Another season of Bow Valley Basketball League action has come to an end, with Boston Pizza downing the PEKA Warriors 75-65 in the final, Saturday (April 20) at Canmore Collegiate High School.
“It was good from the start, we did our plan, we pushed the ball and it seemed to work,” said Boston Pizza’s Khris Alcorn. “We beat them 3-0, but every game was close. We played well this game, we stepped it up, and did our job.”
Alcorn was the game’s highest scorer, with 18 points.
“Push the ball and make them work – that was the key – and it worked,” he said. “It was lucky for us, a big win.
“It’s been a good season. This is my fourth year and this is a pretty good year for us, it’s our second cup. I started just after high school and got better and better.”
Andrew Cotter, with 23 points, was the highest scorer for the Warriors. Gibson Rencz spoke for PEKA.
“We always have good battles with this team and both teams were playing real hard,” he said. “They were hitting some good shots and it was a fun game to play in.
“We usually finish first, but we finished second this year. We made it to the final again, but just didn’t pull it off. It was a great team, a lot of fun this year.”
Overall it was a great season, said league commissioner Jay Simpson.
“It was a solid season, little less participants with only six teams – we played two nights a week instead of three – but all in all, it was pretty solid parity,” he said. “On any given night, if a couple of guys didn’t show up for one game, then the other team might beat them, even if they were one of the better teams.
“It made it more competitive – it ended up being some similar separation,” he explained. “Boston Pizza and PEKA ended up being one-two, only one game difference in the win-loss column.
“Then it was Patrinos (Pirates) and the Elk (& Oarsman Phattboys) in third and fourth, again one with one more win than the other team, and then there were two lower teams.”
The two teams rounding out the league were St. James Gate and Banff Rose & Crown Kings. Boston Pizza and the Warriors both had first-round byes when the playoffs began Thursday.
“Out of Thursday, the Elk & Oarsman and Patrinos moved forward to today,” said Simpson. Those two teams each lost their final games and faced each other in the consolation round, with the Phattboys beating the Pirates 68-59.
“Today, gosh golly, the first game was real close, Boston Pizza ended up beating the Elk,” said Simpson. “It was close, the Elk were down early, but came back and actually put up a five or six point lead. With 24 seconds left it was a tied game, and we lost possession of the ball, and they went down and scored. That was a nice parity.
“The second semifinal game was a bit of a blowout, and PEKA won reasonably handy.”
“Where people live and who the sponsors are don’t necessarily correspond. The Boston Pizza team is Banff-sponsored, although the majority of the players live in Canmore.”
The two teams that dropped out of the league this year were the Drake and Canmore Rose & Crown.
“The Drake had a lot of older players who were injured, so they decided to sit out this year and come back next year,” said Simpson. “The other team, the Canmore Rose & Crown, they were a young team and they struggled and had trouble recruiting new players, and after a few years of that the organizer said he had enough, and they backed out.”
Simpson, who’s been with the league for about 30 years, said the league goes back to at least the early 1970s.
“When I first came to town there were six teams, and we’ve been as high as 10 teams and had to split it into two divisions, so it really does fluctuate,” he explained. “All recreational leagues go through cycles.
“I’m hoping next year, given that we dropped this year, and we had some players that wanted to play, I’ll try to start some new teams right away in fall when we play pickup.”
Despite the loss in the final, Rencz said he’s looking forward to next year.
“It’s a real fun league, Jay Simpson does a great job organizing it,” he said. “Real competitive ball; there’s a bunch of teams that can win on any given night, that’s what keeps us coming out.”
