The Elphi bantam boys passed their first playoff test Monday night in North Vancouver with a 50-30 win over the Sutherland Sabres.
Head coach Denis Tur-enne called the game the best defensive effort the Cougars have put in all season.
"I can't believe how proud I am of these kids. It was a huge team effort," Turenne said.
Nate Haglund led the scoring with 19, while TJ Turenne added 17. Zach Karmel, Axel Loitz and Jordan Hoy also stepped up with huge defensive efforts.
"Axel was tasked with checking their best player, and between Axel and Jordon, they shut him down, and the game was essentially over," Turenne said. "We kept a 10-point lead throughout and never let up."
The Cougars advanced to the semifinal against West Vancouver, the same Highlanders squad the Cougars battled for first place with on Jan. 21, in which West Van pulled out a 44-41 win in Gibsons.
The game was played Wednesday night; a result was not available at press time. The other semifinal pits Handsworth against St. Thomas Aquinas (STA).
The winners of Wed-nesday's semifinal games met in the North Shore league final, which was played Thursday night. The semifinal losers also squared off Thursday night, with the winner of that game advancing to the Vancouver and District wildcard playoffs as the North Shore's third seed.
Check out Coast Reporter sports next Friday (Feb. 12) for a re-cap of the games.
Senior boys
A four game losing streak? A downhill skid that includes losing seven of their last 10? No one could have anticipated that the Elphi senior boys would be facing such rough times as they head into the most important stretch of their season. But it's hard to get past those numbers.
Yet what the team's past 10-game record fails to indicate is how depleted the team's roster was in January, and how close each of those lost contests were.
During that slump, the Cougars suffered injuries to starters Dolf Vermeulen and Jason Chung, then a season-ending injury to senior forward Aidan Leinberger -a trio of key players who account for the bulk of the Cougars' starting lineup.
"Right now, we don't really look at it as a slump. We see it as a tough stretch where we had some key guys injured and just had some defensive breakdowns late in games that really cost us," Dolf said.
With the regular season nearing its end, Elphi should face STA in the first round of the North Shore playoffs on Monday.
This weekend, the Cougars head for Vancouver for the St. John's Secondary Jam.
"We want to head into the playoffs with some momentum, so I'm hoping that we can really make a statement at this tourney," Dolf said.
- With files from Brian Jones
