The Lorne Akins Gators did what everybody failed to do this season when they beat the Richard S. Fowler Falcons in junior high boys basketball.
The Falcons were 9-0 in league play and 23-0 overall as winners of four tournaments before the Gators pulled off one of the biggest upsets in recent SAPEC playoff history in Wednesday’s rough and tumble 67-56 tilt in the Tier I city final at the SkyDome.
“It was really exciting what we did because we came in as kind of the underdogs,” said Tye Weiss, co-captain of the 15-9 Gators. “I think they underestimated us a little bit.”
The Gators took it on the chin in the regular season losing 65-42 to the Falcons.
“To come back and win after that is pretty sick,” said Grade 9 post Trey Lavoie.
The Gators planted the seed of doubt in the second quarter by outscoring the Falcons 22-8 after Fowler tied it at 12.
“I think we got into their heads,” said Lavoie said of the 34-20 halftime lead. “We kept it going all the way to the end instead of just stopping.”
The Gators poured on the pressure to make it 55-40 after three quarters.
“It just came down to who wanted it more,” said Weiss, the top scorer in the final with 24 points on the strength of 16 in the second half.
The Gators focused their attention on stopping Fowler standout Tylar Dobish while clamping down defensively against a team that was a league-best plus-278 in seven games before the playoffs tipped off.
Dobish finished with 20 points while scoring the team’s last six points of the game.
“I would say defence was the key, like collapsing on the big man,” Weiss said.
Head coach Tim Russell agreed.
“I was so proud of the team as they really bought into a team defence mentality,” Green said.
A fast-paced opening quarter ended with the Gators in front 12-10 on a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Karl Soriano.
After a one-handed jumper by Dobish to knot the score the Gators took a big bite out of the Falcons during a 13-0 run before Ben Loewan’s basket closed out the first half.
Lavoie tacked up 11 points in the quarter, including the last five for the team.
The intensity escalated in the third quarter as desperation surrounded the Falcons while the Gators were flying with Big Mo on their side.
“At some points in the game it was just back and forth,” said Weiss, who dropped a three-pointer with under four minutes left in the third quarter to make it 45-32. “It was really exciting. I know I was really nervous out there.”
Both teams were going a million miles an hour in the last nine-minute period but the Gators were too far ahead for the Falcons to catch them.
Aiden Kelly’s three-pointer with 70 seconds remaining left the Falcons reeling, down 66-56.
Three Gators and two Falcons also fouled out in the physical affair that included verbal darts exchanged by coaches on both teams.
“We tried to keep our fouls down,” said Lavoie, who dialed up 16 points before fouling out with about three minutes to play in the loosely officiated contest that drew the ire of both coaches.
Soriano finished with eight points, Ty Baird recorded six of his eight points in the first quarter and Kelly netted seven overall for the Gators.
Loewan was credited with 12 points, Kelton Libich chipped in with nine and Soloman Vidal added six for the Falcons, the playoff favourites to win their first championship since 2012 after losing last year’s final 66-44 to the Vincent J. Maloney Marauders while going 9-1 in league play and 25-3 overall.
The Gators were under the gun to beat the Falcons after the Lorne Akins’ girls defeated the ESSMY Leopards 42-29 for SAPEC honours.
“There was a lot of pressure I guess for us to win because the girls won but we didn’t come in as the team who was supposed to lose,” said Weiss, 14, a Grade 9 shooting guard.
The city banner is the eighth in school history in boys basketball and the first since 2006.
“It’s great,” said Lavoie, 14. “It’s the highlight of our year.”
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the Gators’ team picture.
