Taking your season across the hallway at the Langley Events Centre is a big deal for 3A teams competing at the B.C. Boys Basketball Championships and that’s exactly where the North Delta Huskies are headed.
After two wins on the LEC Centre Court, North Delta will be in the Arena Bowl Friday afternoon (3:30 p.m.) for its semi-final encounter with Nanaimo’s Dover Bay Dolphins.
The No. 6 seed Huskies advanced to the final four with a 69-59 victory over the College Heights Cougars on Thursday to remain in contention to win their second provincial title in four years.
Their Prince George opponent was coming off a big 62-60 opening round win over No. 3 St. Thomas More 24 hours earlier and showed why its 14th seeding was very misleading by also going toe-to-toe with the Huskies — trailing by just five (36-31) at the break.
However, North Delta took control of the contest in a pivotal opening five minutes of the second half — outscoring the Cougars 13-0 for a suddenly commanding 49-31 advantage.
Still, the pesky Cougars never went away, cutting the deficit to just six (65-59) in the late stages.
“They wanted it just as bad as us. We walked into the room (at halftime) and held each other accountable then went out there and fought together,” said standout Grade 11 point guard Harvir Hothi who led the third quarter push with 13 of his game-high 18 points.
The Huskies’ balanced attack also included 14 points from Arjun Atwal, 13 from Krishian Jeet and 11 from Amar Lalli.
The semi-final encounter will be North Delta’s first meeting this season with No. 2 Dover Bay. The Nanaimo school got past No. 7 MEI 83-76 on Thursday. The other semi-final has top ranked St. Pat’s taking on No. 5 Lord Byng.
The Huskies opened the championships with a convincing 71-47 win over Alberni on Wednesday. Atwal led the way with 19 points as his team raced out to a 21-5 lead in the opening quarter and never looked back.
