The Duchess Park Condors-D.P. Todd Trojans matchup everyone was waiting for happened Friday night in the final of the Condor Classic basketball tournament.
The hottest senior boys rivalry in the city dates back to their junior A days and it's obviously still simmering. Now, as top dogs in the North Central zone, both ranked in the top three provincially in their respective tiers, the Condors and Trojans picked up where they left off last February in the City League final.
And just like they did in the past two city finals, the Condors found a way in their home gym to beat D.P. Todd, riding a second-half surge to a 66-50 victory.
It was a defensive struggle for the better part of two quarters and the Trojans had crept to within four points of knotting the score when rookie guard Cole Laing stripped the ball from Trojan senior Cameron Sale and nailed a buzzer-beating bucket from halfcourt range for a 23-16 lead at the break.
The younger brother of UNBC starting point guard Tyrell Laing added another shot of drama to close out the third quarter. He stripped the ball from Sale again, ran the length of the floor and sunk the layup just as the quarter expired, extending the Condors' lead to 41-29.
"Cole is a bigtime player," said Condors head coach Jordan Yu. "He's a Grade 10 so he's going to have some of those Grade 10 errors. But for the most part, the bigger the game gets, he steps up. He's just one of those players who has a real good feel for the game. He hits those key shots, he makes key passes and he sees the floor really well. He's a good playmaker for us."
Laing finished with eight points and also had a couple assists, one of which triggered a six-point surge for Jackson Kuc. The Grade 12 guard attacked the hoop from all angles and shot a team-high 17 points, 10 of which came in the second half. Connor Lewis finished with 12 points and Caleb Lyons and Tony Zejnulahovic each put up 11 for the Condors.
"It's always fun playing D.P. Todd, they have so many good players, they're a great team," said Lyons. "Since Grade 8 I've played this team in every final and it's been the same, they're always tough to play against. We just came away with this one, Jack (Kuc) played really well today. He was a bigtime player for us, we wouldn't have won without him."
Trojan sharpshooter Cameron Sale, held to seven points in the first half, tuned his radar in the second half and finished with a game-high 24 points.
"They have some players who can really shoot the ball well and our goal was obviously to try to get the ball out of Cam Sale's hands, and that's easier said than done," said Yu. "Saagar (Shergill) and Holden (Black) are two big bodies down low, two Grade 12s who have a nice touch around the hoop, so we had our hands full tonight.
"We felt we're a bit faster in transition and one of our keys of getting to the hoop was not getting into a shooting competition with Cam because he'll win that every single time."
Black made good on his foul shots and collected 13 points. He also hauled in a lion's share of rebounds playing his usual ferocious game underneath the baskets, but it wasn't enough to defeat the Condors.
"Our shots just stopped falling and we stopped moving the ball, as we were in the first half, and our rotations on defence at the end started falling apart," said Black. "But we kept battling and in my opinion it was a good game.
"The first half, there was a lot of gritty players out there on the court. It's always a good game playing Duchess and I look forward to playing them again in January."
In the third-place game, the Cedars Christian Eagles topped the Prince George Polars 80-60.
Other tournament scores
Senior boys
Duchess Park 112 McBride 37
Cedars 84 Kelly Road 78
College Heights 71 McBride 61
Duchess Park 78 PGSS 48
D.P. Todd 83 Cedars 65
College Heights 79 Kelly Road 76
Senior girls
Duchess Park 87 Northside 32
Other scores were not available
