Middle of the table battles

Men’s basketball fights to climb up the table

By Davie Wong, Sports Editor

It’s been a tough restart to the year for the men’s basketball team at Douglas College. Since the second semester has started, the Royals have gone 1–3. This week offered the Royals yet another challenge, with a match against a top three team in the Langara Falcons and a team biting at the Royals’ back in the Quest Kermodes.

First up to bat was the Falcons. With a game plan specialized for the Falcons, the Royals came out of the gates with a strong performance. Buckets from multiple Royals saw them start with 27 points compared to the Falcons’ 18. But the Langara team are in the top three for a reason, and they found a way to adapt to the Royals game plan in the second. They put up 21 of their own points, while the Royals could only answer with 13. It couldn’t have been tighter going into the break. The Royals held a one point lead, 40–39.

Going into the second half, not much changed. The Falcons fell a bit behind, as the Royals managed their turnovers well and rebounded to capitalize on a couple of buckets. Going into the fourth, the Royals lead the game by five points. But as the season has shown us so far, holding a lead is much more challenging than it looks. In this case, things just fell apart for the Royals. The Falcons stormed the fourth quarter and snagged the game back with 22 points. The Royals could only muster 8 on the quarter, and ended up falling to the Falcons 79–70. As a wise man once said, the Royals were winning, until they lost.

The consolation for the Royals would have to be the strong performance from their starting line-up. Everyone that started had 10 or more points on the night, with Sheldon Derton leading the team with 15.

That loss pushed the Royals to four losses in a row with an all-important match against the Quest Kermodes up next. The Kermodes were coming into the match on an even record with the Royals and were looking to jump ahead of them.

With potential playoff seeding on the line, the Kermodes looked determined to get a win. A tough first quarter saw the Royals drop behind by a four-point margin. However, the second quarter more than made up for it, with the Royals running up the scoreboard for 19 points. The Quest squad were kept to 9 points in the quarter, and went into half time trailing the Royals 30–24.

Coming out of halftime, there was a sort of all or nothing aura in the air. Pushing defence to the wayside, both squads put on a frenzy on the box score. The Kermodes came ahead of the quarter, scoring 22 points, while the Royals drained 21 points of their own. The last frame of the game was just as tense as the rest of the match, and was just as close as well. It came down to the final seconds, but the Royals were able to hold on and secure their win, 70–61.

While no one on the Royals squad had a particularly huge game, everyone on the starting line-up found ways to contribute on the score sheet. The five starting Royals ended up with at least 10 points each, with Grant Campbell leading the charge with 16.