The Chat boys saved their best for last, finishing the season on a high note last Saturday in Kamloops.
Chat beat J.L. Crowe from Trail 68-37 to finish 15th out of 16 teams at the 2005 AA boys provincial basketball championships.
After dropping their opening game to Lambrick Park last Wednesday, dropping the Eagles to the consolation side of the draw, coach Bruce Haynes was confident his troops would rebound and finish in the top 10. But that wasn't the case.
Chat lost 72-61 on Thursday morning to Fraser Valley Christian from Surrey in a game Haynes will remember for a long time.
"We jumped out to a 24-4 lead and we just let it slip away," Haynes said. "Either we thought we had the game in the bag or we ran out of gas. I just can't explain it. All season when we had a big lead, we put the hammer down and no one ever caught us. We led by 10 at halftime and I could tell the guys were down. We just couldn't put them away. It was by far the most disappointing game of the whole tournament."
Haynes speculated that the team might have been down a bit after losing such a close battle against Lambrick Park, the three-time defending champs at the event.
"There might have been some fall-out from that game. The guys played so hard against Lambrick and to not win was discouraging," he said. "I think it was being more mentally tired than physically tired against Fraser Valley."
Devan Haynes was top scorer with 22 points. Tony Dill had 13, while Matt Skei added nine.
Up next was the Kalamalka Lakers from the Okanagan on Friday morning where Chat dropped a 76-70 decision.Chat trailed 24-11 after the first quarter and 46-39 at halftime, but used a big third quarter, outscoring the Lakers 30-11 to reclaim the lead.
But down the stretch, the Lakers hit a few key shots, outscoring Chat 19-11 in the quarter to squeak out the win.
"We played well and I was happy to see us come back after such a poor start," Haynes said. "It was another game that I felt we had a chance. We just didn't get the key shots to fall down the stretch."
Devan led the way again with 28 points, Aaron deJong chipped in with 15, Tony hit for nine and Jason Janis and Matt each scored eight points.
In the final game against J.L. Crowe, Chat led from start to finish, playing the kind of basketball that got them to the provincials.
Devan hit for 24, Matt scored 17 and Aaron chipped in 12.
"It was a complete game and certainly nice to finish with a win," Haynes said. "Going into the tournament, I figured we had a shot at finishing top eight. I think the seeding cost us. Playing Lambrick Park first cost us and that bad loss to Fraser Valley was the difference in the tournament."
The Cedar Spartans from Nanaimo won the tournament as they defeated Lambrick 78-68 in the final.
Chat's senior team will have a distinctive new feel to it next season as Aaron, Matt, Tony, Daniel Kingsbury and Dez LeRoux all graduate.
"It was pretty emotional after that last game," Haynes said.
