Two weekends ago, the Kelly Road Roadrunners were celebrating as North Central zone double-A boys basketball champions.
Considered good enough among their provincial peers to draw honourable mention status in the top-10 rankings, the Roadrunners walked on the court Wednesday at the provincial tournament in Langley confident they would prove they were better than their No. 12 seed position.
It didn't take long for that plan to fizzle. The Roadrunners were steamrolled 84-37 by the St. Michael's University Blue Jags of Victoria.
"It was a slow start and nerves were the difference in the game," said Roadunners co-coach Justin Soles. "Everyone felt like they were OK and warm-up looked OK but as soon as that tip-off happened it was just chaos with the nerves. Nothing was dropping and easy little things we've been doing all year just weren't happening today.
"We lacked intensity on defence and that was the key to it as well. The entire game we lacked intensity on both sides of the ball. We're a team that really prides ourselves on defence and when they're getting easy looks under the hoop, that's not good enough."
St. Michael's is the defending double-A boys provincial champion. The Blue Jags have just two returning players from that team but the core played together last year on one of the province's top-ranked junior teams. Soles said that experience, and the Roadrunners' lack of it, were deciding factors.
Matt Price and Garrett Cape each collected six points as the high scorers for Kelly Road. Solomon Dugdale, the MVP guard for the Roadrunners in the zone championship, sunk just one of his 10 shot attempts.
Kelly Road is back on the court today at noon against Delview Raiders. The Delta team lost 87-85 Wednesday to Saint Patrick's of Vancouver. The best the Roadrunners can finish now is ninth.
"I just want to see us go out there and get those nerves gone and make those easy little baskets and do those little things that made us the team we were this year," said Soles.
Meanwhile, at the boys triple-A championships, also in Langley, the Duchess Park Condors suffered a 68-51 loss to the Mark Isfeld Ice of Courtenay.
The Condors fell behind 15-8 after 10 minutes and trailed 37-27 at the half.
Jasper Yutuc had 12 points and four rebounds for Duchess Park, Colburn Pearce hit for 11 points and five rebounds and Jong Won Yun also picked up 10 points. Nosh Kaefer shot game-high 24 points for the Ice, while Jeppe Madsen and and Hank Magdanz each collected 18 points.
The Condors dropped down to the consolation side of the 16-team draw and will play L.V. Rogers Bombers of Nelson toady at 1:45.
