It took all of one night to disregard any kind of forecast for the Richmond Senior Boys Basketball League’s 2016-17 season.
A year after running the table in city play and reaching the provincial final, the pre-season No. 1 AAA ranked Steveston-London Sharks were stunned by the McMath Wildcats on their home court Monday, to the tune of a 91-80 loss.
Even with his talented line-up, Sharks head coach Mike Stoneburgh wasn’t thrilled with the idea of playing a rivalry game so early in the season. Yet, he never imagined his team would be in a double-digit deficit for much of the second half or how a Grade 9 call-up inflicted much of the damage.
Six-foot-six post Victor Radocaj played beyond his years, pouring in a game-high 28 points and also helping out at the defensive end of the floor against Steveston-London 6-foot-9 standout Fardaws Aimaq. Much of Radocaj’s output came away from the basket thanks to a terrific jump shot that was deadly accurate from 10-to-12 feet.
“He is a good player and not a typical Grade 9,” said Stoneburgh. “He is not going to be flustered and was very in control. He just does his job and hits his shots. I told the guys you can’t leave him open. It was frustrating.”
While the Sharks return three starters, with guards Daniel Chen and Ahmed Mohamud joining Aimaq, they are still having to adjust to life without graduated city MVP Nigel Boyd and Pierce Strutt, who left to play academy ball. The Wildcats applied a box-in-one on Aimaq and challenged the other four players on the floor to beat them. It’s a defensive strategy they are going to see all season.
“We had a perfect plan (to counter it) and it was open every time. We beat it three times and then just went away from it. That’s frustrating as a coach,” added Stoneburgh. “We started to turn the ball over and were forcing it into (Fardaws).”
“This was an eye opener. I knew it was coming but I didn’t expect it would be tonight. We were 3-0 but really had played like garbage. We have been playing too much as individuals and this was a gut check.”
For first-year Wildcats head coach Tony Wong-Hen, what a start to his tenure.
The longtime supporter of Richmond basketball and Dolphin Park Classic co-founder watched his team finish second at the Gladstone Tip Off Tournament a week earlier then shock the Sharks.
He has a young roster, including Grade 11 Bryce Mason who was a second team city all-star a year ago, that is only going to get better. Grade 12 first team all-star guard Ryan Yeung also returns.
“It was a complete team effort tonight,” smiled Wong-Hen. “We have a deep bench and all our players work hard at practice and shoot well. It really is a good group.
“Where do we go from here? Who knows. Each game is a challenge and we are just taking them one at a time.”
Wong-Hen had high praise for the defensive work of Ioan Popov, a Grade 11 who is thriving in a shutdown role. Rohan Balaggan is another talented Grade 9 who is seeing minutes with the senior team.
Radocaj and Mason were all-stars at the Gladstone tourney.
The McNair Marlins were considered to be the Sharks’ biggest threat this season after reaching the provincials a year ago. They earned the No. 9 spot in the pre-season rankings thanks to three key returning players — Nathan Schroeder, Jovan Dhillon and Talvinder Jadge.
They have lived up to the early hype by capturing the Sutherland Tournament on the weekend, behind the MVP performance of Jadge.
Head coach Jessy Dhillon has put together a challenging December schedule that included St. George’s in the Marlins’ season opener and AAAA powerhouse Kelowna on Thursday to open the Howard Tsumura Invitational at the Langley Events Centre.
McNair’s recipe for success will once again be its high-energy play and suffocating full court pressure defence.
The Marlins will leave for a tournament in Hawaii next Tuesday, a night after taking on the Sharks at Steveston-London in what is a big early season match-up. Lower Mainland playoff seedings will be determined this season by the league standings, not the placings at city championships.
“The McNair game is the next big one for us,” added Stoneburgh. “We have put ourselves in a hard position. It’s not do-or-die time but it’s going to be a massive game.”
Other Richmond teams competing at the “AAA” level this season include McRoberts, Hugh Boyd and MacNeill, who were 83-72 winners over Richmond High Monday, behind the 27-point performance of standout guard Justin Dy-Pe.
Cambie and RC Palmer are expected to battle for provincial ‘AA’ berths. The Crusaders are led by returning starters Kevin Dhillon and Kyle Kondola. The Griffins are a young squad under veteran coach Rob Brown that enjoyed success at the junior level a year ago.
