Gallery • 8 Photos

Connor Jaques

Squad

Term 2 is an exciting one with basketball taking the centre stage within the St. George’s athletics community. With all the hype focusing on the upcoming series between Saints and rival Vancouver College, it is easy to forget about 2^nd Varsity Basketball team who played their home opener Wednesday, November 25^th.

With tryouts having just concluded the 2^nd Varsity team was eager to start their season off on a strong foot. Coached by Mr. Jonathon Figueroa and Mr. Aiden Docherty, this year was going to be different. As Mr. Figueroa put it, “this team is not a joke. We are here to win at every point this season.” It was clear that the season was not going to be a walk in the park.

Hosting Jim Pattison high school, the team was prepared mentally going into the game. Starting with a quick 10-0 run it looked promising as to what the potential of the team might be. Starting point guard Owen Pitblado (grade 12) was instrumental in the fast start, pushing the ball up the court whenever the opportunity presented itself. Saints would finish the quarter with a solid 24-8 lead.

The second quarter was much of the same for Saints, dominating both sides of the ball holding Pattison to a measly 30% shooting while putting on an offensive showcase. 3-pointers from Chris Kwon and Haneef Ayub (both grade 11) concluded a strong offensive showing from Saints as they ended the first half with a 25 point advantage.

Half time comments from the coaches were positive however; they urged to continue to play strong on defense. “Our rebounding was weak closing out the half” said Mr. Figueroa “we need to find someone to check when the shot goes up and box him out” while Mr. Docherty commenting on the offense “we need to run the offense the way it was designed. We know we can beat these guys, lets try and use this as an opportunity to practice”.

The start of the second half was slow for St. George’s, with Pattison making three of their first four shots. Saints would pick up the slack with strong team play resulting in turnovers on defense and running beautiful offensive sets resulting in either easy layups or open shots.

The fourth quarter was identical to the third and Saints pulling out a convincing win over Pattison 65-27. When asked about his team’s performance Mr. Figueroa commented “the game today was alright but not great. There are still a lot of thing we need to work on to have a chance to compete this year”. The team now looks forward to the annual ISA tournament hosted at Brentwood College where they will compete against some tough Tier 1 competition.