One is shooting for a league title, the other for ranking. The most important thing, however, is both the New Westminster Hyacks senior girls and boys basketball teams are going on to the Lower Mainlands.
The senior girls, who have not lost a league game this year, advanced to the Burnaby-New West playoff final by blasting Moscrop 72-53 on Tuesday.
Powered by Sarah Forgie’s 24 points – nearly all in the first half – New West built up a steep lead only to see Moscrop out-point them in the second half.
“It wasn’t a great game and you want to keep playing your best no matter who you’re playing,” Hyacks head coach Doug Woodward said. “Moscrop’s best player scored 22 points, and that’s too many. No one was stopping her.”
Contributing 12 points was Devin Strome, while New West got nine points and eight points, respectively, from Milanna Obrovac and Jaime Lee.
The final is slated for tonight, 5:45 p.m. at NWSS. The Hyacks will play the winner of Wednesday’s other semifinal (past the Record’s deadline) of Burnaby Central and Burnaby Mountain.
For the senior boys, while a berth is guaranteed the route could have been easier, after falling 64-53 Tuesday to the Burnaby South Rebels in the semifinal.
Having hung in with the No. 9-ranked Rebels and actually taking the lead on the last shot of the third quarter, New West was unable to maintain the pace in the final frame.
Burnaby South surged ahead by out-scoring the Hyacks 20-10 over the final 10 minutes.
“Honestly, it’s really disappointing – we should have won, we could have won, but my guys seem to have a difficult time playing a full 40 minutes,” remarked New West coach Arno Richter.
Having erased a 12-point
deficit with a strong third quarter push, the Hyacks struggled to match the Rebels’ intensity down the stretch. Coming off the bench to score a team-high 14 points was Grade 12 post player Jacob Long-Aitchison, while
guard Ramadan Ali chipped in 10 points.
New West will now play for third place on Thursday against Burnaby Mountain, 5:30 p.m. at Byrne Creek.
Because league finalist Byrne Creek drops down to the 3A tier in the next round, the Hyacks are shooting to take the Burnaby-New West league’s No. 2 slot for the 4A Lower Mainlands, which begin next week in Richmond.
In the quarter-final, the squad defeated Moscrop 90-33, getting 10 points apiece from Ali and Long-Aitchison.
