The Chatelech Eagles' hopes for a top eight finish at the 2005 AA boys' high school basketball championships were dashed Wednesday morning.
Chat opened up the 16-team tournament in Kamloops with an 87-67 loss to the three-time defending champion Lambrick Park Lions from Victoria.
Chat hung in for the better part of the game, jumping out to an early 8-0 lead in the first quarter. Chat led after the first, but the Lions came back in the second to lead by 10 at halftime.
Chat went on a run early in the third and trailed by only two, when the Eagles got into foul trouble, forcing Aaron deJong and Matt Skei to the bench.
Chat's reserves played well, but the Lions starting hitting threes and eventually pulled away. The big story was scoring in the fourth, as the Lions held a 25-9 edge.
"It was a good game and I feel it was a lot closer than the score indicated," said Eagles' coach Bruce Haynes. "Lambrick had a really good outside shooter and when they started hitting those three-pointers, that killed us. Overall, I thought we played well. Lambrick tried to run on us and wear us down, and in the end that was the difference. We have a bench of nine and they had 13. We just didn't have the horses."
Devan Haynes led the way for Chat with 27 points and was selected as Chat's game MVP. Aaron added 19, Tony Dill scored nine, Matt chipped in with eight, and Daniel Kingsbury scored four points.
With the loss, Chat is now on the consolation side of the draw and can finish no higher than ninth.
Despite the setback, Haynes is confident the team can rebound.
"I saw some really good things - things we can build on," Haynes said. "We ran into the three-time champs. When you play a team as good as Lambrick, you have to play error free and they have to have a bit of an off game. We didn't play our best, but we didn't play horribly either. I'm very confident that we can be very successful here in the next few days."Chat's next game is against Fraser Valley Christian from Surrey. The game was played Thursday afternoon past Coast Reporter deadlines.
Check our Coast Reporter sports next Friday for a complete recap from the provincials.
