ONE MORE GAME! It's off to the finals for Charles Hays after a hard earned Semi Final victory in AA Tournament Play

Ready for One More Game!  Charles Hays Fans filled the CHSS
Multipurpose room Friday night to take in a thriller of a semi final
as the Rainmakers and Kamloops Sa-Hali Sabres battled it out for 
Saturday's shot at a provincial championship. Join the crowd 
today at 3:45 this afternoon for the Stream cast from Langley
as the Rainmakers take on George Elliot for the AA title
(from the CHSS twitter feed)

The Charles Hays Rainmakers are on their way to the AA British Columbia Boys High School Basketball Championship; but it took a lot of work to keep a hard fighting Sa-Hali Sabres team from becoming the story of the Provincials.

The Rainmakers held off numerous charges from the number twelve ranked Kamloops squad, finally putting some distance between themselves and the Sabres in the final moments of quarter number four.

A period of time that pretty well provided for the only breathing space that Charles Hays had through the course of a highly energetic and entertaining game from the Langley Events Centre, a contest which saw four lead changes on the night and a tied score on four occasions.

From the opening tip off, the match up brought end to end action for much of the play, with the teams trading off their baskets regularly, with neither the Rainmakers or the Sabres developing much of a run on the court to build up a strong cushion.

Whenever it appeared that the Rainmakers were ready to take over the game, the Sa-Hali squad would dig in and make a timely three, or quick turn two to keep the distance on the scorebaoard close.

As the two teams sized each other up through the first half of play the Rainmakers took a four point lead out of the first quarter and not much had changed by the time the half arrived with the Makers holding the Sabres off by but five points.

The third quarter proved to be most challenging stretch of basketball that the Charles Hays boys have faced so far in the tournament, as Sa-Hali pushed hard.

Turnovers and missed shots by the Rainmakers helped to give the Kamloops team some life, so much so that by the final three minutes of the third the Sabres had snared a two point lead of 49 to 47 and fully had the attention of the Makers.

Charles Hays settled their play down and then turned on their offensive push to round out the final portion of the third, building to a five point lead as they prepared for the final quarter that would decide their fate and whether they would get a shot for the provincial title.

Again through the early stages of the final frame, the resilience of the Sa-Hali team was impressive, a never say die kind of charge that tested the Rainmakers often.

However, as was the case in some of their high profile games of this past season, Charles Hays responded with confidence, shutting down the danger with some strong defensive play and then putting enough distance on the scoreboard to banish the thought of any more last minute surprises for the Kamloops squad.

The final score of 74 to 66 in favour the Rainmakers made for the hard earned entry into Saturday's Championship game,

Despite what was a night long battle with the Sa-Hali defenders , Liam McChesney  found enough space to hit the score board often, with 31 points on the night. With another impressive night of offence and defensive play delivering a second player of the game award for McChesney since the tournament began on Wednesday.

The remainder of the Rainmaker scoring on the evening was distributed fairly evenly between Kai Leighton, Tyler Jones and Eric Lees.

Full Semi-Final Boxscore available here.

The stage is now set for the AA Showdown as Charles Hays moves on to the tournament finale tomorrow afternoon against the George Elliot Coyotes from the Okanagan Lake Country.

The Coyotes punched their ticket to the finals earlier in the evening when they dispatched St. Micheals by thirty five points in the other semi final.

Tip off for the Rainmakers and Coyotes is 3:45 and you can watch the Championship final through the TFSE Pay per view feed ...  or hoops fans can head over to the Charles Hays Multi Purpose Room where Rainmaker fans will settle in for the wrap up to the AA tournament, with hopes of a provincial banner making its way back North when the final whistle is blown.

Some photos of Friday's game in Langley can be found below; they come courtesy of former Charles Hays Teacher Brian Cameron. More can be found through the twitter feed of #rainmakers

You can review the path towards Saturday's final for the Rainmakers from our Tournament archive page here.

To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.