Ed Somers stood on the sidelines, almost in disbelief, a perplexed but satisfied look on his face as his Lambrick Park Lions bounced up and down in unison in sheer enjoyment.
There was plenty to celebrate as the Lions just knocked off the St. Michael’s University School Blue Jags 70-64 to claim the Telus 2014 B.C. double-A senior boy’s basketball championship at the Langley Events Centre on Saturday night.
“The game sometimes is surreal, it’s going so quickly and you’re enjoying it,” he said after the provincial victory. “In the end, I felt like, ‘Wow, what did the boys just accomplish here? This is amazing.’
“We played a team that is so well coached by Ian Hyde-Lay and it turned out that we played each other so many times this year. And each game was an incredible basketball game.
“People have told me so many times how much they’ve enjoyed watching high school basketball with the way our teams have competed this year. It was kind of fitting.”
The Blue Jags were the big cats over the Lions in the Island championship just two weekends ago after a last-second two-point win at Lambrick. It was the fourth time the Blue Jags defeated the Lions in six tries this amazing season.
But No. 7 was lucky for Lambrick, which collected its sixth provincial basketball crown, but the first in 10 years.
“It was our sixth and this one is special because I get to share it with my sons, Austin and Calvin,” said Somers of his Grade 9 twins. “It was one of those things, at the start of the year, where I thought would they be physically able to play on our senior team this year because we needed some perimeter shooting. I think they clearly answered that and I was very pleased.”
Both carried hot hands at times – especially Calvin in the semifinal as he rang up a half-dozen three-pointers in the first half alone.
But there were a number of wonderful performances, including six-foot-10 post Matt Neufeld who claimed player of the game with his 20 points and 17 boards. He was also dubbed tournament MVP and top defensive player.
Down 32-30 at the half, Neufeld set the tone on an emphatic block on SMUS’s Jason Scully, who himself was named a first-team all-star. It happened at the start of the third quarter and was obviously a big lift.
“To be truthful, it was a big momentum change. Our bench got up, the kids got up and the kids were thinking, ‘Matt’s defending the hoop, here we go.’
“It was at that pont where we got another steal or two and our offence kicked in,” added Somers.
Then there was point guard Ismail Abdulahi – also a first-team all-star along wth Calvin Somers – who impressed throughout.
“He just controlled the tempo so much. I’ve had some very good point guards,” said Somers, who has coached all six of Lambrick’s provincial wins. “Defensively he was just superior. He got the steals when we needed them.”
SMUS point guard Graeme Hyde-Lay – also a second-team all-star, along with six-foot-seven forward Nick Tancon of Highland - fouled out of the game with a handful of minutes to go, but the Blue Jags wouldn’t go away.
“Boy, I give a lot of credit to SMU. They battled tonight. What a game. What a game,” said coach Somers, who also credited his co-coach Chris Ball.
“Chris Ball coaching with me has been so good. We work so well as a team coaching with the kids One guy working with the kids and strategizing and the other working with the kids and their emotional thinking.”
In the end, the emotions all let go with the Lions bouncing in unison and coach Somers left standing there, soaking it all in like a proud Lion King.
