Playing for 13th-place at the B.C. AAA high school girls' basketball championships does not usually inspire greatness.
But in the case of the junior-aged New Westminster Hyacks that was the definitely not the case.
Without a senior-aged player in the lineup and trailing by as much as 33 points at one point of the second quarter in their matchup with the Terry Fox Ravens, the never-say-die Hyacks fashioned a jaw-dropping 40-point second-half comeback en route to a 62-57 victory over the Port Coquitlam school team.
Ariana Sider led the Hyack charge, finishing with 24 points in the final game and one point shy of 110 through the entire tournament.
New Westminster outscored the Ravens 265 in the pivotal third quarter. Junior forward Natasha Lazecki brought the deficit down to a single point with a breakaway bucket at the end of the quarter.
With just three minutes remaining in the game, Sider put the Hyacks ahead 58-57 with a successful three-point play.
Seconds later, Amanda Zacharuk made good on a pair of free throws and Kelsey Lonergan went coast-to-coast for a layup basket to stretch the Hyacks lead to five points.
Hyacks head coach Doug Woodward called the comeback program-building.
"It was a big win for us because I think it will carry over to next season. They'll remember this one," Woodward said after the game.
"This could be a very big game for us in the future. - They'll be talking about this one for a lot of years."
