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Tsumura Invitational at Langley Events Centre is down to final two

King George Dragons and Burnaby South Rebels will meet tonight
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Tsumura Invitational day three action at the Langley Events Centre saw the King George Dragons and Burnaby South Rebels make the championship final, which goes tonight. (Gary Ahuja, Langley Events Centre/Special to Langley Advance Times)

The final is set: the 2021 Tsumura Basketball Invitational boys’ champion will be either the King George Dragons or Burnaby South Rebels. The Rebels entered the week as the top-ranked 4A team in the province while the Dragons were slotted second among all 2A schools in B.C.

The two teams earned the right to play in Saturday’s championship final at Langley Events Centre in dramatically different fashions.

The first of the two semi-final games on Friday night featured a battle between teams who shared the Dragons moniker: King George (Vancouver) and Fleetwood Park (Surrey). And it was a roller-coaster of a game with King George racing out to a 23-6 lead before Fleetwood Park came out of half-time and outscored their foe 16-2 over the next 10 minutes to take a 44-37 lead with a quarter to play.

The fourth quarter saw King George down by as many 11 points before their offence found another gear and scoring 22 points while in that same span, Fleetwood Park managed just a pair of made free-throws. The final score was 66-59 for King George with Jose Zuluaga (25 points), Palmer Currie (19) and Max Astak (13) combining for 47 of their team’s points. Fleetwood Park was led by 22 points from Allen Landasan and 15 from Inder Deol.

By comparison in the other semi-final, the Burnaby South Rebels led by 21 points at the half and wound up winning 88-56 over Vancouver’s Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs kept things close for the majority of the first quarter, trailing 17-12 before the Rebels closed the period with the final seven points and never looked back. Karan Aujla led Burnaby South while Paola Murphy topped the Bulldogs, with both players scoring 21 points. But the difference would be depth as the Rebels had four players reach double figures – Jimmy Zaborniak (16 points), Andy Chen (12) and Zach Chan (11) while the Bulldogs had just one other reach double digits with Filip Subotic’s 10 points.

The championship final is slated to tip-off on Saturday (December 11) at 8:30 p.m. on Centre Court.

READ ALSO: Basketball quarter finals unfolding Friday at Langley Events Centre

RELATED: Wednesday’s final game ends in overtime victory for Bulldogs

Quarter-final Round:

The last of the four quarter-final games was also the most exciting of the games as Vancouver’s Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs forced overtime with a three-pointer from Ethan Baron and then defeated the Abbotsford Senior Panthers 71-68 in double overtime. Baron scored a game-high 25 points. Jahvon Maksymiw led the Panthers with 23 points.

A one-point game late in the first quarter, the Burnaby South Rebels rattled off 37 of the next 47 points to take a 28-point lead into halftime on their way to a convincing 89-52 win over Victoria’s Claremont Spartans. Karan Aujla led the winners with 19 points while Claremont’s Izzy Helman had 18 for the Spartans.

King George held the St. Thomas More Collegiate Knights to single digits in both the second and third quarters in a 66-43 win. The Dragons had four players score in double figures with Max Astak’s 19 points leading the way. The Knights were led Tristan Schianni’s nine points.

Down four points early in the fourth quarter, Fleetwood Park went on a 18-4 run to top the A.R. MacNeill Ravens in 78-64 in the other quarter-final on the bottom half of the draw. Allen Landasan was high scorer for the Dragons with 19points. The Ravens received a team-high 15 points from Everett Swaim.

The action gets underway on the final day at 10:30am and all games are free to attend and can also be streamed for no cost at www.tfsetv.ca. Anyone attending in person must show proof of double vaccination and wear a mask when inside the facility.

For full schedule and results, visit www.langleyeventscentre.com/tbi

RELATED: Tsumura invitational brings top 20 basketball teams to Langley Events Centre

Friday’s other scores:

Centennial 72 Byrne Creek 46

Duchess Park 70 Tamanawis 58

Walnut Grove 78 Lord Tweedsmuir 55

Yale 74 R.A. McMath 33

Sir Charles Tupper 70 G.W. Graham 63

Steveston-London 89 Sands 40

A.R. MacNeill 56 St. Thomas More Collegiate 48

Abbotsford Senior 93 Claremont 56


Is there more to the story? Email: news@langleyadvancetimes.com
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