It took two overtime wins for the Elphinstone Secondary Cougars to shake off the Seycove Seyhawks in the senior boys AA basketball Howe Sound Championships played last week at Collingwood School.
The boys from Gibsons claimed the Howe Sound title with an 81-74 overtime win over Seycove in the final game on Friday. Elphinstone’s Gus Goerzen dropped 45 points in the win on his way to earning the Quinn Keast Player of the Final award as well as tournament MVP honours. It took a massive effort for the Seyhawks just to send it to overtime, as the Seyhawks were trailing by five with just 14 seconds left in the game. A three-point play from the Seyhawks followed by Elphinstone making one out of two free throws set the stage for Seycove’s Dylon Matthews to hit a contested three-pointer at the buzzer to send it to OT. The Cougars, however, gained momentum back in the extra frame and pulled away for the win.
It was the end of a grinding week for Seycove, who played four games in four days, including the two overtime matchups against Elphinstone. Seycove lost 83-75 in overtime against Elphinstone Tuesday, then won back-to-back elimination games to stay alive. On Wednesday they knocked out top-ranked Collingwood 72-70 and on Thursday they took out St. Thomas Aquinas 76-64 in a game that clinched a provincials berth for the Seyhawks – both Seycove and Elphinstone will play in the provincial AA championships running March 6-9 at Langley Events Centre.
Tournament all-stars included Elphinstone’s Elan Kimpton-Cuellar and Noah Woodin; Matthews and Logan Somerville from Seycove; and Jan Mirabel from St. Thomas Aquinas.
