Guest columnist Howard TsumaraSpecial to the Langley Advance
The James Woods of Hollywood vintage is such a talent that he’s been nominated for Oscars as both a leading man and in a supporting role.
The James Woods of B.C. high school basketball fame, largely unknown until this season, is garnering his own share of critical acclaim for Langley’s Walnut Grove Gators, playing whatever role is asked of him in this, his breakout Grade 11 campaign.
On Saturday in Port Coquitlam, while senior back court running mate Ty Rowell was playing up to character in leading No. 2-ranked Walnut Grove to a 68-64 win over the No. 1 Kelowna Owls in the championship final of Terry Fox Secondary’s 28th annual Legal Beagle Invitational, it was the 5-foot-11 Woods who sat in the weeds of the Gators’ back court before delivering perhaps the game’s most dramatic moment.
With 1:03 remaining and his team nursing a 63-62 lead, Woods capped off a show of unselfish halfcourt passing by the Gators when he nailed a three-pointer from near the top of the arc.
In a game in which the Owls led by a point after the first quarter, and the Gators led by one and two points at the half and after three-quarters respectively, it was a shot that felt like a gale-force wind.
“We stayed poised and we had to because that was a very good basketball team we played tonight,” said Walnut Grove head coach George Bergen. “They were just as good as us, but a little James Woods made a pretty big shot there.”
Kelowna guard Mason Bourcier came back to hit a pair of free throws to pull the Owls within 66-64 with 57 seconds left. Gators’ Grade 11 forward Luke Adams added a lay-in with 41 seconds remaining to wrap up the scoring.
“We call him Big Shot James because he is a gamer,” said Bergen of Woods, who scored only nine points Saturday but has been among the team’s leaders all season.
“Ty and Mason are two of the premier guards in B.C. but James, for us, just adds an extra wrinkle, an extra piece in what we are able to do.”
Some would say that the emergence of Woods brings even more chess to the high-stakes clashes the Gators and Owls have staged this season.
On Dec. 10, in the championship final of the Tsumura Basketball Invitational at the Langley Events Centre, Walnut Grove crushed Kelowna 83-62.
Exactly four Saturdays later, the gap has been substantially narrowed.
“A month ago they beat us by 21 points, tonight they beat us by four points and we’ve got two months until March rolls around,” said Kelowna head coach Harry Parmar.
“Our kids are getting better. Right now our offence is a bit behind but we’re headed in the right direction. The last time we played them, we were just behind in the speed of the game and our composure. We’re slowly catching up, and when you want to win is on March 11, when it really counts. But we still want to build confidence.”
If the Gators showed anything, it’s that their mental resilience is showing the traits of mid-March champions.
One week after suffering their first loss of the season, to Victoria’s Oak Bay Bays, and one night after needing to go double-overtime to hold off Vancouver’s Kitsilano Blue Demons, they had enough tenacity and fortitude to beat back the Owls in rare tourney final featuring the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams in B.C.
Woods scored 19 points in that Friday overtime thriller, a 79-76 victory over Kits, including two huge buckets off of his trademark running floater. The first, with 6.5 seconds remaining in the first overtime, tied the game 73-73. The second, with 35 seconds left in the second overtime, gave Walnut Grove an all-important two-possession lead at 79-75.
“And I know all of us can still get a lot better,” said Walnut Grove senior forward Andrew Goertzen, who along with front court teammate Brett Christiansen each scored 12 points Saturday.
“We’re not done (improving) yet, and no one has seen how good I think we can still get,” Goertzen said.
Rowell, like he did at the Tsumura Basketball Invitational, was picked the Legal Beagle MVP, scoring a team-high 21 points. Forward Jake Cowley, an inside force, scored eight points and was named to the first all-star team, as were the Owls’ Bourcier, who scored a game-high 26 points and centre Owen Keyes who scored 13.
– Howard Tsumura writes for The Province