With one final tribute to their championship season taken care of, the RC Palmer Griffins have gone to work on the 2011-12 senior boys basketball campaign.
The Griffins opened the season with a provincial banner raising ceremony in front of 350 fans last week in a 77-43 win over Prince of Wales. Chris Randling led the way with 15 points on five treys, while Jamie Madewan also connected for 15, along with 11 rebounds.
"It was a great start to the year and the fans enjoyed not only the game but the banner raising ceremony prior to the start of the game." noted head coach Paul Eberhardt whose squad is sixth in the provincial 'AA' rankings.
Palmer then turned its attention to the annual Keenlyside Classic, hosted by Point Grey secondary school.
In an opening round match-up with "AA" competitor Seycove Seahawks, Madewan poured in a career-high 39 points in a decisive win. The senior standout hit on 14 of 24 shot attempts, including five three-pointers.
Tyler Debeer added 15 points and Ben Samy had seven points and 11 rebounds. JP Javier dished out 10 assists.
A grad function resulted in four seniors being unavailable for a semi-final game against Churchill. The lack of size and experience was evident in the paint as the Bulldogs dominated the boards in handing Palmer a 73-57 loss.
One of the few bright spots was Karm Mann who had his best game as a Griffin with 21 points and six rebounds.
Palmer closed out the tournament with a hard fought 70-64 win over the host Greyhounds in the battle for third place.
Madewan was named to the tournament first all-star team. Javier earned second team honours and Timme Choi was chosen the alldefensive team.
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