Jonas Emilsson
www.krammag.com

Two things were realized on the opening day of the senior boys’ side of the Calgary Basketball Classic.

First, the two-time defending champs Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs should once again be considered a contender.

Second, the Father Lacombe Lasers are a much better team than the ranking they were given coming into the tournament.

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Facing the No. I ranked Bulldogs on the opening day of the week-long tournament is no-doubt a daunting task, but the Lasers opened a few eyes in Div I despite losing the hard-fought tilt 95-76.

“They’re way better than being ranked 16th, there’s not doubt about it.,” said Bulldogs’ shooting guard Alex Regan. “They run a lot, they’re good ball handlers and they’re always in your face so we just had to do whatever we could to get open.”

The Bulldogs were led by Mitch Jacobsen’s 27 points and Brett Toner added 24 points.

Justin Makasair scored a game-high 28 points for the Lasers.

“In the second half we started going to the wings and then get it inside because we have the height.,” said Regan, who scored 20 points on the night. “Once that happened they collapsed which allowed our outside guys to knock down some shots.”

It took the Bulldogs almost three full quarters before they were able to settle into a their regular fast-paced attacking style of game.

“It was our defense in the last 13 minutes of the game, when our kids decided to close the gap and stop the penetration,” said Bulldogs’ head coach Mike Fullerton. “We had a 24-point swing in the last 13 minutes of the game, and it was strictly because of our man defense, and that created opportunities for us down at the other end.”

The Lasers did their best to hang on to the narrow lead that they had managed to nurse through the third quarter, but a Stephen Booth three-point play with 51 seconds to play in the third quarter gave the Bulldogs the lead for good.

“Overall, I thought our boys played hard and they played well up until the fourth quarter when our momentum slowly got away from us,” said Lasers’ head coach Ian Couture. “Churchill is a very good team and they are well coached and they played well in the fourth quarter.”

The Bulldogs received excellent production from several key players down the stretch to close out the game and avoid what most people would have considered a major upset.

Despite losing their big man Brad Clark to a broken finger on his non-shooting hand in their first game of a pre-season tournament they were still able to develop an impressive inside presence with Toner and Jacobsen.

The dominant down-low play eventually opened up the Bulldogs’ outside game in the fourth quarter, the sharp shooters wasted no time in putting points on the board.

“We have what I would consider three of the top big guys probably in the province.,” said Fullerton. “The nice thing is that if teams collapse down, we also have three kids that can knock down the outside shot, and that’s what’s going to be different than last year when we had no choice but to keep pounding and pounding.”

Despite losing the opening game of the monstrous tournament that will see every senior team in the city participate, their coach was pleased with how his team performed against one of the elite teams in the top division.

“Our expectations are to take one game at a time and grow as a team and play solid basketball. Work on the fundamentals and progress as the season goes on,” said Couture. “We have a team concept and we like to play 13 strong, that is our motto. Nobody is better than anybody else, it’s just 13 strong and everybody contributes and gets the job done for us.”