The South Delta Secondary Grade 9 boys wrapped up a successful basketball season with a 14th place finish at the provincials at Centennial Secondary in Coquitlam last weekend.
South Delta went 2-3 beating West Van 51-46 in overtime on Thursday, losing 52-31 to top seed Salish on Friday, lost 58-48 to seven seed Kelowna on Saturday, beat Brocklehurst 65-54 Saturday, and lost to GW Graham 73-66 on Sunday.
Jaxon Kusel averaged three, three-pointers per game – 15 over five games and led the team in assists and steals. He was the player of the game in the win over West Van.
Quinn Kirinic, a Grade 8 playing up, led the team in scoring and rebounds at centre, averaging 22 points and 10 rebounds. He was the player of the game in the win over Brocklehurst.
“I’m really happy. It was a very competitive tournament and even to get in was a big achievement for us,” said head coach Nick Kusel. “The boys played really well.”
SDSS clinched the spot at provincials with an overtime win over Queen Elizabeth at the South Fraser Championships.
“Our regular season was pretty challenging because the Delta league kind of fell apart, so we had to seek games outside of the community, tournaments to make sure we were in the best position for provincials,” he said. “We ended up going to tournaments all over the Lower Mainland and played the top teams who made provincials. It was a 32-game season, which is a lot.
“We sacrificed our record – we were around .500, because we chose to go play against the hardest teams and I felt like that experience paid off at the South Fraser’s and then again, this weekend at provincials. Kelowna was a winnable game, and we win that, and we slip into the top 10, so that game kind of haunts me a bit. The big win was West Van. We lost to them by four points earlier in the season, so the boys really came through in that one.”
