Abbotsford teams took their lumps in the third round of the Fraser Valley AAA senior boys basketball tournament on Monday evening.
All three local squads still in the running for a provincial berth went down to defeat – the W.J. Mouat Hawks fell 75-57 to the Terry Fox Ravens of Port Coquitlam, the Yale Lions lost 91-49 to the Pitt Meadows Marauders, and the Abby Collegiate Panthers dropped a 70-55 decision to the Princess Margaret of Surrey.
The Hawks and Lions will live to fight another day, as their losses were the first of the double-knockout tourney. The Panthers, though, saw their season come to an end with their second straight defeat.
“Although the team played hard, we just didn’t have enough in the tank to put our best game forward,” Abby Collegiate coach Prentice Lenz said, noting that his team pulled off an upset of Elgin Park in the opening round and hung with Terry Fox for much of their second-round loss.
Devin Brar scored 17 points for the Panthers, who finished the season with a 20-12 record.
Mouat had lost twice to Terry Fox earlier in the season by a total of four points, but the third game between the two teams wasn’t close. Jesse Coy and Mackenzie Thompson tied for team-high scoring honours with 12 points each, while Corey Hauck had 11.
“We didn’t play particularly well,” Hawks coach Rich Ralston said. “They were quite a bit tougher than we were, and we didn’t really respond to their physical play.”
As for the Lions, they played a solid first half against top-seeded Pitt Meadows – they held a lead late in the second quarter, before the Marauders went on a mini-run and took a six-point lead into halftime.
After the break, the wheels fell off.
“In the first half, I was very pleased,” Lions coach Al Friesen said. “Then we came out without near the focus or near the energy.
“And it just snowballed. We stopped competing at the level necessary.”
The balance of the senior boys Fraser Valley tourney runs Thursday through Saturday at the Langley Events Centre. Mouat plays FV East league rival Maple Ridge on Thursday at 4:15 p.m., and Yale follows against Enver Creek at 6 p.m. Both those games are do-or-die, with the winners moving into the final eight. The top seven teams in the Valley advance to provincials.
For a full schedule, visit fvbball.org.
