Shawnigan Lake School with a thrilling comeback victory over the Pacific Academy Breakers
This #8 and #9 ranked match did not disappoint. A back and forth affair the entire game, with some oohs and aahs, clutch 3’s and monster dunks, alley-oops and clutch freethrows. The score was 18-18 at the end of the 1st quarter.
The 2nd quarter was saw the Breakers make a run to take the largest lead of the game, 36-27 with 3 minutes before half-time, which forced SLS to take a time out. Returning from the timeout SLS closed the gap to 3 points, including an alley-oop dunk to highlight their run before going into halftime down 35-38.
The battle continued in the 3rd, led by the hot shooting of the Breakers from behind the arc to hold on to their lead, they pushed it back to 9 points late in the 3rd. For a stretch, it seemed like the Breakers couldn’t miss a shot, taking a lead as large as 10 points, but the SLS were not rattled. The Breakers held a 57-50 lead to end the 3rd quarter.
In the 4th, the battle stayed close, with neither team taking a commanding lead for the first 6 minutes of the quarter. The Breakers then saw their 7 point lead cut to 2 points with 4minutes left in the game. The Breakers led 59-57 before SLS took a time out to make adjustments.
SLS, stretched their defense to take away open 3’s from the Breakers. They then tied the game 59-59 with 3 minutes to go, and took a 2 point lead with a wide open lay-up, the following possession where the Breakers fell asleep.
The following possession, #4 Josh Barlin of the Breakers hit back to back triples to take a 4pt lead. SLS responded with a three of their own, followed by a steal and transition lay-up under a minute, to take a one point lead. The Breakers took one of their two remaining timeouts with 36 seconds and down one.
Following the timeout, due to poor executing and some pressure from SLS, the Breaker threw the ball out of bounds. SLS then took their own timeout with 31 seconds remaining. SLS being in bonus, the Breakers fouled immediately to put #13 Druleo L-A on the line, who knocked down both free-throws to take a 68-65 lead with 29 seconds. The breakers took their last timeout, to execute a play for 3, but couldn’t convert. SLS knocked down 6 of 7 free-throws to pull off a comeback 71-65 win.
Player of the game was #12 Sergio Pereire, who dominated with 27pts, 21rebs and 4blocks. #13 Druleo L-A finished with 17pts, 9rebs and 2ast and a solid 4-4 from the freethrow line.
For the Breakers, Michael Chifan finished with 13rebs and 10pts, Ethan Adkins had 19pts and brother Keyan Adkins finished with 16pts and 9rebs.