Height is a huge advantage in basketball and without it you’ve got to work that much harder and jump a little higher to get the better of taller opponents.
So when the Prince George Polars lost their big man – six-foot-seven City League all-star point guard Skylar Chisan – halfway through their second game at the North Central quad-A boys basketball championship against the North Peace Grizzlies Saturday morning in Fort St. John, their title hoops took a hit.
A 76-61 North Peace win in Game 2 Saturday morning forced the rubber match later that afternoon to determine who will represent North Central in the 16-team quad-A championship tournament, March 9-12 in Langley.
Down to just eight healthy bodies with Chisan unable to play, the Polars fell behind 21-14 after 10 minutes but reversed the trend in the second quarter to take a 34-31 into the locker room. In the fourth quarter, North Peace had a five-point lead with 12.4 seconds left and the Polars came back to tie it 61-61 with three seconds left.
In the five-minute overtime, the Grizzlies built a nine-point lead with 2:14 left when the Polars started chipping away. Chet Moore forced two steals and sunk two rebounds to get the Polars within three points with 8.1 seconds on the clock. PGSS got to the top of the key with the ball in the dying seconds but North Peace stole it before the Polars could get the shot away and they lost 75-72.
“One shot; we actually didn’t get that shot off, which is all you really want,” said Polars head coach Tyler Burbee. “But being down nine in overtime and being able to make that up in four minutes and have a chance is all you can ask for, especially when two boys can’t run because they’ve got cramps because it was the second game in five hours.”
Cole Harder and Cy Bellamy went back-to-back, each with their second 20-point games. Jack Brown led the Polars with 20 and Deakon Anderson shot 16.
In the second game, the Polars got off to a slow start and trailed the Grizzlies 17-2 in the first quarter and were still down by 13 points at halftime, thinking about what they needed to do differently to mount a comeback that never materialized. Chisan twisted his ankle when he landed awkwardly and was forced to leave the game. Despite an 18-point effort from Anderson and Chisan’s 14 points they couldn’t catch up and lost 76-61.
Without Chisan, the Polars suffered.
“When you lose your superman and your main player it’s easy to rally against but it’s also tough to fill that void,” said Burbee.
The Polars drove up Friday morning and that night they played the Grizzlies for the first time all season, with a near-capacity crowd watching at North Peace Secondary School. The Polars are the tallest high school team in Prince George, but the Grizzlies are on an even plane physically and the score in the opening game of the best-of-three series reflected there wasn’t much that separated the teams.
No team led at any point led by more than six points. Anderson with 17 and Chisan with 16 did the bulk of the scoring for PGSS in a 72-69 win. Cole Harder was the high-scorer in the opener for the Griz, who were ahead 38-37 at the half.
“We ran out of steam,” said Burbee. “Our challenge this year was we only had eight players and four of them are Grade 11 and three of them had never played high school basketball before.
“The boys gave it everything they had. There was one point where Deakon fell down jumping for a loose ball and he couldn’t get himself up. You just run out of gas.
“All we wanted was a chance and it was a nice trip up there and a terrifying trip coming back home in zero visibility in snow in the Pine Pass, but it makes a good story in the end.”
