They may have lost the championship final, but the Walnut Grove Gators left the Langley Events Centre court with their heads held high.
The Gators were 3.4 seconds away from winning the B.C. AAA senior boys provincial championship title, but instead it was the Terry Fox Ravens celebrating a last-second 75-74 victory for the program’s third title in school history.
The second-place finish was not only the highest in Walnut Grove program history, but also the first time a Langley school has medalled in the 67-year history of the AAA championships.
“Our team has been fighting all year,” lamented De’Sean Monsanto, one of only three graduating seniors on the Gators, following the awards presentation.
“We came up one point short, but we gave it our all.
“We left it all on the court and that is all you can ask for, right?”
“I love each and everyone of my team members and am so proud of them,” added Monsanto, who was named both a third team all-star and the tournament’s top defensive player.
“I love my coach, I am proud of my assistant coaches, I am proud of everybody.” 
The Gators were the fourth-seed at the 20-team tournament while the Ravens were seeded 10th.
Walnut Grove won its opener, 78-73 over the Mount Douglas Rams, and then beat the W.J. Mouat Hawks 74-57 in the quarter-finals.
In the semifinals, the Gators edged the Vancouver College Fighting Irish 61-60. In that game, Ethan McKean — a second team all-star and another of the team’s graduating players — hit a three-pointer with 1:47 remaining to put Walnut Grove ahead for good.
The team did have to survive a missed Irish shot at the buzzer to advance.
“Of course it is tough, really tough,” said Gators coach George Bergen, who won a championship as a player in 1970 with the MEI Eagles.
“We have worked a long time, a long journey of a lot of different things, from skill development to strength training.
“We really worked our tails off. We’re not an all-star team, we are a bunch of locals.”
At the start of the basketball season, Bergen thought his team had top-four potential.
And in the final, it was a coin-toss between the two teams with the older, more experienced Ravens winning.
Terry Fox came third at last year’s provincial championships and four of their starting five are in Grade 12.
By comparison, the Gators starting five featured two Grade 12s — Monsanto and McKean — two Grade 11s in Paul Getz and Brad Hoffman, and Jadon Cohee, who is in Grade 10.
“We played extremely well, they played extremely well,” Bergen said.
“One team has to win, one team has to lose.
“They made the final shot and so be it, right?”
Cohee led the Gators with 25 points, including three three-pointers, as well as eight assists, three rebounds and two steals.
Getz finished with 13 points, while McKean, Monsanto and Hoffman each had 10 points for the Gators.
Monsanto also had nine rebounds and five assists, plus two steals.
The team’s third graduating senior, sixth-man Charles Luu came up with six points on a pair of three-pointers.
Cohee was a first team all-star, joining select company as only a handful of players have earned that honour as Grade 10 players in the history of the tournament.
McKean was a second team all-star.
On Monday, the players said the loss still stung.
“It was actually a little bit worse the day after,” admitted McKean. 
“We did our best, we left it all on the floor. But those last three minutes, everything seemed to go their way and they hit some big shots.”
Fox came up with a trio of three-pointers during their game-ending 12-2 run.
“It hurts for sure, but I’ll live,” said Luu.
What stings even more is the fact Walnut Grove was 3-0 against Terry Fox during the season.
“We knew them and they knew us,” Luu said.
“It just came down to the last possession and the way the ball bounced, it was where there guy was.”
While it is tough realizing they won’t have an opportunity to go back and win a championship, the graduating players have nothing but fond memories of playing for the Gators.
“It is a pretty crappy feeling,” McKean said.
“It being your last year, of course you want to win it, but it was still such an amazing year. I am happy.”
“From where we came from in Grade 8, not being the strongest team and only three going to senior, we practiced all summer and it was right there (for us),” Luu said, adding he expects the returning members of the team to come back even hungrier next season in their quest for a championship. 
De’Sean Monsanto (top photo, defending), Ethan McKean (#10) and Charles Luu (with ball) are the three graduating seniors on the Walnut Grove Gators basketball team.
Gary Ahuja photos
