DEER LAKE Both sides knew the end result probably wasn’t going to be pretty.
The Corner Brook Regional High Titans senior boys basketball team are a well-oiled machine under coach Frank Foo, with just two players missing from last year’s impressive roster. The Elwood High Lakers are a team brought back to life after a two-year absence from the high school hoops scene, mostly thanks to coach Jim Feltham’s return to the town after spending several years teaching up north.
So the final score — 94-41 for the Titans — didn’t surprise anyone, but it was certainly a nice way for the Corner Brook squad to kick off the Wendy’s Classic 2011 high school basketball tournament. Most of the games will take place in St. John’s, with Corner Brook, Elwood and Pasadena Academy beginning play out east on Friday, but the Titans and Lakers decided to get their scheduled game out of the way in Deer Lake before hitting the road.
Graham Kenny had a game-high 18 points for the Titans, while Jordan Penney had 14 and Tim Goosney put up a dozen.
Ryan Harnett managed 10.
Tyler Bradley paced the Lakers with 16, with Isaiah Simms chipping in eight.
“The boys knew what this game was going to be about,” Titans coach Frank Foo said. “We have a deep bench, so a lot of our boys got a lot of playing time. It was good for our younger players and rookies. They got a lot of floor time.”
There is no disrespect in Foo’s words. He and Feltham were aware the score would get out of hand, but if the long-term goal is to build the sport back up in Deer Lake, the Titans wouldn’t be doing them any favours by taking it easy on them.
“They’ve got a lot of young players, but they haven’t got experience or skill because they lacked a junior program,” Foo said of the Lakers. “Basketball is a very difficult sport, it requires time to build fundamentals ... it doesn’t matter if you have an NBA coach, it’s not going to change that.
“(Feltham) is teaching them fundamentals, but we’re already moved on to other things at this point.”
The Lakers involvement in the Wendy’s Classic will be strictly for the experience, but the Titans have ideas of winning the whole thing. They proved they were among the elite high school basketball operations in the province last year and this season’s squad should be even stronger.
“We’ve got a year experience from last year and hopefully a bit more maturity,” Foo said. “The boys are looking forward to it and I think we have fairly high expectations.”
