Ranked No. 1 in the province, the Duchess Park Condors are off to a great start at the triple-A boys provincial basketball championship in Langley.
They beat the Mark Isfeld Ice of Courtenay 83-60 in their opening game Wednesday.
The Condors were paced by senior guard Jackson Kuc, who took advantage of Condors' pressure defence tactics to force several turnovers which gave him clears path to the hoop.
Duchess Park led 24-12 after one quarter and 45-27 at the half.
Kuc collected a team-high 20 points and had six steals for Duchess Park. Tony Zejnulahovic picked up 14 points, nine rebounds and four assists and his twin brother Emir finished with 13 points and eight rebounds. Cole Laing also hit double figures with 10 points and Connor Lewis hauled in 10 rebounds. More than half the Ice offence came out of the hands of Temwa Mtawali, who shot a game-high 31 points along with eight rebounds, four assists and four steals.
Duchess Park will advance to a quarterfinal matchup Thursday at 3 p.m. against the ninth-ranked Pitt Meadows Marauders, who opened with a 58-51 win over St. Michael's University. The winner of that game will play in the first semifinal Friday at 3:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, at the quad-A tournament, the 15th-ranked Prince George Polars gave No. 2 Centennial of Coquitlam a tough opening-day battle before eventually falling 80-46. Led by Harmandeep's 16-point, five-rebound effort, and a 12-point, 10-rebound game from Jordan Foster, PGSS kept it close for the opening 20 minutes and trailed 36-28 at the half.
In their second game Thursday morning the Polars took on No. 10 Yale lost 72.61. Foster contributed 24 points and eight rebounds. Tonton Sisse and Grady Cover each sunk 11 points for the Polars.
PGSS will play Frank Hurt of Surrey in a consolation round matchup Friday at 10:15 a.m.
At the double-A boys championship also in Langley, the seventh-ranked D.P. Todd Trojans lost 80-61 to No. 10 Mulgrave in their first game Wednesday, despite a 24-point, 10-rebound performance from senior guard Cameron Sale. The Trojans rebounded Thursday morning with an 89-69 win over No. 15 J.L. Crowe.
The Trojans will be back on the court in Langley Friday at 5:15 p.m. to play Southridge of Surrey.
At the single-A provincial tournament, also at Langley Events Centre, the No. 9 Cedars Christian Eagles defeated No. 8 Gudangaay Tlaats'gaa Naay Thunder of Masset 81-60 in their Wednesday opener. With that win the Eagles advance to the quarterfinal round and will face top-ranked Highroad Academy of Chilliwack Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
In other single-A provincial action, the 11th-ranked McBride Mustangs lost 71-64 to the St. John's Jam of Vancouver. Clay Cardinal put up 27 points and hauled in 10 rebounds and Seth Hulka collected 17 points to lead the Mustangs
In their opener the 14th-ranked Northside Christian Northstars of Vanderhoof dropped a 93-50 decision to No. 3 Unity Christian Flames of Chilliwack. Regan Unger and Rylan Bulitz each finished with 11 points to pace the Northstars.
Northside Christian went on to defeat McBride 80-58 Thursday morning. Landon Wale had 16 points for the Flames. Unger also hit double figures with 15 points, while Bulitz and Luke Fehr each had 14. Ezra Keim shot a team-high 16 for the Mustangs.
Friday's schedule has McBride playing Deer Lake at 8:30 a.m., followed at 1:45 p.m. by the Northside-Similkameen game.
At last week's girls provincial playoffs the Duchess Park Condors senior girls went 1-3 in Langley and finished eighth, ending up with a 63-57 loss to Valleyview. The Nechako Valley Viqueens of Vanderhoof placed 12th at the double-A championship, posting a 1-3 record.
At the junior girls provincials the College Heights Cougars went 3-2 and placed 10th out of 24 teams, while the Duchess Park Condors went 0-4 and placed 24th. At the junior boys provincial championship the Prince George Polars went 1-3.
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