It was a reminder that the work never stops.
On Wednesday, the Cariboo Hill Chargers launched the Burnaby-New West senior boys basketball league with a tough test against the rival New Westminster Hyacks.
The AAAA Hyacks put in a dominating effort en route to a 96-36 decision, led by Manny Phangura’s 21 points.
The Chargers, who are a AA program, got a team-high 13 points from Ajay Virk.
“New West out-hustled, out-rebounded and outran us all night,” remarked Cariboo coach Ken Swanson.
Never mind the fact that Cariboo Hill is one of the smaller public schools in the district, with 600 students. Swanson also had three injuries to deal with and dressed three Grade 10s, with a roster that is predominantly Grade 11s.
“Our major issue is that we are a school of less than 600 (students), playing in a conference of Burnaby schools that have up to 2,700 students,” said Swanson. “North, Central, South and Mountain are all over 2,000, (and) Moscrop 1,900. ... Technically, all of our league games are exhibition games.”
The Chargers are aiming to continue building towards a Lower Mainland bid, having shown respectibly well at last week’s Gladstone tournament.
They began by beating Cambie, who were a top-10 team in the pre-season rankings. Cariboo Hill trailed 39-23 at halftime, flipped positions with some red-hot shooting. Tavin Roe counted five treys and Roy Liu struck for 13 points in the fourth quarter as the Chargers emerged with a 71-64 win. Roe finished with 22 points.
“We told the boys (at halftime) they were not losing the game,” said Swanson.
Providing key leadership were Grade 11s Adrian Schimmer and Virk, who was selected to the second all-star team after averaging 14 points per game. The team was also awarded the Fair Play trophy.
