Home court advantage paid off handsomely for the Rick Hansen Hurricanes senior basketball teams on the weekend.
The Hansen girls won gold at their annual Roundball Classic tournament, while the boys took silver.
The girls won all three of their games by double digits, beating Chilliwack’s Unity Christian 72-32, Langley Christian 69-48, and Rutland 52-39 in Saturday's final.
Hurricanes forward Daya Bhogal was named tourney MVP after averaging 17.3 points per game, and teammates Simran Sidhu and Sarb Dhillon were picked for the all-star team.
“We moved the ball around very well,” analyzed Bo Sidhu, Hurricanes athletic director and assistant girls basketball coach. “We were struggling early on in the season with that – it was one pass and we’d shoot the ball or drive to the basket. We weren’t being very patient, but it’s starting to come. The girls are waiting for their chance for a good shot, rather than force something early.”
The Hansen boys beat a pair of Maple Ridge teams to punch their ticket to the final. They crushed Thomas Haney 99-29 on Thursday, opening a 36-2 lead after the first quarter, then beat Samuel Robertson Technical 64-43 on Friday.
The Hurricanes dropped a 75-52 decision to Pinetree of Coquitlam in the gold medal game. Pinetree is a AAA program, while Hansen plays in the AA league. Harjot Ghuman and Zach Toews of the Hurricanes earned all-star nods.
“I’m happy with how we played overall,” Hurricanes coach Sukhpaul Dhaliwal said. “But we turned the ball over a lot in the final game.”
The senior tournaments are part of an expanded slate of Roundball Classic events at Hansen this year. The school hosts a junior girls tourney this week, running Thursday through Saturday, and they also have junior boys (Jan. 10-12), Grade 8 boys (Jan. 17-19) and Grade 7 boys (Feb. 9-10) competitions coming up.