A year after a thrilling, buzzer-beating tournament win on home court last January, Enver Creek Cougars look to repeat as Surrey RCMP Basketball Classic senior division champs.
Players and fans flooded the gym floor in celebration after guard Ajaypal Hayer drained a three-pointer late in the final game to lift the Phil Deeks-coached Cougars to a 69-68 victory over rival Fleetwood Park Dragons.
It was another classic moment at the annual all-Surrey boys tournament, which gets going again Sunday, Jan. 14, with play-in games at Langley Events Centre.
Last year’s Junior title was won by Sullivan Heights Stars in another dramatic finish, 51-49 over Tamanawis Wildcats, with a final-seconds basket by MVP Nick Baxter.
“It was crazy, very exciting,” Sullivan coach Tyler Ram said after the game. “We had to battle back, and were down nine at the half. We were down pretty much the whole game until the fourth quarter.”
Once again, dozens of teams representing Surrey secondary schools will play for senior and junior division championships at the week-long tournament, which concludes Saturday, Jan. 20, with final games at Enver Creek.
The 2024 edition of the Classic will be played in tribute to co-founder Kevin DeBoice, who died last March after battling cancer. DeBoice, a Surrey School District employee since 1985, was a basketball trailblazer in the city alongside others including fellow Classic co-director Rick Inrig, who continues to manage the tournament.
Last March, Surrey’s annual All-Star Classic high school basketball games, for graduating boys and girls, were played with heavy hearts at Enver Creek’s gym, just a few days after DeBoice’s passing.
• RELATED: Surrey girls battle for Goodwill Classic hoops championships starting Jan. 8.
A 20-page guide to the 2024 RCMP Classic is posted on surreynowleader.com, under E-editions (Special Features section), with team rosters, schedules, tourney history and more. The program is also found on surreybasketballclassic.ca.
Teams with a shot at the senior division title include Newton’s Tamanawis Wildcats, currently ranked second in B.C. in the AAAA boys division (for largest schools in the province).
Thank you to our tournament sponsors @McElhanney @MoveToMotionBC and Standard Insulation and Siding pic.twitter.com/URD19Rgzty
— Tamanawisbball (@tamanawisbball) January 5, 2024
This year the Wildcats are led by Sartaj Bhangu and Arjun Hehar, according to returning coach Mike McKay. Bhangu was named MVP of the Tamanawis-hosted Holiday Invitational tournament, won by the Wildcats 96-85 over St. George’s last week, and Hehar was a tourney all-star.
In November and December, the Wildcats played some stiff competition in Washington, Oregon and California, and now it’s time for the team to focus on regional rivals again, mid-season.
“We did really well against some good teams,” McKay said of the games in the U.S. “We have a lot of Grade 12s this year so we tried to give them a bit of different experience, some games out of province. We did a lot of fundraising over the summer so we were able to go to a few places.”
This week’s RCMP Classic will give contending teams a taste of playoffs-like basketball.
“We’re now in the thick of the season,” McKay noted. “Those earlier games in the fall are mostly about finding out who your guys are and who you trust on the court, and now we’re headed toward provincials, which are less than two months away now (at Langley Events Centre).
“Of all the good teams we’ve had (at Tamanawis), going back a decade, this is the deepest group we’ve had — probably the deepest bench in the province, for sure,” the coach added. “We’re very deep this year. It’s a long season and we have to stay healthy, have things go right and not have bad nights, but I think we have as good a shot (at a B.C. championship) as anybody in the province, that’s for sure.”