A fired-up Fleetwood Park Dragons team won the school’s very first Surrey RCMP Classic tournament title on Saturday night (Feb. 12).
In the Senior division final, the all-Surrey boys basketball tournament closed with a 87-81 win for the Dragons over Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers, the defending champions.
Fleetwood Park led 45-41 at the half, and held on for the win at Enver Creek Secondary.
No spectators were allowed in the gym, due to pandemic rules, but the championship game was streamed live on YouTube, on the LTSSTV channel (Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary Film and TV).
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Scores and photographs are posted on surreybasketballclassic.ca.
The 2022 Classic got going Feb. 6, following a month-long delay to the start of the annual tournament, now in its 30th year.
^ Fleetwood Park Dragons win their first @SurreyRCMP Classic title, dethroning @ltsssports (winners of 2020 tourney). @SSSAA_SD36 @SurreyNowLeader pic.twitter.com/0Blx2cHguQ
— Tom Zillich (@TomZillich) February 13, 2022
Proud of our team for winning this tourney - 1st time in it’s 30 yr history & to my son for being awarded 1st All Star. Our coaches have done an amazing job with these boys over the years @TomZillich @htsumura @EesherSarai https://t.co/FtwsY7EchY pic.twitter.com/HeanLclJYD
— Sarbjeet Kaur Sarai (@SarbjeetSarai) February 13, 2022
The last RCMP Classic was held in January 2020, a few months before COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. That year, Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers scratched their way to a 67-64 win over Tamanawis Wildcats in the senior division final, played in a gym packed with spectators at Enver Creek.
This year, Fleetwood Park scored their Classic championship with four straight wins, over Pacific Academy, Tamanawis, Princess Margaret and Lord Tweedsmuir.
In the end, the tournament’s MVP was Elgin Park guard/forward Adam Olsen, who was also crowned three-point champion.
The Most Inspirational Player was Jal Gatluk of Princess Margaret, named Most Sportsmanlike Team.
Tournament First-team all-stars were Inder Deol (Fleetwood Park), Munroop Gill (Lord Tweedsmuir), Etman Mesfin (Pacific Academy), Ravi Randhawa (Fleetwood Park), Eeshar Sarai (Fleetwood Park) and Jevoni Torres (Guildford Park).
Second-team all-stars were Jovin Dosanjh (Lord Tweedsmuir), Cyrus Harrison (Elgin Park), Jaden Mesfin (Pacific Academy), Ega Sembele (Princess Margaret) and Gurshan Sran (Enver Creek).
The tournament’s all-star game will be played at the Enver Creek gym on April 1, a day for awards and scholarships.
The Classic’s delayed Junior division tournament will be played in the first week of March, following provincials for that age group.
Meantime, organizers of the all-girls Surrey Fire Fighters Goodwill Classic basketball tournament, postponed since early January, are now looking to play games from March 7-12.
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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