This year’s Burnaby-New West senior boys’ basketball final was a repeat of last year’s, with the Burnaby South Rebels battling the Byrne Creek Bulldogs.
It all happened last night, past the NOW’s deadline.
Burnaby South advanced on the strength of a 64-53 win over New Westminster, while Byrne Creek topped the Burnaby North Vikings 81-34.
The Vikings’ run to a top-four finish – they battled New West yesterday for third place – featured a huge win on Monday against the rival Burnaby Mountain Lions.
In a quarterfinal where they prevailed 63-59, Burnaby North displayed plenty of resilience.
The two Burnaby-New West League combatants traded shots over much of the first half, with the Lions holding the edge.
While they briefly lost the services of Justen Chau due to injury in the second quarter, the Vikings began to close the gap and took the lead just before halftime, thanks to some timely contributions off the bench from Nic Liu.
Mountain reclaimed the lead in the second half, but North stuck close and put in a successful late surge, as Chau returned to contribute eight assists, five steals and five rebounds.
The game turned in the final two minutes towards the Vikings, with Sungwoo Pai counted 18 points and seven steals, chipping in four assists.
Attacking the boards were Christian Gilchrist, who led the squad with 12 rebounds, while Zach Hou tallied nine of his own.
In the other quarterfinal, New Westminster topped the Moscrop Panthers 90-33. The top scorers for the Panthers were Ryan Desousa and David Li with 8 points each.
