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Boyd rallies past Cambie in 2A battle

Trojans and Crusaders could see each other again at next month's city championships
basketball
Cambie's Brett Cudo tries to work his way past Boyd's Nuri Pankanea and Cory Meister during Monday's Richmond Senior Boys Basketball League. Boyd rallied in the second half for a 77-72 win.

The Hugh Boyd Trojans and Cambie Crusaders were happy to remind everyone the depth of parity in the Richmond Senior Boys Basketball League this season.

The city’s top 2A teams went toe-to-toe on Monday night with both enjoying double-digit leads at some point of the contest. In the end, it was the surprising Trojans pulling out an entertaining 77-72 victory to improve to 4-2 on the season.

They join the unbeaten and provincially ranked MacNeill Ravens (6-0) as the city’s most improved teams. Boyd was a combined 3-17 the last two seasons but a strong group of Grade 11s have them destined for next month’s playoff tournament.

The Trojans trailed 24-14 after one quarter and were still down by 10 (42-32) at the half. They took control thanks to a 14-2 run in the third and then held off a late Cambie charge after building up a 69-55 advantage in the fourth.

“It was a little bit of a slow start for us tonight then the guys just got going,” said Boyd head coach Norm Schultz, his sixth year as an outside volunteer. “But even in the first quarter, they were doing the right things but were missing our shots. Even our foul shooting wasn’t good. As the game wore on that changed.

“I’m happy to see we are playing everyone every game and they are all contributing. It’s a total team.”

Cory Miester, a 6-foot-7 Grade 11 post, led Boyd with 22 points. Nicholas Berda added 16, Payton Hinds 13 and Jason Grewal 10. All three are also in Grade 11.

No team in the city has more experienced assistant coaches with longtime Richmond teachers Dave Geisbrecht and Sean Berda joining Schultz on the bench. Their sons make-up three of the 10-player roster. 

As for the Crusaders, the narrow loss was followed up by another tough one on Wednesday — 69-66 result to the McNair Marlins —  to fall to 3-3 on the campaign. Still, few coaches get more out of his roster than Brian Meier who has done an outstanding job building the basketball at Cambie, which is among the smallest secondary schools in the city.

Jackie Nguyen led the way against Boyd with 26. Arjun Sahota added 13. Both are Grade 11 guards.

The Crusaders will head to next month’s Richmond Championships at Steveston-London as a probable lower seed that will provide plenty of trouble.

The highest finisher among the 2A schools will earn the more favourable seed for the Lower Mainland Championships.