After a disappointing second week to the season, the Elphinstone senior boys’ basketball team looked to turn things around during their third week – but it would not be an easy task with the Cougars squaring off against two AAAA opponents and then hosting their home tournament.
Tuesday night had the Cougars travel to West Vancouver Secondary School where Joseph Schembri came out red hot and led the way for Elphinstone with 24 points. Andrew Risebrough and Phillip Fogarty put in outstanding defensive efforts to slow down West Van’s 6 foot 5 powerhouse, which really hampered West Van’s offence. With a combined defensive effort and Schembri’s hot shooting, the Elphinstone Cougars were able to upset West Van 66 to 58.
Next up for Elphi were the Handsworth Royals who are currently ranked seventh in the province at the AAAA level. The Cougars worked hard, but were overmatched against the Royals. While this was a tough loss for Elphinstone, they were able to take many lessons from the game and apply them to their upcoming games in their home tournament, the Cougar Classic.
The first game of the Cougar Classic had Elphi playing against Chatelech. Elphinstone proved too much for the Chatelech Eagles to handle and the Cougars cruised to a 96 to 60 victory. Seth Starsage had a breakout game for Elphinstone with 21 points and was also a beast on the glass. The victory earned the Cougars a rest until Saturday morning, though Friday night had the three-point competition, which Gus Goerzen easily won with a score of 16. The next closest shooter was Wyatt Baldwin from Chatelech with 13.
In the Saturday morning game, Elphi matched up against Windsor, who just had many of their players returning from winning the Provincial Football Championship; needless to say they had some very big boys. This is where the lessons learned while playing Handsworth would come into play. One of Elphi’s biggest weaknesses has been their physical play and their rebounding, but you would not have been aware of this watching the Windsor game. The Cougars not only matched Windsor’s physical play, they surpassed it.
Carrying a 10-point lead into the half, the Cougars came out cold in the second half and had troubles shooting the ball, but their defensive intensity created several turnovers and easy baskets for Elphi. During the third quarter, the Cougars were able to hold Windsor to just four points, allowing them to stroll to an 83 to 42 victory. Noah Woodin received the game star for the game as he led the defensive charge for the Cougars with five steals.
With the win, Elphinstone earned a trip to the finals against the Richmond Colts, who are currently ranked sixth in the province at the AAA level. Elphinstone was able to ride their momentum and feed off the crowd’s energy to build an early lead, but Richmond was able to flex their muscle and come back. The game would go back and forth and had many tense moments, but the Cougars looked to get stronger as the game went on and the Colts started to look tired. Joesph Schembri, Ben Luporini and Jesse Umayat battled hard defensively against the Colts’ top players with Ben picking up his team leading fifth charge of the season.
The Cougars would show great composure toward the end as they did not get caught up in Richmond’s attempts to throw them off their game; this would allow Elphi to secure the victory and win the Cougar Classic Championship 101 to 88.
Gus Goerzen was voted the game star in the finals for his amazing 45-point outburst. Gus also received a first team all-star award.
The Elphinstone Cougars would like to thank all the fans who came out to support them and would especially like to thank all the referees and scorekeepers for making the Cougar Classic possible.
– Submitted by Mike Sopow
