The Abbotsford Senior Panthers punched their ticket to the Final Four at the B.C. AAA boys basketball championship on Thursday evening, beating the Wellington Wildcats 77-58.
The Nanaimo-based Wildcats were within 10 points heading to the fourth quarter at the Langley Events Centre (LEC), but the top-seeded Panthers polished them off by out-scoring them 18-9 in the final frame.
Sirban Gill had a huge performance for the Panthers – the senior forward racked up 22 points on efficient 8-of-10 shooting from the field, and hauled in a game-high 15 rebounds.
Jamie Konrad (20 points), Chase Claypool (15 points) and Luke Tompkins (10 points) also scored in double figures for Abby Senior, which had to overcome an explosive 31-point outing from Wellington’s Tyler Radelja.
The Panthers move on to face the No. 4-seeded St. Thomas More Knights of Burnaby in the semifinals on Friday (5 p.m., LEC).
The earlier AAA semifinal, at 3:15 p.m., features the No. 14 Charles Hays Rainmakers of Prince Rupert vs. the No. 7 Mark Isfeld Ice of Courtenay.
Abby Senior was coming off a first-round win over the North Peace Oscars on Wednesday.
