In their first three games against the Duchess Park Condors this season, the College Heights Cougars were forced to watch victory celebrations at the other end of the court.
They didn't want to go through that unpleasant experience yet again.
Saturday night at D.P. Todd, in the championship game of the Trojan Wars senior boys basketball tournament, the Cougars gave an inspired performance and beat the Condors 79-70.
"We played excellent," said Rajen Bhullar, a Grade 12 College Heights guard who was picked as the tournament's most valuable player. "We're now starting to gel as a team. There are four or five of us that played on the volleyball team and now were finally coming back. We're getting that team dynamic together."
The Cougars and Condors compete in the double-A division, and, later this season, will both shoot for a zone championship title and a berth in provincials. With the bigger picture in mind, College Heights coach Jeff Goodrich was impressed with the intensity his troops brought to the floor.
"It was nice," Goodrich said. "This was a win we really wanted to get. The double-A field is very tight. D.P. Todd could win, we could win, Duchess is in it, and Vanderhoof is really coming on. So to be able to compete with everybody and get a win against everybody is important."
In their other games at the Trojan Wars, the Cougars defeated Vanderhoof's Nechako Valley 78-70 and downed the triple-A PGSS Polars 79-58.
In the championship game, Bhullar created the biggest problems for the Condors. He found mesh from all areas of the court and finished the contest with 27 points. By the early stages of the fourth quarter the Cougars had built themselves a 67-50 lead and appeared to have clear sailing to the final buzzer. The Condors, to their credit, cranked up their defensive pressure and pulled themselves back within striking distance. But, a comeback wasn't to be.
"There's definitely no quit in these boys -- they're always in the game," said Condors coach Brendan Harrop. "I'm proud of the way they fought back in the fourth quarter. A lesser team would have just stopped when they were down that many points.
"Hats off to College Heights," Harrop added. "They had some shooters hitting a ton of shots. They came to play. They played a wonderful final."
In a balanced College Heights attack, Grade 12 guard Scott Smith added 13 points. Josh Raphael, a Grade 12 guard/forward for the Condors, led his squad with 25. Star guard Andrew Whittaker had an off night and managed only nine points.
Earlier in the tournament, the Condors beat the Kelly Road Roadrunners 86-32 and topped the host Trojans 93-63.
In the bronze-medal game, PGSS edged D.P. Todd 70-66. In that one, Josh Letendre scored 16 points for the Polars and Jai Kaushal had 15 for the Trojans.
Local all-stars were: First team -- Raphael, Whittaker, Letendre, Sam Goodrich (College Heights) and Jordan Yandeau (D.P. Todd); Second team -- Sagar Sandhu (PGSS) and Ethan Banghu (D.P. Todd).
The Trojans and Condors will both take shots in Vernon this coming weekend. They are entered in a tournament at Clarence Fulton secondary, an event that will bring together some of the top double-A teams in the province.
