It was only fitting the McNair Marlins and Cambie Crusaders closed out their fine seasons with games that went right down to the wire.
Playing in the shadow of their city rival Steveston-London reaching the provincial final, the Marlins and Crusaders were busy earlier Saturday at the Langley Events Centre in consolation play at the BC Boys Basketball Championships.
After three tough losses, the Marlins got a free throw from Nathan Schroeder with two seconds remaining to trim Prince Rupert’s Charles Hays Rainmakers 77-76.
The Crusaders allowed a seven-point third quarter lead to evaporate in their 96-86 loss to the South Okanagan Hornets to settle for 10th place in AA side of the draw.
Three days earlier, both teams had quarter-final berths within their grasp.
The 14th AAA seeded Marlins stormed back from a 17-point half-time deficit and were tied with No. 3 seed Rick Hansen with three minutes remaining. However, they couldn’t complete what would have been a huge upset, falling 73-63.
A difficult time from the perimeter proved to be the team’s undoing, going 3-20 from three-point range.
It was an even tougher pill to swallow for the No. 7 seed AA Crusaders.
They took a nine point lead into the final quarter against No. 10 Abbotsford Christian but surrendered a whopping 35 points in a 98-85 loss.
It was another potential victory that had slipped out of their grasp — similar to an opening round loss to Palmer at the city championships and a heartbreaker defeat to St. Pat’s in the Lower Mainland final.
Cambie bounced back with wins over Smithers and Pacific Academy to reach the ninth place game.
McNair also hung tough with No. 6 Wellington before falling 80-74, then dropped a 74-65 decision to Bodwell.
All signs point to both teams joining Steveston-London at the 2017 provincials.
The Marlins will bring back four starters, including Schroeder who is just in Grade 10. Their bench was also loaded with Grade 10 and 11s.
With so much experience, McNair won’t surprise anyone either like they did with an upset win over Windermere in the Mainland playoffs that secured a provincial berth. They will also need someone to pick up the scoring slack with the departure of Ryan Angala who was simply superb over the last two months. The Grade 12 wing averaged 25 points per game at the provincials.
Coach Jessy Dhillon is anxious to begin work for next season soon.
The Crusaders will bring three starters back, including Zak Hassen and Kevin Dhillon who were their top scorers at provincials.
Hassen’s athleticism could make him a match-up nightmare next season if he keeps improving.
Offence was rarely a concern for the Crusaders. Instead, head coach Chris Mattu will focus on his team doing a better job of protecting the ball in the late going and avoiding potential defensive lapses.
The team will miss seniors Riley Paulik and Tarn Dhaliwal who provided leadership, scoring and were the team’s top rebounders.
