Cockrill Cracks All-Star Roster

For the first time in a number of years (quite possibly since Jamie Vaughan from Highroad Academy in 2002), a Chilliwack basketball player has been selected to play in the annual B.C. High School Boys Provincial All-Star Game at UBC.

Micah Cockrill, G.W. Graham's leading scorer and a first-team all-star at AA Provincials, was one of 22 graduating seniors selected to play in the annual showcase.  Cockrill is among the three players representing the AA tier (also including Brett Rouault from Clarence Fulton and Semir Ibrahim from Britannia).

The game will be played at War Memorial Gym at UBC this Saturday afternoon (time TBA).  Below are the rosters for the two teams.

Gotta love March Madness

This week's column

Check out this week's column highlighting Unity Christian and the middle school girls teams from Rosedale and G.W. Graham who both finished well at Provincials.

Last week's column and AAA Provincials

Here's a link for last week's column if you missed it:

Making the grade (Chilliwack Times, March 5)

Also, keep your eyes open for my coverage of the AAA Provincial Championships happening next weekend at the Agrodome in Vancouver.

Unity 66 Glenlyon-Norfolk 65

Much of my Wednesday morning was spent sitting next to a sea of orange at the Langley Events Centre.  No, this was not a massive Gatorade spill, rather the entire student body of Unity Christian School out to support their senior boys team in Unity's first-round matchup against Glenlyon-Norfolk.

The beginning of the game saw Unity jump out to a quick lead although nerves were obvious as Unity missed many easy scoring opportunities.  Unity, typically a very strong rebounding team allowed Glenlyon to grab numerous offensive rebounds.  Nevertheless, Unity led 12-7 after the first quarter.

The second quarter was much the same with Unity pushing the ball but capitalizing on a higher percentage of their field goal attempts.  Keith Vugteveen and Brent Meyerink were the early offensive leaders for the Flames and their efforts helped Unity to take a 29-22 lead heading into halftime.

A completely different game trend emerged in the second half with Glenlyon-Norfolk using endless missed opportunities by Unity to take the lead late in the third quarter.  Brent Meyerink picked up his fourth foul early in the third which sent him to the bench for nearly the entire quarter.

The game was tied or within a margin of two points for most of the fourth quarter until Meyerink hit a three-pointer with 4:28 to play to put the Flames ahead by one.  However, Meyerink picked up his fifth and disqualifying foul (on a foolish block attempt) with 3:13 to play.  Unity, led by Keith Vugteveen, Curtis Vermeer, and a big three by Nathan Vugteveen, went on a solid run to take a seven-point lead with under a minute to play.  Glenlyon hit two late threes to pull the game within one but then missed a last-second heave from halfcourt giving Unity the 66-65 victory.

Unity now advances to play the number one seed, St. Patricks, on Thursday at 1:00pm.

Separated at Birth, Volume 4 (AA Provincials Edition)

In honour of the G.W. Graham Grizzlies finish at this year's AA Provincial Championships, we take some time out of our schedules to reunite some of the Grizzlies with their long-lost family members.

 G.W. Graham coach Sean Wicker

 

Singing sensation and gay rights advocate Clay Aiken

 

Grizzlies center Jesse Derksen

The Simpsons character Cletus Delroy Spuckler

AA Provincials Recap: G.W. Graham finishes 4th

The first entry for G.W. Graham in the AA Provincial Championships was a memorable one.

Their first match-up, L.V. Rogers, turned out to be a little less challenging than originally expected and the Grizzlies marched to a 68-53 victory despite game-long foul troubles for Chris Thomson.  On Thursday, in what was supposed to be a dynamite matchup against Brentwood College, the Grizzlies completely dominated defensively and held Brentwood to only 11 second-half points as they cruised to a 51-27 victory.

However, things get a little tougher on Friday at any Provincial Championships and this year was no exception.  The Friday semi-final matchup against the Britannia Bruins presented the Grizzlies with probably their toughest opponent of the season thus far.  Adding to the adversity was an injury to Micah Cockrill sustained on Wednesday afternoon as he woke up Thursday morning unable to shoot a basketball because of soreness in his wrist.  X-rays taken less than two hours before gametime showed no broken bones so Cockrill taped up and took to the floor on Friday night.

The Grizzlies played Britannia tough at the beginning of the game but started to fall behind in the second quarter and trailed by eight points at halftime.  They managed to have a strong third quarter but the Bruins were too much for Graham on this night as they came away with a 70-52 victory.  The story of the game was the 46-34 rebounding margin in favour of Britannia as well as the fact that Graham only took 54 shots compared to Britannia's 67.  It was a tough loss to swallow for the Grizzlies as it marked the end of their chances at a provincial championship (Britannia went on to defeat R.C. Palmer on Saturday to win their second provincial championship in three years).

On Saturday, the Grizzlies were still emotionally damaged after their semi-final loss but showed up to TRU with a desire to beat the Maroons from Clarence Fulton for the bronze medal.  The Grizzlies started out very strong and led 42-27 at halftime.  However, the Maroons came out much more aggressively in the second half and their press caused numerous Graham turnovers.  The Maroons also rebounded much better in the second half and capitalized on endless second-chance opportunities.  The Grizzlies closed the gap in the fourth quarter and nearly gave themselves a chance to win (because of many Fulton misses at the free throw line) but came up short and lost 83-75.  Micah Cockrill had 37 points and Chris Thomson contributed 21 in their final high school games.  Josiah Cockrill also had his strongest game of the tournament by adding 7 points for the Grizzlies. 

Although finishing fourth would be disappointing by most standards, the Grizzlies exceeded everyone's expectations (probably even their own) by not only winning 2009-2010 AA Fraser Valleys but also having a strong showing at Provincials.  Micah Cockrill was named to the First All-Star Team and Chris Thomson was given Honourable Mention status.  Cockrill and Thomson both hope to play post-secondary basketball next year although their destinations are still up in the air.  Meanwhile, the younger Grizzlies will start preparing for next year which could be a tough year as the Grizzlies lose their two best players and top scorers (Thomson and Cockrill combined for 73% of Graham's field goal attempts and 69% of the team's points at Provincials).

AAA Fraser Valley Playoffs Preview

Although Chilliwack and Sardis both had regrettable finishes to league play, they both qualified for the opening elimination round of the AAA Fraser Valley Championships, which start on Friday night.  However, both teams enter the tournament in the position of David as they face Goliath-like teams.

Sardis, the 31st seed, will play White Rock Christian on Friday at 8pm (at White Rock Christian).  The Falcons are an extreme longshot and will hope to contain Eli Mara, who recently committed to Trinity Western for next season, as much as possible.

Chilliwack will travel to Pitt Meadows to play the venerable Marauders in their first-round matchup (also at 8pm).  The Marauders are led by Mike Lewandowski, also known as "Big Mike" because of his height, and Spencer Evans.  Chilliwack, like Sardis, are underdogs and will face a tough team supported by a loud homecourt crowd at Pitt Meadows.

All this being said, its playoff time and anything can happen...

G.W. Graham 51 Brentwood College 27

What was supposed to be a dynamite matchup on Thursday afternoon turned out to be a complete domination of Brentwood College by the G.W. Graham Grizzlies.  The game started out very slow and there were more fouls than points on the scoreboard for most of the first quarter which ended 6-5 in favour of Brentwood.

Finally both teams decided that they wanted to score and things were a little more productive in the second quarter with Graham finding their stride on some fast break opportunities.  Graham led 22-16 at halftime.  Brentwood started the second half by hitting a three-pointer on the first possession but the momentum swung back to the Grizzlies and they stretched their lead to a 13-point margin heading into the final quarter.

The fourth quarter turned out to be one of the more dominant defensive showings this author has ever seen with Graham allowing 0 (yes, that's a zero) Brentwood points on their way to a 51-27 victory.  Brentwood shot an abysmal 13.8% in the second half while the Grizzlies controlled both ends of the floor.

Micah Cockrill scored 20 points and added 12 rebounds while Lucas Mannes had another strong showing by scoring 14 points on 3 for 5 shooting from three-point range and adding 3 assists.  And although Cockrill was given Player of the Game honours, it was obvious that one of the most important contributions for the Grizzlies on Thursday came from Chris Thomson who pulled down 19 rebounds and added 12 points and 6 steals.

G.W. Graham advances to play the Britannia Bruins in the semi-final on Friday night at 5:45pm.  Britannia is not a particularly tall team but they are extremely athletic and are led by the Ibrahim brothers who are aggressive and smooth basketball players.  The Grizzlies will need to have another stingy defensive performance and will need increased offensive contributions from their bench (only 5 Grizzlies players actually took a shot on Thursday).

G.W. Graham 68 L.V. Rogers 53

On Wednesday morning, G.W. Graham took the floor in their first ever Provincial Championship Tournament appearance against the L.V. Rogers Bombers from Nelson.  G.W. Graham led nearly the entire game but it was a sloppy performance by the Grizzlies against a weak Bombers team.  The Grizzlies now advance to face Brentwood College on Thursday (at 1pm) which in a quarterfinal matchup.  Thursday's game should be full of tension and intrigue as there is bad blood between the two teams (they have split their season series).  Stay here for the latest from Kamloops.