Fleetwood Park Dragons and Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers were division winners at the week-long Surrey RCMP Classic tournament.
The Dragons scored the Senior championship with a 72-65 comeback victory over the favoured Tamanawis Wildcats on Sunday afternoon (Jan. 19) at Langley Events Centre, while Cloverdale’s Panthers won the Junior title over Salish Wolves earlier that day.
For the Graeson Oppal-coached Fleetwood Park, it was the third Senior division final appearance in four years, and second championship since 2022, when Jordan Taylor was head coach.
Tamanawis, on the other hand, has lost two straight Classic tournament final games. Sunday’s setback came a year after the Mike McKay-coached Wildcats fell to Tweedsmuir in a high-scoring overtime game, 96-93.
Sunday, Tamanawis in was in full control of the championship game until early in the fourth quarter, with a 45-22 lead. Then Fleetwood went on an incredible 45-13 run to win the game in dramatic fashion.
Friday night’s Senior semifinal games saw Tamanawis top LA Matheson before Fleetwood Park silenced Semiahmoo, in games played at Enver Creek Secondary’s gym. In Junior semifinal action Thursday, Salish bounced Holy Cross and Tweedsmuir took down Fleetwood Park to set up Sunday morning’s final.
This year’s tournament final games were moved to the larger Langley Events Centre, to accommodate more spectators, and bleachers were nearly full.
In the Seniors division, winner of the new Rick Inrig Most Valuable Player Award, named in honour of the tournament co-founder and director, was Rohan Dhanoa (Fleetwood Park), and the Most Inspirational player was Gabby Intalan (Fleetwood Park).
Senior first-team all-stars were Earl Akene (Pacific Academy), Yeseong Cho (Fleetwood Park), Luke Guzina (Tamanawis), Damian Onopitke (LA Matheson) and Jack Snead (Semiahmoo). Second-team stars were Sunny Dhami (Tamanawis), Jason Hothi (LA Matheson), Dimitri Pomonis (Semiahmoo), Anand Sandhu (Tamanawis) and Elijah Weiss (Elgin Park).
The Junior division MVP was Gurtaj Hayer (Tweedsmuir). First-team all-stars were Maahir Julka (Tweedsmuir), Senkyi Kyei (Salish), Isaiah Samson (Salish), Rivin Jayasinghe (Fleetwood Park) and Sam Schchepatkin (Holy Cross). Second-team stars were Jaideep Athwal (Tweedsmuir), Sehai Tiwana (Fleetwood Park), Manavh Gosal (Tamanawis), Brendan Temblett (Sullivan Heights) and Abhujot Singh (Panorama Ridge).
Over the years, the tournament has been an annual showcase of top boys basketball talent in Surrey.
This year, 48 Surrey school teams — 24 Senior, 24 Junior — competed at the RCMP Classic, first played in 1991 to assist student athletes with scholarships and connect young basketball players with the local police community. – TOM ZILLICH – SURREY NOW LEADER