The Capilano Blues men’s basketball team found out last weekend what life is like without their two co-captains: at first it was quite bad, and then it was very, very good.
The Blues were blasted by the powerful Quest Kermodes, currently second in the PacWest league, 87-66 Friday night but rebounded Saturday to knock off the third-ranked Langara Falcons in a 90-89 thriller. Both games were played without co-captains Martin Bogajev, the PacWest leading scorer, and Graddy Zubaidi. Sutherland grad Zubaidi was out with the flu while Bogajev was sidelined after failing to get his academic enrolment set up in time for the start of winter semester. Both are expected to be back in the lineup this weekend, but without them the Blues were missing their team leaders, not to mention 33 points per game in scoring.
On Friday in Squamish the Blues had no answers against the tough Kermodes defence.
“Friday night we were lost,” said head coach Cassidy Kannemeyer. “We couldn’t figure out where we were going to get our shots from, and Quest is one of the best defensive teams in the league. … We didn’t know where to turn.”
One night later, however, the Blues scored a one-point win over a team directly ahead of them in the standings, beating the Falcons in a shootout that Kannemeyer hopes might be a turning point in the season.
“It was probably the game of the year so far in the league,” Kannemyer said of Saturday’s contest at Langara which was saw excellent execution from both teams topped off by some last-second heroics. “The fourth quarter was just back and forth, both teams just making big-time shots, both teams executing offensively. … As a head coach at Capilano that’s for sure the most fireworks I’ve seen in a game.”
The Blues fell behind by 14 points early in the game but battled back to cut the deficit to just three at halftime. After a second half shootout the Blues took the lead with less than 10 seconds left on a desperation three from rookie guard Cordell Parker.
“He makes a move on his defender and launches one from like 28 feet, 10 feet behind the three-point line, and just nails it,” said Kannemeyer.
Langara, however, did not go quietly, responding immediately with a two-point basket to tie the game 89-89. The Blues answered right back with guard Brendan Bailey drawing a foul on a hard drive to the basket and sinking one of two free throws, giving him 25 points in the game, to restore the lead. The Falcons had one final chance to win it but a fall-away 10-footer missed, giving the Blues the win.
Capilano’s Parm Bains also scored 25 points in the win, joining with Bailey to ably fill the hole left by the missing captains.
“On Saturday (we) found who the go-to guys are,” said Kannemeyer, adding that Bains, the team’s top bench player, has been lighting it up all season, but Saturday was a breakout for Bailey.
“Brendan has struggled this season and on Saturday night the light went on and he really took the game into his hands and saw the openings in the offence,” the coach said. “He’s one of the quickest players in the league, he’s one of the most athletic players in the league, and he’s really been reluctant to use it. On Saturday he wasn’t, and he got by his man every time. He put so much pressure on the defence, they were just on their heels. He was hitting pull-up jumpers, he was hitting and-one layups, he was hitting three pointers – he was doing a bit of everything.”
Bailey ended up with a team-high eight rebounds and three steals while tying Bains for the team lead with four assists apiece.
Other players coming up big in the Langara win included forward Chris Loreth who scored 15 points with six rebounds and wing Reese Morris who came off the bench to score 13 points with six rebounds and a game-high four blocks.
Kannemeyer is hoping those performances will carry through the rest of the season, giving the Blues a potent, balanced attack. Heading into last weekend’s games Bogajev was also the only Capilano player in the top 10 in league scoring, leading the way with an average of 21.6 points per game. The coach was happy to see others step up to fill that void against Langara.
“I think with Martin not there they realized how important they are and so hopefully when Martin gets back, now they can all complement each other,” said Kannemeyer. “Martin is a very unselfish player. He will take what the defence gives him, and he’s been trying to get those guys going all season.”
The Blues have a bonus waiting for them at the end of the season as they will host the PacWest championship tournament at the beginning of March. As they near the halfway point of their schedule they are tied for fourth with Camosun with 5-4 records, one win behind third-place Langara. Everyone in the league, however, is chasing a pair of juggernauts at the top in 9-0 Vancouver Island University and 8-1 Quest, ranked No. 1 and No. 9 in Canada, respectively.
The road to the PacWest title will go through those two teams, but Kannemeyer said he’s not interested in stewing over potential playoff matchups.
“We haven’t really looked that far ahead,” he said. “We’re really focused game-to-game, week-to-week, play-to-play. We’re trying not to look ahead of anything. We don’t talk about outcome, we talk a lot about process, and what we need to do to get better. … I think as a young team we really need to keep things in perspective.”
The Blues will have a chance to build on their big win this weekend in their first home games of the new year Friday against Columbia Bible College and Saturday against Kwantlen. The two teams are stuck at the bottom of the standings with just one win between them but the Blues will need to bring it all together to make sure they come away with two wins, said Kanneymeyer.
“We’re not going to take either of these games lightly. … This weekend it’s super critical for us to take care of business here at home,” he said, adding that he thinks his team has added the confidence to do just that. “That game against Langara was exactly what we needed: a close game to get everybody’s attention about offensive execution, defensive execution. We really executed well down the stretch. … That’s what I preach all the time in practice: are we going to be able to execute when the bullets are flying.”
On Friday CBC and Capilano will square off at the Sportsplex starting with the women at 6 p.m. followed by the men at 8 p.m. On Saturday the Blues will host Kwantlen with the women tipping off at 5 p.m. followed by the men at 7 p.m.
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The Capilano women scored a pair of impressive wins over the weekend led by Carmel M’Bikata who was named the PacWest female basketball athlete of the week.
On Friday M’Bikata scored 17 points with eight rebounds and an assist in a 75-60 win over the defending PacWest champions from Quest. One night later she filled up the stat sheet again with 16 points, five rebounds, two steals and an assist in a 68-59 win over Langara.
The wins moved the Blues to 7-2 on the season, comfortably in third place behind VIU and Douglas who have matching 8-1 records.
