The Stebbings/Murray Cup was launched a decade ago and organizers couldn’t have envisioned just how well it has evolved.
The Delta Pacers own senior boys basketball bragging rights in this region for another year after battling back for a 61-55 win on Wednesday night in Ladner.
The Delta Secondary gym was jammed — not only with students and parents from both schools, but plenty of alumni as well, along with former coaches and Delta Sports Hall Fame inductees Bill Stebbings and Neil Murray who the game was named after in their honour.
The turnout and electric atmosphere even had longtime DSS athletic director Shell Thompson suggesting the game could be played at the Ladner Leisure Centre on a temporary court and the arena would be full.
The Sun Devils and Pacers will be hard pressed to go anywhere this season. South Delta is winless in league play and deal with heavyweight opponents in the 4A tier for largest schools. Delta is about to embark on its 3A tier league schedule and will have to deal with a new South Fraser Zone loaded with provincially ranked teams, mostly from a deep Richmond League.
SDSS senior boys have never qualified for the provincial tournament and Delta’s last appearance was in 2010 — the final year the event was at the PNE Agrodome.
Being a contender at that level has also become a tremendous challenge with top programs expecting student athletes to make basketball their number one sport and do additional training beyond the high school season.
However, for at least one night of the year all of that is irrelevant. The cup game has become the pinnacle event of the season for both basketball teams.
"You can’t ask for much more with a home crowd cheering for you like that,” smiled Pacers head coach and DSS alumni Donovan Britten. “It’s a matter of getting everybody together whether you are from SD or DSS and know at the end the game we are a community. But man is it ever exciting.”
The Sun Devils looked poised to end the Pacers’ two-game cup win streak. They led 34-29 at the half and extended the margin to eight points in the third quarter. However, the Pacers closed out the frame with momentum that was topped by Sukraj Hothi’s three-pointer at the buzzer to make it 46-44.
The hosts pulled away down the stretch and limited South Delta to nine points in the final 10 minutes.
“We were sloppy tonight but it was our defence that won us that game,” added Britten. “Sukraj is a senior guy from last year he knows what we need to do to get things done. We told the guys if you are open shoot. It’s the only way you are going to build confidence.”
Matt Burt led the Pacers with 18 points. Dylan Flaming added 12 and Hothi 10.
Simon Raderecht had 13 for the Sun Devils. Connor Reup added 12.
The Sun Devils head to Sands tonight for a tournament while the Pacers are in Abbotsford at a tourney hosted by Yale.
