Slow start haunts Bombers in Kootenay AA Boy's Hoop Final
By The Nelson Daily Sports
By Bruce Fuhr
The Nelson Daily Sports
The season wasn’t supposed to end in February.
The L.V. Rogers Bombers, like previous varsity squads had done for the past seven seasons, had penciled in a trip in March to Kamloops to compete in the B.C. High School AA Boy’s Basketball Championships.
However, the David Thompson Lakers had other ideas on which school should represent the Kootenay zone.
The Lakers built up a 34-7 first quarter lead en route to an 81-68 victory over LVR in the final of the Kootenay High School AA Boy’s Basketball Championships Saturday at the home of the Selkirk Storm in Kimberley.
“It was a tale of a Grade 12 kids from David Thompson that were very hungry playing an inexperienced Bomber team,” lamented Bomber coach Blair D’Andrea, still searching for answers on how LVR did not repeat as champions for the eight consecutive seasons.
“In the end the L.V. Rogers Bombers will not represent the Kootenays at the provincials this year.”
Turnovers and fouls to key personal combined with a pesky Lakers team quickly turned the game on its side forcing the Bombers to play catch-up for, trailing by whopping 27 points after one period.
But peck away they did.
LVR out scored the Lakers 25-15 in the second to trail 49-32 at the half.
LVR out scored David Thompson 20-15 in the third to only trail 64-52.
The Bombers managed to cut the margin to five with four minutes remaining. However, that was as close as LVR could get as foul trouble to key players D’Andrea and Rickaby allowed the Lakers put the motor on cruise to the zone crown.
Senior Jason D’Andrea led the Bombers in scoring with 21 points. John Zak added 17 for LVR.
“This is a true team of champions that represents everything that is good about high school sports,” said D’Andrea. “The players represent a lot of really good qualities about teamwork and effort.”
LVR, as the second seed, opened the eight-team tourney by stopping Fernie Falcons 84-51. Bomber co-captains Rickaby and
D’Andrea led the team in scoring with 24 and 18 points, respectively. Adam Grace added 14 points while Zak had 13.
The Bombers advanced to the final by knocking off three seed Golden Eagles 80-70.
LVR led 69-49 before D’Andrea went to his bench to finish the game.
Zak and D’Andrea each filled the hoop from behind the arc finishing with six three-pointers. Zak added a few more points to finish with a game high 26 while D’Andrea had 18.
The loss concluded the high school careers of Jason D’Andrea, Clay Rickaby, Maverick Seed and David Chen.
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