BC men’s basketball defends title beating Manitoba in gold-medal thriller
British Columbia’s men’s basketball team successfully defended their title from 2011 today with a 66-60 victory in a thrilling gold-medal match against Manitoba on Aug. 11 at the 2015 Western Canada Summer Games in Fort McMurray, Alta. Four BC players hit double digits with Michael Kelly (North Vancouver) leading with 14 points, 12 of which came off three-pointers.
“We knew it was going to be a close game,” said Team BC head coach Joe Enevoldson (Delta). “We missed a lot of layups today so, it was great for us to pull out the win. I was pretty happy we were getting easy looks but eventually law of averages play in and we just wanted to keep pounding the ball inside.”
BC point guard Jason Tantengco (Vancouver) was not only outstanding in his distribution but the five-foot-eleven Vancouver native also put up 12 points, while teammate Grant Shephard (Kelowna) added 13 and Cameron Morris (Burnaby) contributed 11. Manitoba was led in scoring by the talented Don Dayrit (Winnipeg) with 15 points, while Greg Wint (Winnipeg) and Rodney Mutasasa (Winnipeg) helped with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
It was end-to-end action in the first quarter as the teams were tied at 17 following the opening 10 minutes. Manitoba got hot early on as four different scorers got on the board, while a beautiful steal from BC’s Morris freed him up to go coast to coast to cut Manitoba’s lead to 7-6. Manitoba continued to find the hoop through the skills of Matt Yaworksy (Winnipeg) but a beautiful pass from BC guard Kelly set up Shephard for a great bucket in transition. Shephard led in scoring with seven points for BC.
Manitoba lit it up at the start of the second quarter draining three-straight shots from beyond the arc, one from each of Alex Steganko (Winnipeg), Dayrit and Yaworsky, to go up 26-17. From there it was pure entertainment as BC went on a quick 6-0 run sparked by a Kelly and finished with a steal and layup from Tantengco. BC went up 32-29 but Manitoba came charging back with a nice jumper from Matthew Peter (Winnipeg) and an and-one play from Wint to go up by two, 34-32. In the final seconds of the half six-foot-four Morris drained a distance shot to send BC up 35-34 entering the break.
Action continued as a capacity-crowd was roaring through the entire third quarter that saw six three-pointers made, four of which were for BC. It was a scoring showdown as BC out-scored Manitoba 20-14 in the quarter. BC had back-to-back threes from Kelly late in the third to go up 51-43. Andrei Sansano (Winnipeg) responded from the perimeter to cut BC’s lead to five points, while a steal and break-away layup from Kelly gave BC the edge, 55-48, entering the final frame.
Just as it started the final 10 minutes were high intensity, fast paced and end to end. Manitoba’s Dayrit was absolutely on fire in his offensive end, while BC showed great defensive spirits to keep Manitoba at bay. BC’s Kelly hit his fourth three of the game to go up 58-49, while continued scoring from Mutasasa and Dayrit got Manitoba as close as three points back. Three points from the line by Tantengco put BC up by four, while Manitoba stretched the final seconds by fouling. It wasn’t enough though as BC made good from the stripe to go on and win it 66-60.
“We started on March 28 and it’s been a long haul going almost every weekend since then,” outlined Enevoldson about the team’s commitment leading up to this tournament. “It was an intense summer and they are tired now, you can tell. I hope they learned how to work hard. We have a university coaching staff and how to work at that level was the big thing we wanted to get out of these guys and, of course, have a great experience.”
SCORING SUMMARY
BC: 17-18-20-11 : 66
MAN: 17-17-14-12 : 60
SCORING LEADERS
BC: Michael Kelly (14), Grant Shephard (13), Jason Tantengco (12)
MAN: Don Dayrit (15), Greg Wint (11), Rodney Mutasasa (10)