The Maple Ridge Ramblers played their home Christmas tournament Dec. 15-16, for both senior and junior boys, and the former won its four-team event.
In the first game, the Ramblers defeated R.E. Mountain from Langley 78-64.
They were trailing 42-35 at the half, but Ridge outscored Mountain 43-22 in the second. A strong team defence led the way. Tristan Coumont led the offence with 42 points and also ripped down 12 rebounds. Burke Brussow scored 16 points and Will Chartrand had 11. George Panagiotopavlos led the rebounding with 14. Chartrand also had nine assists and 11 recoveries.
The final matched Ridge against Pinetree from Coquitlam. The Ramblers led at the half 32-27, but a strong comeback in the late fourth quarter put Pinetree up by one with about five minutes to play.
Some clutch hoops at the end by Coumont, combined with money foul shooting by Chartrand and Brussow allowed Ridge to put the game away with seconds remaining, by a score of 63-62.
Coumont had 30 points and 10 rebounds. Chartrand added 10 points and 13 recoveries, while Brussow had 19 points and six rebounds.
•The Ramblers junior boys opened the tournament with a tough loss to a talented Mountain team, 63-19.
Wildcats
The Westview Wildcats junior boys basketball team secured its first league win of the season, 39-37 over the Maple Ridge Ramblers in their home gym, The Den.
Despite being down early, the boys battled and competed in an exciting game between two evenly matched teams.
The Wildcats were led by Zia Newton and Owen Swan, who turned in excellent performances on the defensive end of the floor, and a balanced scoring attack that proved too much for the Ramblers to handle. Markus Morawski led the Wildcats with 10 points, followed by Parker Waters with nine, including the game-winning basket with 20 seconds left.
• Westview’s Grade 8 boys basketball team also got a close league victory over MRSS, 37-35.
The Wildcats got standout performances by Braydon Vecchiato, Tyler Paine and Dylan Churchill.