Dontae Bull, who recently announced his intentions to join Fresno State in NCAA Division I football, ran amok on the hardwood on Tuesday night.
The six-foot-eight, 278-pounder pounded the ball inside, recording 25 points, while guard Nishad Tarak added a game-high 27 (including five three-pointers) as the Belmont Bulldogs downed the visiting T-Birds 81-66 in the Island triple-A senior boys’ challenge game.
The Bulldogs now advance to the provincial championship, March 8-11 in Langley, along with the Island champion Oak Bay Bays.
“There’s no team, in a game like this, that’s going to let you walk in the gym, take them out and walk back out,” Bulldogs coach Kevin Brown said of the pesky T-Birds. “We knew they would be tough.
“They’re a super tough group physically. They work hard and never stop playing. I knew it would take a while to hopefully build a lead and that’s what we did in the second [quarter].”
Belmont led 16-15 after the first, but amassed a 41-28 advantage by halftime, thanks in part to 15 points from Tarak in the second stanza. Bull did his damage inside as well.
“Luckily this year we have Dontae inside, as well as Isaac [Ickovich] inside, and on top of that we shoot quite well,” said Brown. “We mix it up, going inside first, playing inside-out basketball.”
It was simply too much for the T-Birds to handle on this night, despite a 25-point performance by graduating senior Eston Unrau.
