THE path to the Howe Sound AAA basketball championship for the Carson Graham Eagles senior boys team took a few unexpected turns but in the end they claimed the banner after surviving a serious scare from the upstart Handsworth Royals.
The regular season champs from Carson Graham clinched the title with victories in three straight must-win games - including a pair of wins over the Royals Thursday and Friday - after an early playoff loss to Handsworth put them one defeat away from elimination.
Handsworth's 79-65 upset win over the Eagles in the double-knockout tournament on Tuesday, Feb. 28, gave the Royals a ticket straight to the finals while the Eagles were forced to play Argyle the following night, a game they eked out 73-70 to earn two more shots at the Royals. The Eagles made the most of their second chance, beating the Royals 83-76 Thursday and 76-60 Friday to claim the title.
"We knew it would be a struggle because we had to play three more games in a row and Handsworth got to rest," said Grade 11 guard Alex Akpo, named tournament MVP after Carson's final victory. "But I knew that we could do it. We've got a lot of tough guys, we've worked hard all season and we proved it."
The Royals, 4-4 in the regular season, sent shockwaves through the tournament early on with an 82-81 overtime upset of 7-1 Argyle followed by their big win over Carson. Leading the way was Grade 11 guard Luka Petkovic, a high-energy blur whose swagger grew as he tore through opponents, registering a 29.5 points-pergame average in the tournament. Petkovic dropped 39 against Argyle, 26 in the win over Carson Graham and an incredible 41 in the first rematch against Carson.
With the Howe Sound championship in sight on Thursday night at Balmoral, the temporary home of the Eagles while their school is being renovated, it looked as though the Royals would grab the banner along with the zone's lone berth in the B.C. championships. Petkovic was hitting shots from all angles - including more than one as he was crashing to the ground after fearlessly throwing himself into traffic - and teammate Arman Amini scored seven straight points to give the Royals a 59-52 lead heading into the fourth quarter. From that point on, however, it was all Carson as they outscored Handsworth 31-17 in the final frame, back-to-back threes from Akpo and Matt Douglas capping a late 9-0 run that put them in the lead for good.
The Carson win forced Friday's finale and from start to finish it was never really in doubt. Early foul trouble put Petkovic on the bench for extended periods - he scored 12 in the final game - and the Eagles were up 41-23 by half and on their way to the title.
"This tournament is really tough, (people) don't understand how much of an emotional rollercoaster it is," Carson head coach Mike Morgan said after the win. "You think you're one game away from going to the B.C.'s and then you lose on the Tuesday and now to go to B.C.'s you've got to win three games. . . . This week is all about being on an even keel - you can't get too high or too low - and the kids did an unbelievable job of it."
While Petkovic led the tournament in ooos and ahhhs - as well as catcalls from Carson fans - Akpo matched him nearly shot for shot in the final games, dropping 27 in Thursday's big win before adding 22 in the clincher.
"He can score," said Morgan with a laugh. "Alex is really gifted, he can really get it going. We're really lucky to have a kid who put that many hours into his game. We're not running a lot of offence for him, he's just scoring."
Grade 12 Eagles guard Nik Termansen, tasked with guarding Petkovic for much of the tournament, tied Akpo for team high with 22 points in the final win and was named to the all-tournament team along with teammate Simon Tesfaldet, Petkovic and Adam Karmali from Handsworth, and Argyle's Cole Faminoff.
"Nik is an unbelievable athlete," said Morgan. "He's just so good defensively that he creates a lot of offensive opportunities for our team. He's probably the best on-ball defender in the province."
Tesfaldet also deserved a lot of credit, said Morgan. "I'm so happy for him right now, I can't even put into words how excited I am to see him get a tournament all-star because he came into the season and wasn't a starter. In your Grade 12 year you want to start and he didn't. Some games he was playing five or six minutes and some games he was playing maybe two. And he persevered and he went all the way through and to see all of that pay off in front of all your friends, that's pretty cool."
The Eagles also got a big contribution from their only Grade 10 player, six-foot-four forward Brayden Bellville.
"We knocked down a lot of shots but tonight I think (Brayden) was the major difference," said Morgan. "He grabbed a ton of rebounds and was real active on the glass. He's very raw - he's only been playing basketball for a year and a half - (but) he did what he had to do on the glass and I think that really changed the game. He had some rebounds that were unbelievable. Handsworth probably does the best job in the league of boxing out but it didn't matter - he could get up over them. That's not anything you can teach a guy, he's just a hell of an athlete."
Over on the Handsworth side head coach Blair Shier said his team's lack of secondary scoring in the final games combined with Akpo's hot shooting doomed their upset aspirations.
"I'm really proud of the way we played," he said. "We've been preaching a style of play all year long to be tough to play against and it kicked in in the playoffs. I think we caught a couple of teams by surprise early but at the end of the day our guys just couldn't maintain it against some very, very talented teams." Though foul trouble limited Petkovic in the final game, his fierce play throughout the tournament helped push the Royals to the brink.
"He's one of the most competitive kids I know and I've ever coached," said Shier. "He will dive out for any loose ball whether we're up 20, down 20. He plays with his heart on his sleeve."
"It's pretty tiring," Termansen said about guarding Petkovic. "He's a hard guy to defend. He's the guy that all our scouting, all our practices are around."
The work paid off for the Eagles as they are now gearing up for the provincial championships scheduled for March 13-17 at the Langley Events Centre.
"It's just amazing - there's no words for it. Super excited," said Termansen as he tried to wrap his head around the team's accomplishments in his final year. "It was scary because we had to go through a lot of adversity. We had to play four games in a row and that was really tiring. I'm just glad that my buddy (Alex) pulled out some good games."
