The West Vancouver Highlanders stayed on top of the North Shore basketball world this week, winning their second consecutive senior boys AAAA Howe Sound Championship title.
The Highlanders rode a balanced attack and tough defence to a comfortable 74-54 win over the Argyle Pipers in Wednesday’s championship final held at West Vancouver secondary. In a battle of two young teams — both West Van and Argyle had just three Grade 12s on their respective rosters — it was the Highlanders that took control early and never looked back. And with all those Grade 11s on the floor it was one of the 12s that got things rolling as West Van guard Liam Mahon opened the game with a three and proceeded to score 10 points in the first six minutes to help the Highlanders build a 26-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.
“Just fantastic leadership from a Grade 12,” West Van head coach Greg Meldrum said of Mahon, who in his spare time is one of the best junior rugby players in the province. “We all follow him and it starts at the defensive end with his intensity. He always marks the toughest guys on the opposition. We follow his lead.”
As the game wore on West Van’s twin towers — six-four Nick Broady and six-five Sterling Clerx — took over, sending back a number of Argyle shots while also punishing the Pipers on the other end.
“We just didn’t want to settle from the outside,” said Meldrum. “We wanted to get it inside and we did a nice job of that in the third quarter which opened up our shooters a little bit. I’m just really proud of their effort inside.”
Broady scored 14 in the final — tied with Grady Huskisson for team high — and was named the tournament’s MVP.
“The effort he plays with on the defensive end, he changes so many shots, he can rebound and he plays well inside offensively as well,” Meldrum said of Broady. “He was well deserving of the MVP.”
Argyle made a push in the third quarter to cut the lead to 15 but the Highlanders blew it back up with four threes in the final two minutes of the quarters, including a pair of bombs on back-to-back possessions from Huskisson.
Argyle was led by tournament all-star Troy Townsend who scored a game-high 22 points. The Pipers were surprise finalists, having finished last in the four-team North Shore AAAA league with a 1-5 record. In the playoffs the Pipers went on a mini-miracle run that included a 65-64 win over second-seeded Sentinel and a 57-51 win over third-ranked Handsworth to make the final.
“We knew that they were going to make a run at us so we just needed to be prepared,” Meldrum said of the Pipers.
West Van is on a basketball high right now — many of the players on this year’s senior team were on the junior squad that shocked the B.C. basketball world last season, coming out of nowhere to claim the provincial junior title.
“We’re riding a bit of a wave and I’m just lucky to be involved in coaching the boys,” said Meldrum, who is the driving force behind a new West Vancouver school district basketball academy run out of West Van secondary. The academy has played a big part in West Van’s recent success, he said.
“The academy hopefully raises the level of play of all teams involved,” he said. “Having stronger schools will help put the North Shore back on the map and help us compete with the better teams in the province.”
The Highlanders will now move on to the provincial championships scheduled for March 11-14 at the Langley Events Centre. The team hasn’t cracked the provincial top-10 list all season so they’ll have a hard road to travel at the championships.
“We’re likely to have a lower seed so we’re going to have a real tough first-round opponent,” said Meldrum. “But we’ll give it everything we have.”
Meldrum is hoping that last year’s junior provincial win — he was the coach of that team as well — gives the young Highlanders a confidence boost.
“We’ve had some speed bumps along the way but we’ve certainly grown and we’ve qualified for B.C.’s, so anything can happen, as we proved last year,” said Meldrum. “Hopefully we’re not afraid of the big game, the big scene. We’ve been there before so hopefully we can use that to our advantage.”
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A slew of awards were handed out following Wednesday’s final. Broady was named the Quinn Keast No Regrets player of the final game while Mahon picked up the $500 Quinn Keast Scholarship. Mahon and Broady were joined by teammate Josh Pinton on the tournament all-star team along with Argyle’s Max Whitworth and Townsend.
Sentinel’s Tristan Matthews was named the regular season player of the year as well as a first-team league all-star along with teammate Ravi Fisher, West Van’s Ryan Fonseca, Handsworth’s Bryce McLean, and Argyle’s Townsend. Second-team league all-stars included Argyle’s Whitworth, Handsworth’s Aidan Kim, Sentinel’s Delmar Gustin and West Van’s Pinton and Mahon.
