The clock has stuck midnight for the dream of a Tri-Cities’ sweep of senior high school basketball provincial championships.
The second-ranked Centennial Centaurs were bounced into the placement round of the AAAA boys tournament after losing its quarter-final game to the seventh-ranked Semiahmoo Totems, 86-73, Thursday at the Langley Events Centre.
The highest the Centaurs can now finish is fifth. The team attained the second seed at the provincial tournament after it won the Fraser North regional championship that included a stunning upset of undefeated Burnaby South.
After each team scored 15 points in the first quarter, Semiahmoo took a two-point advantage into the dressing room at halftime. The Totems expanded its lead to four points at the end of the third quarter.
Centre KC Ibekwe paced all Centennial scorers with 30 points and 19 rebounds, while guard Nick Yang contributed 11 points.
While Centaurs’ shooters were more accurate than the Totems on their field goal attempts, scoring on 29 of the 54 shots they took from the floor, the team struggled from beyond the three-point line, hitting only seven of 20. Semiahmoo shot 48 per cent from the floor but was successful on 10 of its 22 three-pointers.
The loss ends the possibility of another team from the Tri-Cities taking its place among the province’s senior champions after Port Coquitlam’s Terry Fox Ravens upset crosstown Riverside Rapids in last Saturday’s girls AAAA final, 72-70.
Meanwhile, the ninth-ranked Terry Fox Ravens boys team followed up an opening-round 74-72 loss to the Walnut Grove Gators with a 57-50 win over Burnaby Mountain Thursday morning at the Langley Events Centre.
Fox will play Claremont Friday. A win will advance the team to the ninth-place game on Saturday.
Centennial faces Fleetwood Park Friday evening in its next game.
