
“After our final game (at provincials), I told our Grade 11s, and the Grade 10s, we called up that our goal is to be right back here again,” said Stoneburgh. “McMath is not only a top five team next year, but might very well be the team to beat in the province with Bryce (Mason) and Jordin (Kojima) coming back and Victor (Radocaj) coming up, along with Byrne Creek. Richmond High is going to be very good and McNair is always tough. But I do feel we can be right in the mix (to get a B.C. berth).
“You’re going to see us being a more run and gun team, using our speed. That’s the way I have always liked my teams to play.”
The two-time Richmond champions closed out the season with an 88-71 win over Abbotsford’s Robert Bateman on Saturday afternoon. Their quest to return to the championship game for the second straight year ended two days earlier.
The Bodwell Bruins jumped out to a 27-10 second quarter lead and would go on to edge the Sharks 68-61 in a quarter-final match-up between the tournament’s No. 4 and No. 5 seeds.
The North Vancouver private school features plenty of size — led by 6-foot-9 Canberk Gungar and 6-foot-8 Arda Coban. Throw in the physical play of 6-foot-3 forward Pedro Turoni Zaparolo and Aimaq had his hands full all night.
Still, the Richmond champions looked like they might pull out another win thanks to an excellent second quarter that cut the deficit to just six points. The teams traded baskets for much of the second half, including Zach Cantwell’s lay-up with two minutes remaining that tied the game at 61-61.
Fourteen seconds later, Aimaq picked up his fifth foul and the Grade 12 star could only watch from the bench as the Bruins closed out the game with seven unanswered points.
“Two things did us in. We were badly out rebounded and we played not to lose,” continued Stoneburgh. You can’t just stand there and watch Fardaws try to out rebound against three or four guys when they are 6’7 and 6’8.”
The Sharks came out flat and exerted a lot of energy to climb back in the game. Unlike their own Bob Carkner Classic, the city final and the Lower Mainland playoffs, there would be no pulling out a win this time.
The slow start was perplexing given this was a team with five seniors on the floor much of the time and last year’s stinging provincial final loss to Southridge should have been a huge motivating factor.
“Everybody said we were going to be fine but it’s huge trying to beat a good team three times in a row,” added Stoneburgh. “They came out wanting it more than we did. Our guys just kind of came in here thinking we were going back to the final.
“If we played like we did in the second quarter and for most of the third we would have been fine but you can’t have those kind of lapses against teams that are playing you that hard.”
Aimaq and Cantwell each finished with 21 points.
Steveston-London would drop an 87-72 decision in consolation on Friday night to St. Thomas More. It was a rematch of the Lower Mainland semi-finals played two weeks earlier that saw the Sharks prevail.
Meanwhile, the Cambie Crusaders were in tough against No. 1 seed and eventual champion Brentwood College in their 2A quarter-final match-up Thursday afternoon.
The Vancouver Island boarding school raced out to a big first quarter lead and would go on to hand the tournament’s No. 8 seed a 90-47 loss.
Grade 12 guard Kevin Dhillon had 15 points in a losing cause.
The Crusaders closed out the championships with losses to Victoria’s Lambrick Park (85-71) and Westsyde of Kamloops (66-55) to finish eighth. It was their third consecutive trip to provincials.
