A YOUNG LION’S FINEST MOMENT – YALE’S JORDAN BLACKMAN
Yale’s Jordan Blackman reminded everyone of former Yale standout Joel Friesen on Saturday at War Gym. (PNG photo)
VANCOUVER — For Jordan Blackman, Saturday afternoon was almost like paying tribute to his basketball brother.
Three years ago, in the 2008 B.C. boys high school all-star game at UBC’s War Memorial Gym, Joel Friesen of Abbotsford’s Yale Secondary School scored a game-high 24 points in his final prep game before embarking on his CIS career the next season with the Fraser Valley Cascades.
On Saturday, Blackman, three years Friesen’s junior, but now a senior himself at Yale, scored a game-high 22 points on the very same floor in the 2011 B.C. all-star classic, leading Team Goulet to a 93-81 win over Team Eberhardt.
And like Friesen, Blackman is set to begin his CIS career close to home in the fall with UFV’s Cascades.
“Me and Joel are like brothers,” admitted Blackman after the game. “When I first moved to Abbotsford, our moms were really good friends and when I was like four or five years old, we actually lived together.
“So he’s like my mentor, my brother,” the 6-foor-4 Blackman continued. “Every time I have a question about basketball, I go to him.”
Blackman didn’t need anyone’s advice when he scored 10 points in a span of 2:26 late in the third quarter, his spurt putting the game away for Team Goulet.
First he dropped a trey, then he completed a three-point play from the free throw line after an explosive dribble-drive move to the rim. Next came a fast break layin, and then with 14 seconds left in the quarter, a vicious slam dunk.
“My team couldn’t make it to the B.C.’s,” said Blackman of the Lions who had won the B.C. Triple A title in 2010, “but it was good to come here and make a statement that Yale can play.”
Malcolm Williams of Pitt Meadows added 12 points for the winners, while forward Warren Liang of Vancouver’s Sir Charles Tupper added another 12.
B.C. Triple A MVP Vijay Dhillon of Richmond’s R.C. Palmer led Team Eberhardt with 18 points. Yale’s Nakai Luyken, Southern Okanagan’s Perry Auklakh and Palmer’s Mike Zayas each added 14 points.
GIRLS ALL-STAR GAME
Some of the best players you’d perhaps never heard of wound up stealing a lot of the spotlight in a B.C. girls all-star game that will be remembered as much for what happened after the first quarter as any other time in the game.
In the end, Team Thompson topped Team Beauchamp 92-75 but not before the two teams pulled off a six-player trade after the first quarter of the game.
Leading 28-8 after the first quarter, Team Thompson, coached by W.J. Mouat’s Paula Thompson, swapped its first three players by numerical order on the game roster for the first three on Team Beauchamp, coach by Steve Beauchamp of B.C. Double A semifinalist Holy Cross Secondary of Surrey.
The swap went a long ways towards turning a 30-point (41-11) Team Thompson lead midway through the second quarter into a much tigher eight-point game (63-55) early in the fourth quarter.
But beyond the oddities of the player swap, the showcase gave great opportunity for some of the province’s top small-school players to show their stuff.
“I think you forget sometimes that it doesn’t matter if it’s Single, Double or Triple A, you have a lot of girls playing basketball these days,” said Beauchamp. “And you saw today where skills have improved so much and that basketball is pretty healthy in the province.”
Despite coming up short, Team Beauchamp’s most eye-opening performance came from Single A standout guard Vivienne Veerman of Abbotsford Christian who knocked down three treys and scored a team-high 14 points.
Team Thompson, however, had too much down the stretch drive, led by double-figure performances from four of its CIS-bound stars. The UBC-bound pair of Adrienne Parkin (Kitsilano) and Stephanie Bell (North Van-Argyle) each scored 15 points, Victoria Vikes-bound guard Shaylyn Crisp (Victoria-Claremont) had 15 and B.C. Triple A MVP and future Cascade Kayli Sartori (W.J. Mouat) had 14.
Team Beauchamp got 12 points from Washington State-bound forward Shalie Dheensaw. SFU’s soon-to-be freshman Erin Chambers (Mission-Heritage Park) and Michelle Schmidt of Vanderhoof’s Nechako Valley each scored 10 points.
TRACK AND FIELD
Christian Gravel of Vancouver’s St. George’s was honored with the senior boys outstanding performance on Saturday at The Province Gran Forza indoor track and field meet held at the Richmond Olympic Oval.
Gravel won the senior boys 800 metres (1:58.23) and helped his Saints finish in a first-place tie with Vancouver College.
On the senior girls side, Killarney won the team title, bolstered by Tanya Humeniuk’s winning 800-metre effort (2:19.92). Lord Byng’s Devan Wiebe won the 60-metre sprint (6.97 seconds) and was named outstanding performer.
Semiahmoo’s Chelsea Ribero was the oustanding performer in the female juvenile division, helping her Surrey-based Totems to the team title. In juvenile boys, Pitt Meadows won the team title while Kenny Schultz of West Van’s Rockridge was named most outstanding performer.
