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| The road to the Provincial finals came to an end on Thursday, with the Rainmakers on the wrong side of the 91-80 final score with North Van's Seycove (video image from Ten TV Sports) |
The path towards a Provincial banner for the Charles Hays Rainmakers will have to wait for another year, that after the Makers dropped their quarter final match up with North Vancouver's Seycove Seyhawks on Thursday night, with the North Van team claiming a hard fought 91-80 victory in a highly entertaining showcase of High School Basketball in Langley.
Things started out strong for the Rainmakers who were quick out of the gate to build on a lead in the first five minutes of the first quarter, seeming to catch the Seycove squad off balance, with the Maker defence holding the North Van team to long range perimeter shots.
Impressive passing on their part propelled the early success for the Rainmakers, who had some good finish at the bucket and success on the boards to control the early flow of the game.
Seycove however made some quick adjustments and knocked away those early stumbles pushing back hard at the end of the first quarter and carrying that momentum into the second ten minutes, making for some fascinating back and forth basketball as the two teams exchanged baskets on the way to the half with the North Vancouver school taking a one point lead into the dressing room.
Things started to turn on the Charles Hays squad in the third quarter as Seycove continued to build on its confidence, draining a number of three point shots that started to put distance between them and the Rainmakers.
The three quarter score giving the Makers opposition a fifteen point lead of 66 to 51 heading into the final ten minutes of play.
A late game energetic push clawed the Charles Hays Rainmakers back from that double digit deficit, however the biggest factor in the final quarter proved to be a clock that just wouldn't deliver enough time and a number of shots that just wouldn't drop for a Rainmaker comeback on the evening.
The Makers would cut the Seyhawk lead to 7 points with but three minutes to play, and for a few moments looked as though they had shifted enough momentum to turn the game into what could have been a last shot wins scenario.
A time out allowed Seycove time to take a breath and regroup for the final three minutes, delivering some strong shut down basketball.
Smart ball control and clock management, along with making the key shots when opportunity provided, proved to be enough to rebuild enough distance on the scoreboard for the Seyhawks to secure the 91-80 final score.
With the loss, the Rainmakers move over to the placement round side of the AA Bracket, they next play this evening when they play Shawnigan Lake.
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The two other teams from the Northwest at provincials were also in action on Thursday.
In AAA ball the Caledonia Kermodes suffered their second loss of Provincials, with Clayton Heights topping the Terrace team 80 to 53. Caledonia plays GP Vanier today at 10:15 AM
The Bulkley Valley Christian School is still in the hunt for the Single A title, with BVCS knocking off Kelowna Christian on Thursday 63 to 54.
The Smithers school now moves into Semi Final Action, taking on Similkameen today at 3:30 PM
You can find more notes on the tournament from our archive page here.
To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.
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