PGSS boys fall in overtime thriller

When the Prince George Polars lost their big man – six-foot-seven City League all-star point guard Skylar Chisan – halfway through their second game at the North Central quad-A boys basketball championship against the North Peace Grizzlies last Saturday in Fort St. John, their title hopes took a hit.

A 76-61 North Peace win in Game 2 Saturday morning forced the rubber match later that afternoon to determine who will represent North Central in the 16-team quad-A championship tournament, March 9-12 in Langley.

Down to just eight healthy bodies with Chisan unable to play, the Polars fell behind 21-14 after 10 minutes but reversed the trend in the second quarter to take a 34-31 into the locker room. In the fourth quarter, North Peace had a fivepoint lead with 12.4 seconds left and the Polars came back to tie it 61-61 with three seconds left.

In the five-minute overtime, the Grizzlies built a nine-point lead with 2:14 left when the Polars started chipping away. Chet Moore forced two steals and sunk two rebounds to get the Polars within three points with 8.1 seconds on the clock. PGSS got to the top of the key with the ball in the dying seconds but North Peace stole it before the Polars could get the shot away and they lost 75-72.

“One shot; we actually didn’t get that shot off, which is all you really want,” said Polars head coach Tyler Burbee. “But being down nine in overtime and being able to make that up in four minutes and have a chance is all you can ask for, especially when two boys can’t run because they’ve got cramps because it was the second game in five hours.”

Cole Harder and Cy Bellamy went backto-back, each with their second 20-point games. Jack Brown led the Polars with 20 and Deakon Anderson shot 16.

The Polars drove up Friday morning and that night they played the Grizzlies for the first time all season, with a near-capacity crowd watching at North Peace Secondary School.

“We ran out of steam,” said Burbee. “Our challenge this year was we only had eight players and four of them are Grade 11 and three of them had never played high school basketball before.

“The boys gave it everything they had. There was one point where Deakon fell down jumping for a loose ball and he couldn’t get himself up. You just run out of gas.”