The South Delta Secondary senior boys’ basketball team came within one win of clinching the schools first trip to a provincial championship following an 85-72 loss to Grandview Heights Friday night at North Delta Secondary.
The game was for the final provincial berth up for grabs at the South Fraser Championships. North Delta won the South Fraser title beating MacNeil from Richmond in the championship game. The Huskies along with the Ravens and Grandview will represent the zone at the provincials this week at the Langley Events Centre.
North Delta is the number four seed in 3A boys.
The Sun Devils started the week losing 91-78 to Grandview but battled back with wins over Richmond (98-52) and Clayton Heights (81-78) to set-up the win or go home game Friday night.
The game was close for most of the way with SDSS holding an 18-16 lead after the first and trailed by just three points (37-34) at halftime.
But Grandview hit a lot of three-pointers in the third and won a lot of battles on the boards to up their lead to 10 after three (60-50).
It was more of the same in the fourth with Grandview getting key rebounds and three pointers to fall, as SDSS simply ran out of gas.
“The key difference was the turnovers and they capitalized on the turnovers. We said you have to value every possession because it accumulates in the end,” said head coach Bryan Lopez. “There was a ton of offensive rebounds that they got, and they also shot the ball well.”
Assistant coach Carol Lingham said despite the loss, it was a successful season.
“We are super proud of the team,” she said. “We wanted to make provincials for sure, so that’s disappointing, but they all fought until the end.”
Over at DSS, the Pacers lost both their games 74-64 to Clayton Heights and 78-61 to Salish.
Head coach Will Khuu said the team was hit hard with illness with five players in and out of the line-up during the week including key starters Jacob Moore and Macin Macdonald.
“Without the play of our point guard and best rebounder, we lacked the toughness inside and pace of play that our team thrives on,” he said. “Ultimately, we were too soft, and Clayton Heights took advantage of it, bullying us down low. Against Salish, we couldn’t buy a basket in the second half. We had the looks we wanted, just couldn’t convert. Normally in games like these Lucas Kosa gets us over the top, but nothing was falling for him. I would say that it was one of his best performances all year, as he did everything else required to win, just couldn’t hit shots.”
