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Surrey’s Holy Cross boys take BC Catholics championship for third year in a row

Home-court Crusaders top Fighting Irish in final yet again
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Holy Cross Regional High School won the BC Catholics tournament for the third year in a row. (Photo: BC Hoop Scoop)

SURREY — The senior boys team at Holy Cross Regional High School took the BC Catholics basketball championship for the third year in a row after defeating Vancouver College to clinch the trophy.

The 30th annual tournament was hosted at Holy Cross and the finals were played on Saturday (Jan. 20), when the Crusaders took on the Fighting Irish. History repeated itself as the home team won by a score of 61-52.

Crusaders coach Anthony Pezzente said his team always gets up to play Vancouver College, as it means a bit more to them.

“They are a little more focused,” Pezzente said. “They kinda want to prove that we’re just as good and we belong with the team like Van College, who are historically one of the better teams.”

The Crusaders and Fighting Irish have faced each other in the final of the BC Catholics for the past three years, and the Crusaders have emerged on top each time.

On Saturday, Uyi Ologhola emerged as the top scorer for the Crusaders, while Jack Cruz-Dumont scored the maximum for the Fighting Irish.

Eleven teams took part in this year’s BC Catholics tournament, and 34 games were played by both boys and girls teams.

In the girls final, St. Thomas Aquinas beat St. Thomas More by a score of 49-37.

More game scores and stats can be found at holycross.bc.ca/catholics2018.

Pezzente is wary of the Crusaders relying heavily on Grade 12 students this season, but said the team also has junior players who can lead the team forward.

“Our Grade 12s are spectacular, and they are the heartbeat of our team. We are gonna miss them,” Pezzente said.

“We also play four Grade 10s on our senior teams and hopefully next year it’s not a dropoff, because they are used to the big stage.”

Pezzente said the team is now focused on the upcoming provincial basketball league playoffs.

“It’s nice to win the BC Catholics tournament,” he said. “But it can’t be the highlight of our season because we still want to keep improving and keep getting better. There are many more things that we would like to accomplish this year on top of that.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoSpb_kmq7A



yogesh.bala@surreynowleader.com

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