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You’ve got to hand it to the D.P. Todd Trojans.
They’re not going down without a fight and their season-long ambition to play in the BC double-A boys basketball provincial championship is still intact.
They just have to find a way to beat the Nechako Valley Vikings one more time.
With their season hanging in the balance Saturday afternoon, the Trojans finally hung a loss on the visitors from Vanderhoof Saturday afternoon in the A final of the North Central zone championship at D.P. Todd Secondary School, winning 64-62 on a last-shot second bucket.
The teams were tied 62-62 with 30 seconds left on the clock when the Trojans called timeout and coach Randy Sandhu knew who he wanted to have taking that shot, his ever-dependable Grade 11 point guard, Markus Sale.
The City League-champion Trojans worked the clock to their advantage and with only a few seconds left, Sale shook off the double-team coverage supplied by Nechako Valley defenders Dayne Mueller and Kole Shoesmith as he drove to the net and fired off a hook shot that slipped through the net. The Vikings had just two seconds to left and called timeout but were unable to get the shot.
“We held the ball and protected the ball and we Matthew (Stubley) set Markus a screen and he came off the screen and the help defender (Shoesmith) came over and actually got two hands on the ball, but Markus used his strength to get it out of his hands and threw up a bit of sky-hook and it just fell,” said Trojans head coach Randy Sandhu.
“It was an amazing shot. Now we play again (Sunday), winner take all”
Sale finished with 19 points and the only two points he registered in the fourth quarter were the ones that mattered most for the Trojans. Jake Samis collected 18 points.
Nechako Valley guard Dayne Mueller was the story of the third quarter. With his team trailing 32-21 at halftime, Mueller hit four threes in that third quarter to tighten the gap and Vikings kept chipping away in the final 10. They tied it 56-56 with four minutes left and the teams continued to trade shots that deadlocked the score leading up to Sale’s heroic finisher.
Mueller collected a game-high 23 points, including six three-pointers. Thomas Cross had 14 for the Vikings.
It was the first loss of the double-knockout tournament for Nechako Valley and that forces the second final, to be played Sunday at 10 a.m. at D.P. Todd gym.
The Trojans lost 55-43 to Nechako Valley in a semifinal game Friday afternoon which set up an elimination playoff Saturday morning. In that game, the Trojans defeated the Shas Ti Kelly Road Grizzlies 74-61.
If they were fatigued for the afternoon game that followed, the Trojans were showing no signs of it.
“The boys knew the season was on the line and they just stayed with it and I used all my time-outs to give them a break, especially in the fourth quarter,” said Sandhu.
“I just wanted them to breathe. We couldn’t go that deep into our bench so I stayed with our starters for most of the fourth quarter. I told the boys you have one advantage over (the Vikings). You have the most recent win and they have to travel in the morning from Vanderhoof, so just be ready. They’re a very disciplined tough team and the team that wants it more if going to win it.”
