All Native Basketball Tournament: Seniors Final

The clock finally struck midnight for the Cinderella squad from Vancouver. The Pigeon Park All-Stars as they call themselves had been giant killers throughout the tournament, knocking off perennial contenders like Prince Rupert, Skidegate and Lax Kw’alaams on their way to a spot in the finals.

That is until they ran into the machine that is the Kitkatla Warriors, with tournament MVP Jacob Thom at the helm. This David versus Goliath story did not go the way of the fables, as Kitkatla prevailed, 102-85 to capture back-to-back All Native crowns.

The beginning of the game was all Kitkatla as they jumped out to an early lead, 53-34 at the half, on the shoulders of Thom’s 16 points.

The third quarter was when things went berserk.

It was the Thom and Edgar show, as All-Star Thom and budding superstar Marlon Edgar-Apps went toe-to-toe. Edgar-Apps had been leading his team throughout the tournament, racking up hardware along the way finishing as the tournaments most outstanding and most inspirational player. Even outscoring Thom to take the crown for the highest scorer at the tournament, racking up 198 points in his eight games played.

It was as if Edgar-Apps had put it on his 18-year-old self to bring his team back into the game as he and Thom went back and forth exchanging three-pointer after three-pointer.

After the game, when asked about the young star in the making, Thom could only say what was on everybody’s mind.

“Man, that kid can ball. I had a couple open looks, fortunately, I hit them because Mar’ was coming back at me on the other end, so hats off to him,” Thom said.

Clearly, the respect was mutual, as Edgar-Apps knows he wasn’t guarding any regular basketball player.

“I tried my best to contain Jacob, I was just hoping my shots would fall. He is a killer, one of a kind for sure,”

Edgar-Apps said.

As the two stars laid down a barrage of threes the crowd noise grew and grew and soon the building was close to erupting. One final three from Edgar-Apps at the buzzer sent the Vancouver fans into a frenzy and drew his team to within six points.

Unfortunately, for the team and their fans that would be as close as they got as the veteran Kitkatla squad pulled away in the fourth, finishing the game on a 20-9 run capping off what was an amazing 2019 All Native Tournament.

All toll Edgar-Apps and Thom combined for a ridiculous 74 points, 37 of which were dropped during their epic exchange of 3’s during the third quarter.

Edgar-Apps had a taste of the title and now he is hungry for more.

“We are going to come back next year stronger than ever,” Edgar Apps said.

And for Thom, it’s just business as usual.

“We are coming back, probably for a three-peat”, Thom said.

FINAL SCORE: 102-85

MVP: Jacob Thom

Top Scorers:

Vancouver: Marlon Edgar-Apps (31), William Edwards (24), Sean Holland (14)

Kitkatla: Jacob Thom (43), Phillip Gamble (18), Dustin Eaton (17)

To report a typo, email: editor@thenorthernview.com.

Nick Laws | Sports reporter

Nick Laws