There have been some barnburner finals over the years to decide boys high school basketball bragging rights for the rest of the year in the Prince George City League.
It's safe to say Tuesday's thrilling battle between the Duchess Park Condors and the Prince George Polars will go down as one of the all-time classics. Down by as much as 15 points in the third quarter, the Condors rallied to force overtime on a last-second shot but didn't have an answer for Tyrell Laing.
The Polars' dynamic Grade 11 point guard put the finishing touches on an 83-81 victory, scoring 11 points in the five-minute overtime to give the Polars their biggest win of the season.
Duchess tied at the buzzer at the end of the fourth quarter on a three-point shot from Jasper Yutuc. Yutuc shot a game-high 32 points but was overshadowed by his PGSS counterpart in the OT session, outscored 11-4 by Laing.
Laing led all Polars with 30 points. When he got into foul trouble in the second quarter, his replacement, Grade 12 senior Inderpal Bassi, came up with his best game of the season nailing six shots from three-point range to total 25 points.
On the verge of fouling out, Laing had a tough time holding Yutuc in check but the Polars' decision to go to zone defence helped him stay in the game. The Condors went up by five in the first minute of OT, however the Polars found ways to stop them and gave Laing good looks at the net.
Scott Walton, who took over as head coach of PGSS this season after 15 years coaching high school boys teams in the Lower Mainland, says he realized the magnitude of the City League final and the prestige the outcome brings to the winning team soon after he walked into the packed and noisy gym at Duchess Park.
"It was unbelievable," said Walton. "I got here November 1st and had no idea what the city championship meant to them and it's pretty emotional. I was floored by not only by the support by the home crowd at Duchess and how knowledgeable they are and how into the game they were. It was like that right from the opening tip.
"It was exciting and the ending made it even sweeter for how far my kids have come. In 15 years that's probably the most proud of been of a group, they just adjusted phenomenally."
PGSS led 19-14 after one quarter, 36-35 at the half, and 64-48 through three quarters. The Polars led by as much as 15 in the third quarter.
The Polars big guy -- six-foot-three forward Trevor Foster, also came through with 13 points but was dominant on the boards -- his best rebounding effort of the season, according to Walton. T.J. Gill netted 14 points for PGSS.
All-star Owen Trepanier hit five threes and finished with 18 points for Duchess Park. Bailey Muxlow contributed 14 points to the Condors' cause.
The Condors won the previous three games against PGSS, including one other overtime winner in which the Polars overcame a 26-point deficit to force the extra session.
"They've kind of handed it to us over the year," said Walton. "If you play somebody enough times at some point they get you and I think that was the case. If you look at the two teams, they're a mirror image of each other with very similar personnel and very similar styles. I think the two point guards, (Tyrell and Yutuc) are pretty even in terms of what they bring to the table in skill level and they battled it out."
Meanwhile, in the girls final earlier Tuesday night, the Duchess Park Condors continued to exert their dominance as the top-ranked double-A team in the province, trouncing the College Heights Cougars 83-28 to repeat as City League champions.
Five Condors finished in double figures pointwise, including Kayla Auld (16 points), Shanna Olsen (15), Madison Landry (12), Marcie Schlick (11) and Lydia Myatovic (10). Morgan Redding hit for nine points to lead all Cougars.
