The Chatelech senior boys basketball team's shot at a provincial championship berth is still alive.
As Coast Reporter went to press Thursday night, Chat was getting set to tip off against Sutherland at Collingwood Secondary School in North Vancouver for the North Shore AA title.
Check out Coast Reporter sports next week for a full recap.
Chat earned the title chance with a pair of playoff wins last week. They opened the eight-team playoff with a 73-59 win over the Howe Sound Sounders from Squamish last Friday.
Chat didn't play a strong game and head coach Bruce Haynes said they were fortunate to advance.
"We were very lucky to win in my mind," Haynes said. "We didn't play with much intensity. It was frustrating for us as coaches because we just sat on the bench and it felt pretty helpless at times knowing that if we lost we'd be done."
Haynes said Jason Janis stepped up down the stretch to get Chat over the hump.
"Jason was huge. He scored 21 points and he won the game for us," Haynes said. "Devan [Haynes] got three fouls in the first and a technical in the second and that hurt us. Aaron [deJong] and Matt [Skei] played well, but we just weren't firing on all cylinders."
On Tuesday night, Chat got back to playing solid team basketball as they blew out Seycove 94-75 in the semifinal. "It was a pretty awesome win," Haynes said. "Once we started to pull ahead, Seycove never really closed the gap. We led by 28 points at one point and I think the closest they got was 18. It was a real team effort. We played with enthusiasm. Everyone came to play and did their jobs."
In other playoff action last week, Rockridge ended the season for the Elphi Cougars as they won 96-75 in last Thursday's wildcard game.
Rockridge lost to Collingwood 72-43 on Friday, Seycove beat Windsor 80-61 and Sutherland beat St. Thomas Aquinas 83-59.
Sutherland advanced to the final against Chat after defeating top-seeded Collingwood 54-51 in Tuesday's other semifinal game.
Back door berthMore senior high school boys' basketball teams in the local Howe Sound Zone's AA and AAA conferences now have an opportunity to vie for berths at their respective B.C. championship tournaments in March.
Last weekend, the B.C. High School Boys' Basketball Association invoked an exception clause and amended the existing berthing ratio formula (which determines how the spots at the B.C.'s are parcelled out among the eight provincial zones) in order to make more room for the highly competitive Howe Sound zone teams this season.
The formula, which is based on representation by population, allots the Howe Sound zone (North and West Van and the Sunshine Coast) only one berth per conference. Four other zones in the province are single-berth also, but the Fraser Valley (seven), Vancouver Island (three) and Lower Mainland (five) all receive multiple spots at the B.C. championships.
On the weekend, the provincial association voted for the first time since the current berthing formula was adopted in 1991 to award the Howe Sound Zone one-and-a-half berths in the AAA conference and one-and-a-third berths at the AA level.
What that means is the second-place team in the nine-team AA conference (Chatelech, Elphinstone, Howe Sound, Collingwood, St. Thomas Aquinas, Rockridge, Windsor, Seycove and Sutherland) will use the one-third berth to play the second seed out of the Lower Mainland zone on Feb. 26 at 1:30 p.m. The winner of that tilt will head up north to play the North B.C. West zone's number two team for a spot at the AA provincials set to take place at Sportmart Place in Kamloops March 8 to 12.
Senior girlsThe Elphi senior girls' season ended in Vancouver Monday night.
Elphi lost a close 59-56 decision to Britannia in the Vancouver wildcard playoff.
"The lead went back and forth all game. It was very close," said Elphi coach Lynn Moran. "Our downfall was our shooting again. We pulled down a lot of boards, but we just didn't get a consistent scoring run going."
Katrina Jones and Kyla Richey each scored 19 points to lead the attack.
"Overall it was a great season. I'm very proud of the team," Moran said. "We finished .500 in the league and I never thought we'd get this far in the playoffs. To beat Sentinel last week was the biggest win of the year. When you lose to them by 40 earlier in the year, then beat them in the playoff game, it was the most rewarding game for the girls."
In other senior girls' news, the North Shore announced its annual all-star team this week.
Chat Eagles point guard Sammi Dixon was named to the second all-star team. Sammi is the lone player from the Coast high schools named to the team.
Bantam boysThe Elphi Cougars have improved their skills during league play in North Vancouver under the coaching team of Mike Sopow, Katrina Jones and Roddy Campbell.
Elphi wound up their 2005 basketball season with a 55-36 win over Howe Sound on Feb. 18 in Gibsons.- With files from Jan-Christian Sorensen/NS News
