Free-throw shooting was vital in the Heritage Woods Kodiaks' victory Wednesday, while a fourth-quarter flourish allowed the Terry Fox Ravens to also prevail.
Nothing, mind you, could save the Arctic-cold Gleneagle Talons from succumbing to the heralded Kelowna Owls.
The Kodiaks needed virtually all of their 13 foul shots on 17 attempts to shake North Vancouver's Argyle Pipers 60-57 in the Port Moody unit's opening game at the 66th annual B.C. AAA senior boys high school basketball championships at Langley Events Centre.
Later, the Ravens out-scored east Vancouver's gritty Sir Charles Tupper Tigers 23-6 in the final 10 minutes on way to a 69-51 win, while the Talons -- who blitzed the Prince George Polars 73-35 in a back-door entry game Tuesday -- met their match versus the ferocious Owls, falling 46-30 after sinking just seven of 31 shots from the field.
Kodiaks head coach Chris Martin credited his players for earning a 76.5 per cent grade from the charity stripe compared with the Pipers' lowly 45.5 mark.
"We work on free-throw shooting a lot during the season," Martin told The Tri-City News. "[It] can be the difference, especially this time of year."
The game was a see-saw battle, with the Kodiaks bolting to a 16-5 lead after the first quarter before the Pipers closed the gap to 29-26 at halftime. Those three points provided the margin of victory, as the teams tied 31-31 in the second half.
"Argyle is a very good team... they're athletic and they played very hard," Martin said.
"[We] got into foul trouble very early and we had difficulty getting points in the paint. We relaxed a little on the boards and they were able to claw back into the game on two separate occasions."
Taylor Heinrichs paced the Kodiaks with 16 points, with Mohammad Dadfar next with 13, including seven-of-10 from the foul line to go along with his team-high nine rebounds. Alex Thong collected nine points on three treys, with Mitchell Ligertwood also netting nine while going five-for-five in free throws.
Meanwhile, early foul trouble plagued the Ravens, who relied on 18 points from Grade 11 post Ryan Sclater to topple the Tigers.
Leading by just one going into the fourth quarter, Fox finally managed to put their complete game together, said co-coach Rich Chambers.
"We got out and ran a little bit, made some stops and hit some shots," Chambers said.
Ravens' point guard Bret Macdonald was next to Sclater with 16 points, followed by top-scorer Scott Hind, who managed 14 despite being slapped with three first-half fouls. Power forward Matt Trimble was solid on both ends, netting 13 points and snagging a team-high eight boards.
Gleneagle and Kelowna were actually knotted 19-19 at halftime before the Owls -- ranked as high as No. 2 in the province last month -- out-scored the underdog Talons 27-11 the rest of the way. No Talon scored double digits, with Scott Turell and Zack Usherwood leading Gleneagle with nine points apiece.
Versus Prince George on Tuesday, no fewer than five Talons nailed 10 or more points, with Usherwood's 14 tops in the pack.
Yesterday (Thursday), the Talons dug themselves in an early 30-6 hole and dropped a 69-44 decision to Langley's Walnut Grove Gators.
Usherwood and Turell led Gleneagle with 14 points each, while Brenden Yee contributed eight for the punchless Talons.
