Massey falls to Churchill in quarters

WINNIPEG — It took a curated assembly of elite talent to end the Vincent Massey Vikings’ dream.

The group of Brandon basketball players came together years ago, worked on their games each summer and felt they could do what no Wheat City high school team had done in more than two decades — reach the AAAA boys’ final four.

But a star-studded Churchill Bulldogs team proved far too much to handle on Thursday, running away with a 111-81 victory in the provincial quarterfinals at Fort Richmond Collegiate.

“When you got guys that play basketball 24/7, you know they’re eventually going to get theirs,” said Vikings coach Brett Nohr.

“They never get nervous, they never waver because they’ve been there before. Their legs are underneath them and they’re ready to shoot the basketball. They made some big shots.

“It’s all about playing basketball to the best of your ability and I thought we played at the best of our ability … I have no worries about that or how we coached. They were just better at basketball than us on this day.”

The Bulldogs are mostly comprised of Northstar Prep players, who had enrolled at the school when the prep program had a partnership with it.

The players weren’t allowed to participate in Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association basketball at the time. However, Churchill and Northstar are no longer associated, but the players are allowed to continue attending the school while also competing for the Bulldogs.

So they’re arguably the most talented group of individual players in the province, and showed it after a shaky few minutes in which neither team scored.

The Vikings took their lone lead of the game at 2-0, then quickly gave up six points and never caught up.

Massey went down 16-7 but cut the deficit to 21-17 after 10 minutes, thanks to Logan Van Santen providing a big spark off the bench.

The Vikings’ offence only got worse in the second quarter, as an athletic Bulldogs team took care of the ball and completely limited their transition opportunities.

In the slower, half-court game, it was advantage Bulldogs. They were able to double up the Vikings in the quarter, leading 41-27 at halftime, with Van Santen accounting for nearly half of Massey’s scoring.

The Vikings made a quick seven-point run to the lead to single-digits at 47-38, starting with a deep Markus Stevenson three-pointer and a short banked jumper.

But that was Massey’s longest run of the game, as Churchill had an answer for just about every bucket.

“There was a spot there where it was a 10-point game, we had possession and I thought ‘If we can get a bucket …,’” Nohr said. “When we didn’t, they got a little run out and it went from 10 to 18 quickly. That was the game.”

It led 68-50 after the third quarter, and completely poured it on from there to crack the century mark.

“It’s really hard because you can’t just focus on one guy,” said Van Santen. “Everybody can score, so you’ve really got to play hard and even when you do that, you can’t always stop them.

“Halfway through the fourth, we felt like we were right there with them, could go on a run, but unfortunately, it didn’t happen.”

The Bulldogs are off to Thursday’s semifinals, taking on the Maples Marauders after a tight semifinal win over Sisler.

The No. 1-seed Dakota Lancers came back to beat Miles Macdonell, and take on the St. Paul’s Crusaders, who knocked off Oak Park.

Brandon will have to wait at least another year to send a team to the final four for the first time since the 2005 Neelin Spartans reached the title game, but Van Santen feels it might happen soon.

“We have a lot to be proud of. We had a really good season,” he said.

“Markus and Knox (Smith), they can definitely carry the team to the championship next year.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com