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Kabongo And Thomas Steal The Show

Published by Steven Loung on August 3, 2010

Myck Kabongo and Kevin Thomas captivated the crowd on their way to capturing co-MVP honours at the 2010 Canadian Flight Games.

Kabongo scored 31 points as his Team White was able to overcome Thomas’ game-high 33 points and defeat his Team Red in an entertaining overtime affair 77-71.

The two MVPs are good friends with each other and, according to Kabongo, the opportunity to showcase their skills to family and friends was a great experience.

“We [Thomas and Kabongo] play on the same AAU team together,” Kabongo said. “We work hard, and you can see continued improvement on our games from being out there [AAU ball] and it’s a great thing that we could come out here and play in this game [2010 Canadian Flight Games].”

The game wasn’t always as close as the final score would indicate however, because at halftime Team White was sitting on a pretty comfortable lead being up 39-28.

That lead was acquired thanks to a balanced attack that saw 10 different Team White players score in that first frame.

The 6’8” Thomas was able to keep Team Red within striking distance in the first half however, thanks to his 15 points which were scored in a multitude of ways including three triples, a few scores in the post and impressive dives to the basket that had the defence constantly guessing as to where he was going with the ball and what he wanted to do with it.

This level of versatility is something that the Christian Faith Academy star has always worked on.

“Ever since I was little I was always taller than everyone, but I wasn’t tall enough to [always play in the post],” Thomas said. “So one time my uncle and a couple coaches told me that I should work on my inside game as well as my outside game so that anytime I’m out on the court, in any given situation, I can adapt.”

Other than the strong play of Thomas, the player that elicited the most attention from the crowd in the first half was Nik Stauskas of St. Mark’s who wowed the gym with a nasty double-cross move that almost threw his defender completely off-balance.

To start the second half it was looking like more of the same from what was seen in the first, but that all changed with about 15 minutes to play when Red started to chip away at the lead mainly because of strong play from Stauskas who was leading the charge, scoring 11 of his 14 points within that period of play.

At the 9:50 mark, the comeback was well on its way when Thomas ripped down two of his 13 second half points with an alley-oop slam to pull Team Red within two.

Following the big jam, Kabongo started to heat up for Team White and helped push the lead back up to seven with 8:30 to play.

That would be as big as the lead would balloon back up to, however, because with 8:20 left Stauskas would get fouled on a three-point attempt and would make all three free throws to pull Red back within four points.

After that, the two teams went through a tug-of-war battle with Team Red always coming close to finally taking the lead, but unable to because of Team White’s resilient play.

The Team White resilience would eventually concede though.

With less than three minutes to play, Team Red nailed a pair of three-pointers back-to-back from Thomas and Terrell Samuel and then completed the comeback by taking the lead with just over a minute left to play from a Kentwan Smith dunk.

During this frantic Team Red comeback, Kabongo was able to keep White from losing the game entirely by driving hard to the basket, drawing a foul and then converting on free throws.

Kabongo scored eight of his 16 second half points this way including one with a little under a minute to play in regulation that would tie the game up at 66-66.

That would be the score heading into overtime.

In the extra time Thomas played well, scoring five points, but it would be his co-MVP who would take over the game.

Kabongo, who also scored five points in the added time, continued to make a concerted effort to drive to the basket in overtime like he did at the end of the second half. This resulted in opportunities to find his teammates for easy scores, free throws and a beautiful lay-up that was setup by a great hesitation move.

The result of all of this was a Team White victory that, according to Kabongo, was only possible because of the way they played as a unit.

“Everyone got the ball in the right spots and made great things happen, so that’s why we won,” Kabongo said.

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On top of the main game, other festivities that were held at the 2010 Canadian Flight Games were a skills exhibition, and an all-star game highlighting some of the up-and-coming stars of Canadian high school basketball.

The skills exhibition was broken down into three separate events, a ball-handling and speed contest, a three-point shootout and a slam dunk competition.

The ball-handling and speed event was won by Kaza Keane in the time of 10.88 seconds. In the three-point shootout, the winning team was Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Daniel Levy and the slam dunk contest’s crown was bestowed upon 13-year old Jamar Ergas.

Ergas’ high-flying act had the crowd on its feet, and from his bag of tricks, the Charles Gordon Middle School standout brought out dunks like a fierce windmill jam, and a show-stopping alley-oop crush, leaping over two of his fellow Canadian Flight Games all-stars that put the gym into a frenzy.

“It’s just natural,” Ergas said about his leaping ability. “When I was in grade seven in the summer, in one tournament I put down a dunk on my first try, so by then I knew that I was going be able to jump pretty high.”

The modest eighth grader with springs in his feet was also involved in the rising star showcase of which his Team White was defeated by Team Red 78-54.

The MVP of that game was Team Red’s 6-foot-3 shooting guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes who scored 17 points, and a big reason for a result like this is the effort he’s put into working on his game already.

The high scorer of the game was Micqueel Martin with 19 points, and despite the good game he had, his competitive spirit took the loss pretty hard.

“I tried what I could do, but it fell short,” Martin said.

The 2010 Canadian Flight Games was a big hit. There was a lot of great talent on display in the gym, and seeing it all demonstrated can only make you hopeful for where basketball in Canada is headed.

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