The Oak Bay Bays couldn’t live up to their No. 1 ranking at the B.C. AAAA senior boys basketball championships in Langley.
The Terry Fox Ravens jumped out early and Oak Bay was never able to mount a rally, falling 70-50.
“They’re a good team, they were No. 1 most of the season. They ended up second in the tourney to a very good Yale team,” said Oak Bay coach Chris Franklin.
“We were a little flat, I think a little nervous and they just got the best of us. Full credit to Terry Fox, they came out and played hard and executed well.”
None of the Bays were able to get to double-digits on the scoresheet in the game they trailed 27-15 after one and 41-27 at the half.
Terry Fox were knocked off in the finals 69-63 by the Yale Lions.
Oak Bay opened the provincial tournament with a convincing 92-28 win over Mt. Baker.
Matthew Griffin paced the Bays with 18 points, while Atlas St. Paul-Butler netted 14 and Matt Gray, who was awarded a Telus scholarship, chipped in 11.
Oak Bay followed the loss to Terry Fox with an 82-80 win over Lord Tweedsmuir.
“That was a fun game. That was just two teams playing loose and having a good time,” said Franklin.
Jaden Touchie notched 22 points to lead Oak Bay, who trailed 45-38 at the half. St. Paul-Butler added 13 points.
The Bays wrapped up the tournament with a 79-75 loss to Burnaby South to finish in sixth place.
“We were leading most of the way but they have a really good player named Jermaine Haley and he kind of rolled us into the post and we had no real answer for him,” said Franklin.
He said he was fortunate this year to have a great group of kids who were committed to the sport and came ready to play and practise hard every day.
“I think they gave excellent effort throughout. We held steady at a high level throughout the year,” said Franklin. “I really enjoyed coaching the group, I’ll really miss the seniors.”
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