More than 24 hours before tip-off, an exhibition basketball game at the Langley Events Centre had already sold out.
With that in mind, Ball Don’t Stop is hoping to return to Langley next summer for another go, perhaps this time at the LEC’s arena bowl, which has more than double the seating capacity.
“There is no reason for us not to come back,” said Ekam Nagra, the founder of the Surrey-based Ball Don’t Stop.
“If we could get into the (arena) bowl, that would be huge. I have to look at securing that early.”
There was a long line waiting to get inside the LEC’s centre court gym on Saturday with basketball fans showing for the Battle at the Border, an exhibition game between teams of professional, collegiate and university players from Seattle against their counterparts from Vancouver.
“There is definitely a strong fan base here for the game of basketball that needs to be filled,” Nagra said about what he learned.
And the capacity crowd of 2,200 fans were treated to quite the game as Vancouver led by three points with four minutes to play before Seattle scored 17 of the final 25 points to win 122-116.
“It took the game to a whole new level,” Nagra said about it being such a competitive contest.
The Seattle team was led by 16-year NBA veteran Jamal Crawford, the only player to win the league’s sixth man of the year award three times.
He most recently won the award this past season with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Gotta thank @LangleyEvents @balldontstop and all of Vancouver for the hospitality & love you guys showed us. @SeattleProAm is grateful!
— Jamal Crawford (@JCrossover) August 7, 2016
“The Seattle team was blown away and can’t wait to come back,” Nagra said.
A surprise roster addition for the Vancouver team was NHL player PK Subban.
Subban came with Nav Bhattia, a Toronto Raptors super fan, and Nagra said he had no idea the NHL all-star was coming until the day before.
.@PKSubban1 checks in….AND THE DAGGER! Crowd approves! pic.twitter.com/TM9Z7GwVEF
— LangleyEventsCentre (@LangleyEvents) August 7, 2016
The Vancouver roster was coached by Trinity Western Spartans men’s basketball coach Aaron Muhic and assistant coach Matt Guynup. It also featured Spartans player Patrick Vandervelden.
