The No. 1 provincial ranking placed a bull's-eye squarely on the backs of the Gleneagle Talons. And the Heritage Woods Kodiaks were happy to play giant-killer at the Pitt Meadows Air Show senior boys basketball tournament on the weekend.
The Talons opened the tournament with a 76-75 loss to the No. 4-ranked Winston Churchill Bulldogs.
"I thought we played well enough to win against Churchill, but it happens, a point can go either way," said Gleneagle coach Tony Scott.
"I think the whole weekend was kind of a rebound from our previous games. We had a tough tournament that we were fortunate to win at the Legal Beagle and right after that we had a league game against Fox and it led into another tough weekend."
The Heritage Woods Kodiaks then used triple overtime to get past the Talons 101-95.
"They were really jacked up to play us and they competed hard," said Scott. "I thought they forced us to do things we typically don't do and they got the best of us."
Kodiaks coach Chris Martin said the Talons had chances to put the game away at the end of regulation and again in the second overtime.
"And then in the third [OT] I think it was more of an energy thing, we just had more energy. They were missing their big guy too."
Talons centre Grant Galbraith was injured in the win over Churchill and is expected to miss a couple weeks of action.
Martin said his team has only one Grade 12 starter and has experienced the ups and downs this season that come with a young team.
"We haven't played a top-ranked team for quite some time so it was a really good measuring stick for us," said Martin, who singled out the strong play of Jacob McMahon, Tommy Tweedlie-Sexton, Tamam Gasmalla and Henry Choi over the tournament.
The Kodiaks also got past Charles Hayes 79-58 before losing to Cowichan and Pitt Meadows.
Gleneagle wrapped up the tournament with a 90-57 win over the North Delta Huskies.
Scott expects to drop in the rankings following the weekend losses and he sees Langley's Walnut Grove and Surrey's Tamanawis the teams to beat this year.
"But you're right, people are still going to come after you hard because they realize if they don't they may not be able to compete at all. That's good for us because then we'll always have to be sharp," said Scott, adding there is a great deal of parity among the top B.C. high school teams.
"Anybody in that top 10 could probably win it all if everything is going well."
The Riverside Rapids outgunned the W.J. Mouat Hawks 64-59 to snare third place at the Centennial Centaurs Top-Ten Shootout senior girls tournament on the weekend.
Vanessa Gee paced the Rapid attack with 19 points while Shae Sanchez collected 18. The Rapids trailed by one at the half but a 20-point third quarter staked them to an eight-point lead for the final frame.
The Rapids dropped a 72-60 decision to MEI in the semifinal. The Rapids took a 37-25 lead into the half but gave up a 12-point run late in the third quarter. Gee and Sanchez both hit for 18 points with Zuzia Zdziechowski scoring 11.
Riverside built up a 24-7 first-quarter lead and cruised to a 62-41 win over South Kamloops. Gee struck for 19 points while Jessica Castillo picked up 15 and Zdziechowski netting 11.
The Rapids opened with a 70-37 win over Yale. Riverside built up a 37-17 lead at the half and opened the fourth quarter with a 12-point run to go up 70-29.
Zdziechowski and Tenika Thue each had 12 points with Gee scoring 11 and Dani Antignani supplying 11.
Gee was named a first-team all-star while Sanchez earned a spot on the second team. Gleneagle's Brittani Yee was an honourable mention.
The host Centaurs went 0-4 at the tourney, losing 44-30 to Terry Fox, 67-40 to Yale, 69-16 to Oak Bay and 44-25 to Fleetwood Park. Terry Fox dropped a 52-32 decision to Maple Ridge, fell 74-34 to Handsworth and opened with a 95-24 loss to Brookswood. Gleneagle finished 10th, knocking off Argyle 61-46, being shaded 37-32 by Fleetwood Park, getting past Yale 61-38 and falling to South Kamloops 53-46. Brookswood claimed the tourney crown with a 92-59 win over MEI.
The Rapids returned to league action Tuesday night with a 67-42 win over Gleneagle. Riverside built up a 29-18 lead at the half and headed into the fourth quarter up 47-32.
Antignani led the Rapids in scoring with 16 while Zdziechowski added 14 and Megan Dally notched a dozen.
