Losing Sunday’s Fraser Valley championship game to Holy Cross, 83-63, may not have been the springboard to the BC High School AAAA basketball provincials the Terry Fox Ravens wanted, but their coach says it hasn’t bounced the team from its goal.
Brad Petersen said his top-ranked Ravens just couldn’t execute against a highly-motivated Crusaders team that managed to put Terry Fox out of sorts for the entire game.
“They made us uncomfortable in certain areas on the court, and we were not able to counter with anything that worked,” Petersen said of his Ravens, who trailed 22-20 after the first quarter and by eight points at halftime, before succumbing by their widest margin all season.
Petersen discounted a suggestion that his team might be mentally fatigued after a rigorous schedule that pitted them against top provincial opponents through the course of several tournaments, in addition to their regular league games in the Fraser Valley North.
Petersen said he’s confident that’s still the best route to a provincial championship, the quest of which begins March 6 at the Langley Events Centre.
“From what I’ve learned about playing in the provincials in the past, every game is tough and competitive,” Petersen said. “No one is going to that tournament prepared to lose.”
Least of all his charges, he added.
And having carried the top ranking in the province the last three weeks, Petersen remains certain the Ravens will be able to make good on that on the LEC hardwood.
“I am 100% confident… we will be totally prepared mentally and physically to perform the best we can,” he said.
• The seedings and schedule for this year’s AAAA senior boys’ provincial basketball championship will be determined Sunday. Centennial secondary qualified by finishing sixth in the Fraser Valley’s. They dropped their game for fifth place, 75-72, to Walnut Grove. And the Heritage Woods Kodiaks eked in with the seventh position open to Fraser Valley teams when they came back to beat the Guildford Park Sabres 85-72.
