Having traveled cross-continent to participate in the Abbotsford Collegiate Snowball Classic, the St. Andrew's Saints of Barrington, Rhode Island decided a taste of authentic Canadian culture was in order.
So on Saturday morning, the Saints headed to the Granite Curling Club in Mission to try their hand at the quintessentially Canadian rock-and-broom game.
"We started off rough – we were slipping and falling at first," Cedric Kuakamensah, St. Andrew's 6'8" centre, related with a chuckle. "But we eventually got the hang of it."
Trying to master their delivery and draw weight on the pebbled ice represented the only wobbly moments the Saints had all day. They clinched the championship at Abby Collegiate's 52nd annual senior boys basketball tournament in clinical fashion, beating the Kelowna Owls 77-55 in the final on Saturday evening.
The Owls, B.C.'s No. 1-ranked AAA team, hung with St. Andrew's for the better part of three quarters. But the rugged Saints simply wore them down, and calmly pulled away down the stretch.
In the aftermath, Owls head coach Harry Parmar said the Saints have no weaknesses.
"We got humbled," Parmar summarized, noting that his team had won 15 in a row coming in, and hadn't lost a single game when their full team was healthy. "They're long, they have speed, they have everything.
"We just couldn't handle them on the glass. They had too many second-chance opportunities, and we didn't get any. Their size and physicality kind of did us in along the way."
On paper, the Owls seemed to be the only team at the Snowball that could match up with the Saints. While St. Andrew's trotted out three players who stand 6'8", led by Kuakamensah, Kelowna countered with some serious beef of their own, most notably their sibling frontcourt starters Braxston (6'11") and Darrion (6'6") Bunce.
But the St. Andrew's big men proved quicker and more physical than their Kelowna counterparts, which keyed a dominant effort in the rebounding department.
Owls point guard Mitch Goodwin was heroic in defeat, pouring in 25 points on a variety of three-pointers and gritty drives to the hoop. He did everything in his power to keep his team within striking distance, and succeeded in that respect for much of the game – Kelowna's deficit was only three points midway through the third quarter.
But the Saints kept hammering away, and opened up a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter that they would not relinquish.
St. Andrew's power forward Bonzie Colson tied Goodwin for game-high scoring honours with 25 points, while Tom Garrick (18) and Henry Bolton (11) also scored in double figures for the Saints.
Afterward, St. Andrew's coach Mike Hart had high praise for the Owls.
"We beat a phenomenal ball club," he said. "Those guys are extremely well-coached, they run their stuff, they accept roles. To beat Kelowna, I'm very, very proud of our guys.
"This was supposed to be a .500 season for St. Andrew's, that's what everyone was saying. But we're 13-4 right now."
A fascinating subplot in the title game was the match-up between Ivy League-bound big men – Kuakamensah and Braxston Bunce have earned NCAA basketball scholarships to Brown and Cornell universities, respectively.
Bunce out-scored Kuakamensah 11-8, but the Saints centre picked up tournament MVP honours after racking up five blocked shots in the final.
"It was a good test for me," said Kuakamensah, who averaged 14.3 points per game at the Snowball. "He's a real good player – he's got his fundamentals down. I thought it was a good chance to play against someone I'm going to be playing next year."
Hart also relished the Bunce-Kuakamensah match-up.
"Braxston is just so fundamentally sound," he said. "He's going to have a great career, Cedric's going to have a great career. You know what, when they're both 28 years old, they'll both be millionaires. And they're great kids."
BOUNCE PASSES:
• The Snowball represented the Saints' first trip to Canada, and Hart lauded the organization and calibre of play.
"The officiating was outstanding, the play was outstanding, the people were great," he said. "We were extremely impressed with Abbotsford."
• Another Saints squad, St. George's of Vancouver, won the bronze medal, knocking off the hometown W.J. Mouat Hawks 63-48. Bradyn Smith, with 19 points, paced St. George's, while Corey Hauck (13), Daniel Pawliuk (11) and Cam Friesen (eight) were the Hawks' top scorers.
• The Hawks endured a traumatic situation earlier in the week, as Tristan Etienne underwent open heart surgery on Wednesday.
Etienne, a 6'9" Grade 10 centre considered one of Canada's best players in his age class, had been held out of some games earlier this season due to concerns about the health of his heart. He'd been cleared to return to action, and was named the top defensive player at the prestigious Legal Beagle tournament last weekend.
But after a recent practice, his heart was racing, and he went to the hospital for further tests. Doctors discovered a hole in his heart.
Hawks coach Rich Ralston said the surgery was a success, and while Etienne will miss the rest of the high school hoops season, he should be back playing by the summer.
• Snowball first team all-stars included St. Andrew's teammates Colson and Bolton; Goodwin and Braxston Bunce of Kelowna; and Adam Hildebrand of St. George's.
Second-teamers were Garrick (St. Andrew's), Smith (St. George's), Friesen (Mouat), Luka Zaharijevic (Kitsilano) and Lucas Mannes (G.W. Graham).
Friesen also won the Abbotsford News award, which recognizes the most outstanding player at the Snowball from Abbotsford.
• For Snowball coverage in a different format, check out the live blogs from Thursday and Saturday at abbynews.com.