The Brookswood Bobcats like to run.
And that was on full display the past two days at the Langley Events Centre as the ‘Cats scored 79 points one night and 76 the next, culminating in the team capturing the Langley District junior boys basketball title.
Brookswood, the top seed, throttled the No. 6 Langley Fundamental Titans 76-32 on Thursday at the Langley Events Centre. It is the Bobcats first junior boys district title since 2007.
What makes the victory even more special is the fact almost all of the players have come up together through the South Langley club basketball program.
“We have been building with our youth program. Almost all of these guys have come through our club system,” said ‘Cats coach Kelsey Stewart.
“We were able to make people play at our pace. We are a pretty fast, up and down team,” he added.
“We shoot the ball pretty well — threes and fast breaks are kind of our thing.”
Brookswood sunk 11 three-pointers in the district final.
By comparison, the Titans had just a dozen field goals for the game.
But Titans coach Rod Gettel still had a smile on his face, despite the lopsided loss.
“We knew we were in tough. This was just gravy being here,” he said.
Brookswood finished tops in league play at 8-0 and then hung 79 points on No. 4 Langley Christian in a 79-44 win in the semifinals. By comparison, the Titans were sixth during the regular season at 3-5 but upset No. 3 R.E. Mountain in the opening round by two points and then pulled off another shocker in the semifinals, taking down the No. 2 Walnut Grove Gators 46-39.
But the Bobcats were too much for the Titans.
In Thursday’s final, Mason Berekoff led the Bobcats with 23 points, including five three-pointers. Joe McDougall had 17 points while Evan Kimm had 10 and point guard Luck Shiomi had eight points, when he wasn’t putting on a dazzling dribbling display.
The Titans were led by 11 points from Karl Stein.
Both teams — as well as third-place Walnut Grove and fourth-place Langley Christian — have advanced to the Fraser Valley championships, which begin Feb. 13.
Winning districts was the team’s first goal, Stewart said, adding now they will focus on success at the Fraser Valleys.
Gettel believes this may be the first time a Fundy junior boys team has even qualified for the Fraser Valleys.
“As thrilled as we are to be here, we are even more thrilled to make it to Fraser Valleys,” he said.
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