The Bellerose Bulldogs are daring to dream in high school men’s basketball.
The division two team is 6-0 as the pool B leader with three games remaining before the metro Edmonton playoffs tip off.
“We’re a championship contender,” declared Grade 12 forward Gurshan Badesha after the Bulldogs squashed the St. Albert Skyhawks 78-56 Wednesday at Bellerose.
“It would be the first championship in Bulldogs’ existence for (senior men’s) basketball if we can pull through.”
The Paul Kane Blues in pool B and the Oscar Romero Ravens in pool A are also undefeated after five games.
The Feb. 13 showdown between the Bulldogs and Blues is shaping up to be a barnburner after last year’s heated affair at Bellerose. The emotional 83-77 triumph by the Bulldogs on Seniors Night at Bellerose was the team’s only league win in division one last season.
“It’s the rival game in St. Albert so we’re going to practice as hard as possible so we can get that W too,” said Badesha of the Bulldogs hosting the Blues at 6:30 p.m.
The Bulldogs are leaving their mark in division two while averaging 84.6 points per win and no matter who coach Don Phillips puts on the floor everybody on the roster can swish their shots.
“We have a really deep bench and everybody plays well. The coach is very unique with players because he just keeps putting them on,” Badesha said. “If somebody is on the bench they really don’t care, they will come onto the court and perform.”
The next step towards winning a championship is playing a complete game from start to finish.
“We always have to work hard. At the end of this game we gave up a bit and we’ve got to lock it up,” Badesha said of the Skyhawks outscoring the Bulldogs 21-20 in the last 10-minute quarter.
“At the beginning of the game we had a bad start and at the end we had a bad end so we have to pick it up on all cylinders throughout the whole game.”
The Bulldogs led by five points after the first quarter before cranking it up for a sizable 41-29 halftime margin.
The second half started with a 14-point outburst by the Bulldogs before the Skyhawks drained their first basket with four minutes left in the third quarter.
The scoring spree featured a two-handed rim rattler by captain Ben Jones-Petrecca and three-pointers by Dawson Murray, forcing the Skyhawks to call a timeout with 7:05 to go trailing 52-29, and Badesha.
Hudson Olson also nailed a three before quarter time.
The Skyhawks regrouped with a seven-point run to open the fourth quarter before Jones-Petrecca replied with three-ball with 7:20 to play to widen the gap to 19 points.
Badesha, 17, described the outcome as another “typical performance” by the Bulldogs.
“We came into the game pretty confident,” said the team’s top scorer with 14 points. “Teamwork was the main point of the game.”
Tye Weiss and Jones-Petrecca finished with 13 points apiece and Scott Robson tacked up 11.
Weiss also dropped in two threes in the second quarter
“We had a lot of good offence,” Badesha said. “Our defence was kind of poor but we got through it.”
Seven Bulldogs combined for 11 three-balls and Badesha was the team leader with four, including a pair in the second quarter.
“My main specialty is my three,” said the six-foot-five sharp shooter. “When you hit the first you’re thinking I’ve got the second one. You keep getting hotter and hotter and as the game goes on you keep hitting more and more and that’s how it goes.”
Wednesday the Bulldogs travel to Sherwood Park to play the Salisbury Sabres (1-4) at 5 p.m.
