Walter Murray defeats rivals Holy Cross to win first BRIT title since 1990

One year after they were heartbroken losing in the championship game at BRIT (Bedford Road Invitational Tournament) to a team from Raymond, Alta, the Walter Murray Marauders were able to overcome their demons.

In what was the first all Saskatoon final since 1971, the strong three-point shooting of the Marauders proved to be too much for the Holy Cross Crusaders, giving them a 73-65 victory to win their second BRIT school title and first since 1990.

The Marauders began the game doing what they do best and that was scoring threes. The Marauders jumped out to an early 13-0 lead and while they were pressured on multiple occasions by the Crusaders – they never trailed in the game.

“It’s an incredible feeling to win,” said Marauders head coach Scott Hawley. “We had a lot of second place finishes last year and it’s awesome. It’s a cap to an awesome weekend.”

The Marauders had to defeat Brooks Composite, St. George’s (from Vancouver) and Holy Cross to win the championship.

After the game, Scott was named coach of the tournament – while his son Zach – who is only in Grade 10 – was named tournament MVP.

Scott was also on the only other Marauders team to win the championship in 1990. He described what it was like for the two of them to win top awards at such a prestigious tournament.

“It’s pretty incredible, it’s kind of surreal. He’s exceeded what I did as a player by miles – so it’s really cool. We kind of talked before the tournament about how cool it would be (to win),” Scott added.

Father and son Scott and Zach Hawley celebrate their coach of the tournament and tournament MVP awards. Credit: Shane Clausing

For Zach and the rest of the Marauders squad, they knew they wanted to re-write the story that was published last year.

“We’ve been here before,” Zach said. “We expected everything that came and we planned for it and it worked out the way we wanted.”

While there were some sketchy moments in the game where it looked like the Marauders were going to blow their lead, Zach credited his teams mental ability to not allow Holy Cross to take advantage of their lapses.

“That’s when the emotions come out. You’re up and you think you’re going to win and you know the pressure is on you,” Zach stated. “The emotions got a little high, but all of our guys played the right way and did what we needed to do. There really wasn’t many mental lapses, but that’s always going to happen in basketball.”

He credits everyone for hitting big shots throughout the game and the tournament.

Zach added there was a little pressure with his dad overlooking his shoulder for him to win the tournament this year.

“That is where the pressure was really lying for me. I go in the hallway, see the picture and hear about all this, so I knew I had to come out,” Zach said. “I’m really proud of us and how we both came here and did what we did.”

Aside from Zach’s MVP trophy, there were three Saskatchewan players who were named tournament all-stars.

For the second straight tournament, Dillyn Morin of the Marauders was selected as one of the tournaments top players.

Holy Cross Crusaders accept their second place trophy after falling in the BRIT championship game to Walter Murray. Credit: Shane Clausing

From Holy Cross, Kian Tyson and Moe Osman were given the accolades.

Dominic Aquino of St. George’s and Everson Harker from Raymond were named the other all-stars.

Raymond ended up defeating St. George’s 65-62 in the third-place game.