Vancouver Echo – Wednesday, February 17, 1993 – Page 32 – "Cougs' whip Wales for third"

Transcription (as printed):

Headline: “Cougs’ whip Wales for third” — By Steve Braverman, Echo reporter (The Vancouver Echo, Wednesday, February 17, 1993, Page 32):

The Killarney Cougars senior boys basketball team were in a position as unenviable as you can get.

After an 82-74 upset loss the night before at the paws of the Churchill Bulldogs, the Cougs’ found themselves scratching for third place in the Vancouver city championships against the Prince of Wales Walesmen on Saturday.

Not only were their sights no longer set on first place, but a loss to P.W. would mean having to face the loser of the Richmond Colts-Steveston Packers game in the first round of the back-door playoffs — both of whom are considered provincial powerhouses — to qualify for the Lower mainland tourney.

The winner however would battle a much more desirable opponent from Burnaby or New Westminster and as Killarney coach Ted Cusick put it, the game meant “everything.”

“I wanted to be in the Lower Mainland’s now,” said Cusick referring to John Oliver and Winston Churchill earning automatic berths for making the city final. “Now we have to play this back-door garbage and it’s a dogfight!”

The game was closer than he would have liked but Killarney came out the victor edging the Walesmen 75-72 with Brian Seebaran leading the way with 36 points followed by Louis Mark’s 18.

“I had to come out strong because we had a few bad games,” said Seebaran. “We had to win this one because when we lost to Churchill, it demoralized our club and when it’s playoffs, anyone can beat anybody.”

With the score tied 73-72 in the last minute of the game, Jason Zoney twice missed his first free-throw attempt in the bonus one-and-one and Seebaran missed one himself which coach Cusick said happened all tournament.

However, the Cougs’ battled hard on the boards as Mark pulled down a pair of key rebounds after the missed free throws which helped kill off the final seconds securing the victory.

And all of this happened after Cusick successfully executed his game plan that forced P.W.’s best player, Rob McKee, to foul out early.

“(McKee) got a couple fouls so I told Mark to go inside on him,” said Cusick. “It’s common strategy in high school basketball.”

Jason Zoney, the 6-3 guard, scored a pair of three-pointers, but for the most part he admits to losing his scoring touch having finished the game with only 9 points.

“When my shooting is not on, I try to help on the assists,” said Zoney in the dressing room. “Today I was frustrated because the referees were throwing me off.

“In this tournament, I didn’t play with enough intensity but once we’re in the back-door, I’ll be back to normal.”

The championships results column pictured with the article (High school / BASKETBALL / VANCOUVER CHAMPIONSHIPS / Senior boys, at Vancouver Technical):

Championship — John Oliver 89 Winston Churchill 64 (JO: Sasha Chukich 27, Will Loftus 22; WC: Chris Lochhead 23, Dave Martinez 16)

Third — Killarney 75 Prince of Wales 72 (K: Brian Seebaran 36, Louis Mark 18; PW: Peter Posnikoff 22, Rob McKee 14)

Fourth — Britannia 64 Van Tech 62 (B: Jose Rodriguez 16; VT: Swee Fah Chee 17)

Tournament MVP: Sasha Chukich (John Oliver)

All-stars — First team: Peter Posnikoff (Prince of Wales), Dave Martinez (Churchill), Will Loftus (John Oliver), Brian Seebaran (Killarney), Len Lee (Oliver). Second team: Jason Zoney (Killarney), Swee Fah Chai (Vancouver Tech), Jose Rodrigues (Britannia), Chris Lochhead (Churchill), Rob McKee (Prince of Wales).

The column spells the Britannia scorer “Rodriguez” in the Fourth line and “Rodrigues” in the all-stars, and the Van Tech scorer “Chee” in the Fourth line and “Chai” in the all-stars — both spellings are as printed. The Echo article’s “score tied 73-72” is also as printed. Transcribed from the cleaned scans, 2026-10-20.