The Chatelech senior boys' basketball team tangled with a familiar foe in the first round of the AA boys basketball playoffs.
Chat, that finished in fourth spot with a record of 5-3, met the Howe Sound Secondary School Sounders from Squamish, that finished with a record of 4-4 and in fifth place.
The game was played Friday night (past press deadline) in the sudden death playoff.
The Elphinstone Cougars finished league play with a 2-6 record and are the seventh seeds. They played the Sutherland Sabres, the second seed in the first round. The game was also played on Friday night. In the other first round games, the number three seeds, St. Thomas Aquinas (STA), will play Collingwood, while top ranked Windsor plays the eight seeds from Seycove.
All the winners from Friday night's games advance to the double knock-out championship round of the playoffs starting Monday night in North Vancouver.
Chat finished off league play on a down note Wednesday night as they dropped a 92-52 game to STA.
Chat coach Bruce Haynes said his squad played one of their worst games of the year.
"It was bad from start to finish," Haynes said on Thursday morning. "We've been playing pretty well lately, but last night we looked awful. Hopefully we got all the bad stuff out of our system and we rebound against Howe Sound. We've played them hard all year and it's going to be a good game."
Last weekend, Chat finished with a record of 1-2 at a tournament in Chilliwack.
Chat lost their opener 77-74 to Pacific Academy from Surrey, then fell 73-72 to Glenlyan-Norfolk, a squad from Washington State.
"We played well enough to win both games," Haynes said. "In both games our inside shooting was great, but our outside shooting really cost us."
Aaron deJong scored 19 points while Matt Skei chipped in with 18 in the loss to Pacific.
In game three, Chat rebounded with an 86-62 win over Lord Tweedsmuir. Dallas Craigan was high man for Chat with 27 points.
Last Thursday, Feb. 5, Chat toppled Collingwood 81-60 at home and on Monday lost 76-61 to Windsor in league action.
