Duchess Park Secondary’s one shining moment is one game within reach.
The Condors never waivered against Surrey’s Sir Charles Tupper en route to a 61-43 win yesterday afternoon (March 6) and a ticket punched for the finals of the 2020 BC Senior Boys Basketball Championships later today (March 7).
If the Prince George school is successful in Langley, it’ll mark the first time since 1980 a AAA basketball banner will be raised to the Duchess Park gymnasium rafters.
“Just staying the course and sticking with our process. The boys will be ready to play,” said Head Coach Jordan Yu to PrinceGeorgeMatters Friday night when asked how his athletes will prepare for the gold medal game.
After avoiding a repeat of 2019’s semi-final exit and eventually settling for the bronze, Yu says it was amazing to watch his number-one seeded team remain focused on the task at hand.
“We had two really tough matchups inside the paint tonight and our post players had to execute a pretty extensive game plan against their bigs,” he said.
“It took all five of our posts to stop two of their posts and we used up a lot of fouls early to make sure we stopped any runs.”
.@DPSSCondors (#1) avenge 2019’s heartbreak & will play for the 2020 B.C. Sr. Boys’ basketball banner 🦅 They scored a 61-43 victory over #4 Tupper Tigers to reach tomorrow’s (March 7) gold medal match for a shot at their 1st AAA title in 40 years | #CityOfPG @SD57PG @PGMatters https://t.co/fo6szLLla8
— Kyle Balzer (@KyleBalzer) March 7, 2020
Jackson Kuc and Caleb Lyons tied on the scoresheet with team-high 15 points each.
The Condors also had 10 steals on the defense, three from Kuc, along with 28 defensive rebounds against the fourth-ranked Tigers.
With history now on the line, Duchess Park was treated with a history lesson of their own following their semi-final victory.
The boys got meet the players that brought home DPSS’ first senior boys basketball provincial banner 40 years ago, hearing about their experiences and what they relied on to win the tournament.
“Also about how special championships can be in creating friendships that last a lifetime,” added Yu.
“They ran a special on Global TV tonight [March 6] and even got video of the historic meeting of the two teams. It was really special for our team to have that opportunity.”
Duchess Park will take that extra motivation and will try to apply it to their mental game in time for the championship final when they take on G.W. Graham (Chilliwack).
The Condors and the Grizzlies tip-off for the title at 6 p.m.
Absolute gold 💛 https://t.co/iaxLzlA0Wi
— DPSS Condors (@DPSSCondors) March 7, 2020
Meanwhile, Cedars Christian will be the only other Prince George school with a top-10 finish from a senior boys provincials event this weekend.
The Eagles are playing in the seventh-eighth place game this morning against Glenlyon Norfolk (Victoria) after starting the Single-A tournament ranked ninth.
In BC AA play, D.P. Todd Secondary could finish as high as 11th today.
The Trojans take on Vernon’s Clarence Fulton Secondary this morning well.
Prince George Secondary finished last in the 2020 Senior Boys’ AAAA Championship.
After starting ranked 15th, the Polars went 0-4 at the 16-team competition with the last match Friday night being their closest in a 83-76 decision to Mount Baker (Cranbrook).
