A defensive lapse in the third quarter cost the Walnut Grove Gators in the Fraser Valley championship final.
The Gators led the Tamanawis Wildcats 44-36 at the half, but surrendered 34 points in a 10-minute span in the senior boys 4A basketball championship game on Friday night at the Langley Events Centre.
The Wildcats led 70-66 after three quarters and then hung on for a 93-91 victory in a back-and-forth thrilling game.
“Defence. A lack of solid defence by our guys,” said Walnut Grove coach George Bergen following the game.
“You can’t win like that,” he said, referencing the third quarter.
Tamanawis led by as many as eight points in the fourth quarter, but the Gators battled back to tie the score at 91 with less than a minute remaining.
And after Miguel Tomley hit one of two free throws to put Tamanawis up for good, he stole the ball on the defensive end and again split his free throws. Walnut Grove got two shots off in the final seconds, but neither would drop to force overtime.
Tomley earned most valuable player honours after leading the ’Cats with 35 points, including 17 in the fourth quarter alone.
The Tamanawis star missed the bulk of the first half after picking up three fouls.
“We hung close and Miguel does what Miguel does and hit a bunch of shots in the second half,” said Wildcats coach Mike McKay.
“And we did a much better job of rebounding in the second half.”
The team was also missing post presence Gary Bhangu for a large portion of the first half because of foul troubles.
“(Walnut Grove) hurt us on the glass while they were out,” McKay said.
“We were close. We were down eight without two starters playing the majority of the first half,” he added.
“I think we were in a good spot, we just had to continue with our game plan, pushing the ball up the floor and rebounding the basketball.”
The Wildcats used the three-point shot to their advantage as they hit 13 shots from beyond the arc.
Walnut Grove hit seven three-pointers, including four from Santhosh Nandakumar. He finished with 20 points. Ty Rowell led Walnut Grove with 26 points and Jake Cowley had 16 points.
“We never quit and we fought until the end,” Bergen said.
Rowell and Cowley were both named first team all-stars for Walnut Grove while Wei Chung was a second team selection.
Gary Sahota (first team) and Sagar Dulay (second team) were also all-star selections for Tamanawis.
Walnut Grove will now prepare for the B.C. 4A senior boys provincial championships which run March 9 to 12 at the LEC.
Gary Ahuja
Walnut Grove’s Brett Christensen (#24) and Santhosh Nandakumar converge on Tamanawis Wildcats’ Miguel Tomley during the Fraser Valley 4A senior boys championship final at the Langley Events Centre. Tomley scored 35 points, including 17 in the fourth quarter, in his team’s 93-91 victory.
