The West Vancouver Highlanders pulled out a thrilling 44-41 win in the Cougars den last Thursday night in a battle for first place in the North Shore league.
The Elphinstone Cougars put in a strong effort in front of a loud and charged-up crowd, but turnovers and an inability to capitalize on their free throw opportunities proved to be too much for the Cougars to overcome.
The Highlanders controlled play for most of the game, leading 13-7 after the first, 21-17 at the half and 35-27 after the third.
Whenever the Cougars got on a bit of a run, West Van had an answer.
Late in the third quarter and early in the fourth, Elphi used their "big man" to their advantage as Nate Haglund got a lot of good looks, busting through the lane and inside, pouring in points. Nate had six in the third and eight more in the fourth of his team high 19 points.
Elphi managed to cut West Van's lead to two at 43-41 with 59 seconds to go, as both coaches Denis Turrene from Elphi and West Van's Greg Meldrum tried to kill the other team's momentum with timeouts and pressure defence.
West Van hit one of four foul shots down the stretch to seal it.
Besides Nate, TJ Turrene had a solid game, finishing with 12 points, while West Van was led by the combination of Jack Desante and Robbie Watson with 12 points apiece.
"I'm really happy with the boys; they left it all out there on the floor," Turrene said. "Everyone played hard. From a coaching perspective, we need to take care of the ball better, and our free throw shooting has to be better. We talked about that after the game, and those are things we'll have to work on as we get into the playoffs next week."
Turrene said the atmosphere in the gym was great.
"It pumped up the team to play in front of a nice, loud crowd," he said. "This team has come a long way. This is an AA team playing against AAA teams, so that's a pretty high level of basketball to be playing at this age."
Meldrum said he was equally impressed with the atmosphere.
"It's great to see that for Grade 8 boys' basketball," Meldrum said. "It was a scrappy game and it came down to who took care of the ball better in the end. Both teams struggled from the line. We were three for 10 in the game and one for six in the fourth, so that has to improve for us in the playoffs, but I'm happy with the win. Anytime you can come into a hostile environment and get a win, it's nice."
Elphi opens the playoffs on Monday in North Vancouver against Sutherland.
