At the BC School Sport Senior Boys Basketball Provincial Championship last week our Senior Boys basketball team secured 5th place, finishing with the best result in our school’s history! Read all about their provincials journey this year.
The SJS Eagles opened the tournament last Wednesday with a convincing 113–67 win over McBride Secondary. That win put them in the quarter-finals against Gidgalang Kuuyas Naay, a team the Eagles saw at the SJS JAM tournament, but did not play against previously. After being tied 18–18 at the end of the 1st quarter, the Eagles went on a 9–0 run to begin the 2nd quarter. That lead quickly vanished as the GNK went on a run of its own to take the lead back 39–37 at halftime. In the second half the size and physical play from the Breakers saw them pull ahead by eight points leading 57–49 entering the 4th quarter. The Eagles kept trying to shoot their way back to within three points several times before eventually falling 77–72 at the end of the game. The loss put the team out of medal contention but SJS still had a chance to finish 5th!
On Friday, March 8 the Eagles took on the Okanagan’s #2 seed the Similkameen Sparks from Keremeos B.C. SJS lead wire-to-wire with a convincing 88–66 victory. On Saturday, March 9 the Eagles were matched against the Province’s #2 seed the Credo Christian Kodiaks. SJS has never beaten Credo over the years so the team knew they were in for a very tough game. Again the Eagles took an early lead in the first quarter. Despite a late rally by the Kodiaks, SJS hung on for the eventual 66–59 win to secure a 5th place finish in the Provincial Championships, the best result in our school’s history.
The Eagles were in close contention for the right to be called the best in the Province this year, here are some facts on just how close they came this season:
1) The Eagles lost by five points to Gigalang Kuuyas Nay at the provincials, who went to the final and almost won the whole thing losing by just three points.
2) During the regular season the Eagles beat the eventual 3rd place finisher, St. Ann’s team by 18 points.
3) During the regular season the Eagles beat the eventual 4th place finisher, Maple Ridge Christian twice.
With the bulk of the team returning next year, including Tournament All-Star Viv Anderson Francois, the Eagles are looking to go on a real push through to the 2025 BCSS Provincial Championship!
Special thanks go out to our graduating Seniors whose high school basketball careers came to an end last Saturday — Nathan Brown, Louis Lin, Aaron Lo, Thomas O’Hagan — we will miss you all!!