Skip to content

Wildcats end 33-year Surrey hoops drought

The Tamanawis Wildcats exorcised some ghosts from their past with an undefeated run through the 2014 Fraser Valley Senior Boys' 4A Basketball Championships in Langley last weekend.

The top-ranked Wildcats captured the school's first-ever Fraser Valley title with a thrilling 86-79 win over Coquitlam's Gleneagle Talons in Saturday's Valley Finale. It marked the first time since 1981 that a Surrey public school has ruled Valley hoops.

"It feels good to win the Valley," said Tamanawis star Sukhjot Bains. "We're the first Surrey public school to do it in 33 years. Our coach told us that after the game and it's pretty amazing. This is the first Fraser Valley championship at the senior level so I guess we made history for our school too."

Bains was the wildest 'Cat of them all, collecting 83 points in the two biggest games of the season to date to earn tournament MVP honours. Bains scored 40 points and 15 rebounds against the Holy Cross Crusaders in a 69-58 semifinal round win Friday, a game that doubled as a battle for Surrey bragging rights. Bains then followed that up with 43 points, 11 rebounds and five assists in the titleclinching win over Gleneagle. The points and accolades are nice, but Bains said he and his teammates were determined to erase memories of last season when the highly-touted Wildcats failed to qualify for the provincial championship tournament.

"We didn't make provincials or anything last year; we got eliminated early," he said. "We were definitely motivated by what happened. Last year, the core group of Grade 11s went to the Valley final between White Rock (Christian Academy) and Walnut Grove. We watched the game and we all said we would be back and we would win in next year. And we did end up doing it so that's great, but we're not done yet. We have the number one seed for

the provincials and now we have to keep playing our best to reach our (biggest) goals."

The Tamanawis-Holy Cross all-Surrey showdown Friday night marked the first time this season the two schools played each other.

The Wildcats took charge early, building a 30-16 first quarter lead, but when Tamanawis' shooting cooled off, the Crusaders answered with big shots of their own to take a 38-36 lead into the break.

The two teams took turns with the lead in the third quarter and when Holy Cross

stumbled briefly in the fourth quarter, Bains was there to apply the dagger with back-toback threes to effectively put the game out of reach.

"The Tami game was so intense," said Holy Cross coach Matt LeChasseur. "It was a great battle. Tami played fantastic and Sukh Bains was amazing. Some of the shots he hit were so sweet. I mean, we had guys draped all over him and he still got it off. He had a great tournament."

The win over Holy Cross elevated the Wildcats into the Valley final against upstart Gleneagle, who stunned defending B.C. champion Walnut Grove 64-40 in Friday's other semifinal. The Talons' magic continued for most of four quarters of the final as they carried a seven-point lead into the final three minutes of play. The Wildcats battled back and capped the rally with a three-pointer from Parm Bains with two seconds remaining in regulation to tie the game and force overtime.

In the extra session, Harjot Grewal nailed another trey to put the Wildcats on top and they never trailed again en route to the title.

Sukhjot Bains said the Wildcats' ability to close out tight games like that is the biggest difference between this team and the Tamanawis squad that fell short one year ago.

"It's different now," he said. "Last year if we were behind like that, we probably would have given up. It happened a couple times, like in the RCMP finals, where we would fall behind and not battle back and then we would lose by the same amount. This year it's different because we're more mature and we know we can win games in the final minute if we have to."

In Saturday's third-place game, Walnut Grove downed Holy Cross 66-65.

Wildcats Parm Bains and Sukhman Sandhu were both named to the first allstar team along with Holy Cross forward Jonathan Kongbo. Crusaders guard Jauquin Bennett-Boire was a second team selection.

Holy Cross and Tamanawis now advance to the provincial championships in Langley beginning March 12.