On April 24^th, fans, paticipants, and supporters of Night Hoops witnessed another sensational Championship Event. The event hosted at Britannia had highlight after highlight. Inspiring stories were heard from Canadian Light Heavyweight Boxing Champion Junior Moar and from World Champion wheelchair basketball athlete Pat Anderson. They bookended the first game of the night where the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) squared off against the Night Hoops Selects. The second game saw the Langara Family YMCA attempt to dethrone Strathcona Community Centre (CC) in the Junior Girls final. In the Junior Boys final Strathcona CC also were looking to repeat as Champs but Edmonds Community School (CS) were standing in their way. And the Senior Boys finals turned out to be an all-time classic Night Hoops game between Ray-Cam CC and Champlain CC.

Night Hoops would like to take a moment to recognize two of our Board Members who have been recognized at the recent VPD Chief Constable Awards ceremony. Sergeant Randy Bell recieved the Department's highest award for bravery, the Award of Valour for his actions in a life threatening incident on December 10th, 2007.

Also recognized was Rajprit Mander for his mentoring of youth through sport. He recieved the Chief Constable's Commendation.

Night Hoops would like to congratulate the Britannia Bruins Senior Boys basketball team on their AA High School Provincial Championship. Several of the players and coaches have been involved in Night Hoops for years, so we would like to take the opportunity to recognize their triumph.



Bruins use good shooting, tight defence to win provincial crown.
By MARK HUNTER
Daily News Sports Reporter

The Britannia Bruins’ 1-2 punch consisted not of two top players, but of some early three-point shooting followed by some stifling defence.
It worked brilliantly, as the Bruins won their second provincial AA boys basketball title in three years with a 65-48 victory over the Richmond-R.C. Palmer Griffins at the Tournament Capital Centre on Saturday.
The game was a low-scoring affair for both teams, but Britannia started hot. The Bruins made five three-pointers in the first 6:30, and led 27-11 after a quarter.
Once they got that lead, the Bruins employed some top-notch defence.
“Our guys knew that they had a lot of work to do, and they clamped down on defence,” said Bruins co-coach Jesse Brown. “Our defence is what got us here and it’s the reason we won.”
Gerardo Gonzalez had two of Britannia’s early threes, with Wayne Hoang, who ended with 14 points, making the other three. Hoang had a feeling he might make some noise in the final.
“Today, I woke up and I started to visualize,” said Hoang, who has lost about 65 pounds in the last 18 months. “I visualized me shooting a whole bunch of threes — I guess it worked.”
The Bruins had one player remaining from their 2008 championship team — Semir Ibrahim was named tournament MVP after scoring 12 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in the final.