Like starving dogs scrapping over a meaty bone, the Nechako Valley Vikings and D.P. Todd Trojans went at it Sunday morning on the basketball court at D.P. Todd Secondary School and only one of them would get to sink their teeth into the prize – a trip to the BC provincial double-A boys championship in Langley.
The Trojans forced the extra game in the double-knockout North Central zone tournament when they beat the Vikings on a last-ditch shot that decided a two-point barnburner Saturday afternoon.
So there was no reason not to expect the same kind of game when two evenly-matched teams got down to playing for all the marbles in their third meeting of the tournament.
In a defensive struggle all the whole way through and it came down to two plays that ultimately decided it.
With two minutes left and the Trojans clinging to a 45-43 lead, Vikings Grade 9 forward Zeke Ferguson shook off the blanket coverage draped all over him from Trojans defender Urijah Zurowski and let go a baseline hook shot that dropped through the hoop.
The Trojans tried to move the ball up the floor but ran into a truck named Kole Shoesmith. He forced the turnover in D.P. Todd territory and got the ball to Thomas Cross, who grabbed a rebound and drew a crowd of Trojans underneath the net but he found space for a layup that hit the target and with 64 seconds left the boys from Vanderhoof had a two-point lead.
The ball went out of bounds and Zurowski held the ball for in-bound play when Ferguson stepped over the line and drew a technical foul. Markus Sale sunk the one-shot foul to make it a one-point game. The Trojans retained possession but couldn’t get the shot they needed because the Vikings weren’t letting that happen. They took over the ball and ran the clock down to 8.8 seconds before the Trojans were forced to foul and Cross put it away, sinking both free throws.
Sale’s hail-Mary fell short and the Trojans in-bounded with six tenths of second left and got it back to Sale, but his shot from three-point land wasn’t close and the Vikings celebrated a 49-46 win.
“It was tight, we had a rough start, it was a rough first quarter, good rest of the game, we played solid D and that’s really what won it for us,” said Vikings forward Dayne Mueller, the tournament MVP, who led his team with 12 points in the final.
“We didn’t care about the loss (Saturday), we put it in the past, and we were ready to play,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll have a good run at provincials. I’m excited. We’re always the lowest seed but it’s a fun environment and it’ll be fun no matter what.”
Aiden Simrose picked up 10 points, Ferguson finished with seven and Linden Buchanan came off the bench for six points. Matthew Stubley shot a game-high 13 points for D.P. Todd, Sale had nine and Zurowski hit for eight.
“It doesn’t get any closer than that, they played hard all weekend, back against the wall” said Trojans head coach Randy Sandhu. “Saturday was a tough day, had to take the back door and they persevered through it all.
“It was a very defensive game, a lot of rebounds, and Vanderhoof played very well. They’re a great team, they play defence very well and encouraged us to play defence very well because you have to match that energy to compete with them.”
It was an early-morning cattle call for the Vikings, who had to ride the bus in from Vanderhoof and the Trojans appeared to have fresher legs at the start and burst out to an 8-0 lead. Cross finally got the visitors on the board nearly seven minutes in but they made up ground quickly with Cross and Mueller hitting their shots and they led 12-11 after one quarter. It remained a one-shot game either way for most of the rest of the game.
The Vikings beat the Trojans 55-43 in a semifinal on Friday. The Trojans then got past Shas Ti Kelly Road 74-61 and beat Nechako Valley 64-62 on Sale’s last-second layup, which forced the extra game.
“Certainly a couple of terrific games, very competitive players and two really fine teams went at it tooth and nail,” said Vikings head coach Gary Simrose. “Very few mistakes defensively on either side and because the defence was so strong there were a few offensive mistakes and some of those played into the result, it was a great battle.”
Simrose, 63, has won more zone championships than he has fingers to count since taking over the senior boys team from Ron VanDolah after Nechako Valley won the 1996 provincial title. Sunday’s zone was his fourth straight and his son Aiden has been on every one of those teams.
“This is four in a row, that’s all I can remember, and there were a bunch before that, and each one is special,” said coach Simrose. “(Aiden) and I have won four together and that’s a pretty special memory for us.”
They’ll get one more shot at provincial glory March 5-8 in Langley.
The Vikings finished 16th out of 16 last year and they’ll likely be seeded near the bottom of the provincial pool but that’s not a concern. They got their berth and they’ve got a couple more weeks together on the court and that’s all that matters to Shoesmith, picked as the tournament’s top defensive player.
“All of these guys have known each other since we were five and we all play multiple sports with each other, football, basketball, you name it, and it’s just this bond and level of intimacy I feel our team has a heightened sense of,” said Shoesmith, now in his last year with the team.
Six of the 10 Vikings on the roster will graduate this year.
Matthew Stubley, Vic Tan and Peter Macneil, the Trojans’ Grade 12 seniors, played their last high school game Sunday.
The Trojans won the City League championship but the zone title was the much bigger prize. They’ll just have to wait until next year knowing the core of the team – zone all-stars Sale, Zurowski, Logan Slater and Jake Samis – is eligible to return.
“I just thought we were right there with them, thought we played a good game but it just happens in sports,” said Sale. “We can remember this game and take it to next year. We just have to keep working hard this summer.”
Said Sandhu: “It was a great season. First city championship in 11 years for D.P. Todd, nothing to be ashamed about.”
North Central Double-A zone championship
Individual awards
MVP: Dayne Mueller, Nechako Valley
Top defensive player: Kole Shoesmith, Nechako Valley
First all-star team
Aiden Simrose, Nechako Valley
Jakes Samis, D.P. Todd
Thomas Cross, Nechako Valley
Matthew Stubley, D.P. Todd
Urijah Zurowski, D.P. Todd
Markus Sale, D.P. Todd
Second all-star team
Kolby Van Camp, Shas Ti Kelly Road
Lyndon Wyer, Shas Ti Kelly Road
Zeke Ferguson, Nechako Valley
Everett Hollett, Peter Skene Ogden
Logan Slater, D.P. Todd
Andrew Blackburn, Shas Ti Kelly Road
