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Hot Fox guard turns up Heat

Fitting that the hottest player on the Terry Fox Ravens during the B.C. AAA senior boys high school basketball championships in March is joining the Heat.

Fitting that the hottest player on the Terry Fox Ravens during the B.C. AAA senior boys high school basketball championships in March is joining the Heat.

Point guard Bret Macdonald, who guided the Ravens to third spot at the provincials in Langley in March with a team-high 19.5 points-per-game average, has agreed to parade with Kelowna's UBC Okanagan Heat come fall for the next Canada West university men's basketball season.

A first all-star at provincials after adding 6.25 assists per outing and legging out 157 of a possible 160 minutes of playing time during them, Macdonald realizes the step up to the university ranks is a big one that will demand he polish up his game some.

"I plan on being the hardest-working member of the Heat," said Macdonald, a six-foot-one, 190-pound ball-control specialist whose dad is prominent Vancouver sports broadcaster Barry Macdonald. "I like to play hard and leave everything on the floor."Heat head coach Darren Semeniuk said he's had his eye on Macdonald since he recruited Fox forward Mack Roth the previous year.

"Every game I watched Bret play in his Grade 12 year I noticed how he just kept getting better and better," Semeniuk said. "I'm very excited for him and the team."

Macdonald considers himself "a pass-first point guard that can score when needed" and his Fox coach Rich Chambers sees his star pupil making a quick impact on what will only be the Heat's second year in the competitive Canada West conference.

"I takes a lot for a kid to go into a new program and try to help put it on the map," Chambers said. "It's a lot easier to go into an established program where that pressure to perform right away isn't as immediate.

"Bret's worked very hard at his game... he's improved his ball-handling skills and his outside shot. His work ethic and drive would help any university he elects to attend."

Macdonald attended a Heat game last season and was impressed with what he saw in the team and its coach.

"I really connected with the way [Semeniuk] coached during the game, especially his interaction and coaching of the players," said Macdonald, who plans to enter the Bachelor of Arts program with the possibility of later transferring into Human Kinetics or Education. "This is the perfect situation for me to pursue my degree [and] I get to do something I love -- play basketball."