British Columbia came close but couldn't quite solve the one-two punch of Prince Edward Island's Liam Hickey and Jeremy Watts in Canada Winter Games wheelchair basketball on Monday evening.
The duo accounted for 54 of P.E.I.'s points as it defeated B.C. 60-54 in a nail-biter at a packed and loud Duchess Park secondary school gymnasium.
B.C. jumped into the lead in the early going and was up by as many as five points before Hickey and Watts combined for seven unanswered field goals and P.E.I. held a 29-22 advantage at the half.
By late in the third quarter, the margin had grown to 39-26 as P.E.I. went on an additional steak of 10 straight points, six of them from Hickey, a member of the national wheelchair basketball team.
But then B.C. engineered a 19-6 run to tie the game 45-45 with 5:38 left to play.
Relying on a balanced attack, Tanner Scott drained six of those points, Ben Hamilton and Aiden Love each scored four and Prince George's Avril Harris sank a three-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer.
It made for an exciting finish that had fans on the edge of their seats cheering wildly as the sides traded baskets.
B.C. had a 53-50 lead with 2:14 left but then ran into foul trouble. P.E.I.'s Westley Johnston drained two from the line to pull his team within one and then, on two successive trips to the line, Watts was good on all four of his free throws to put P.E.I. up 56-53.
Hamilton got B.C. back within two when he was good on one of his two free throws but Watts soon answered with a field goal to put P.E.I. up 58-54 with 1:03 left.
Perhaps the biggest turning point came with 29.7 seconds left when Hickey intercepted an in-bounds B.C. pass under P.E.I.'s basket, preventing B.C. from scoring a field goal and coming within two.
From there, P.E.I. was able to run the clock down and Hickey salted it away with two more free throws with 5.5 seconds left for the final score.
P.E.I. held a slight edge in efficiency from the field, scoring on 26 of 67 chances for 38.8 per cent while B.C. was good on 23 of 71 shots for 32.4 per cent. The bigger advantage came in free throws as P.E.I. scored on 14 of 27 chances, for 51.9 per cent compared to B.C.'s one of eight for 12.5 per cent.
Watts accounted for 29 points, eight rebounds and three assists and was nine of 16 from the line. Hickey scored 25 points, snared 17 rebounds and had seven assists.
Hagkull was B.C.'s top scorer with 12 points, followed by Hamilton with 11 and Love with 10. Harris contributed seven points, seven assists and 16 rebounds in a full 40 minutes of play. Hamilton pulled down 15 rebounds.
Earlier in the day, fourth-ranked B.C. doubled up Manitoba in the first game of the tournament.
The final score saw eighth-ranked Manitoba defeated 61-29 in a game that saw the smooth-passing home team stretch to a 10-point lead early in the first quarter - and never look back.
At half B.C. was ahead 26-12, and in the third quarter scored another 17 points to Manitoba's six to pull ahead.
B.C. had a strong passing game and wasn't afraid to lob the long balls for breakaway baskets.
Both teams - and the fans in the stands - kept it a high-energy game, despite the score. Although B.C. has a young team, all of Manitoba's athletes were playing in their first Canada Winter Games.
It was also local athlete Joel Ewert's first time representing his province in the competition. He grabbed two rebounds and had two assists in 18 minutes. Avril Harris, the other Prince George member, had six points, eight rebounds and four assists in just over 12 minutes of play.
"We knew that going into it, we needed to fix a couple kinks," said Harris of B.C.'s first game. "We did what we needed to do, all the fundamentals, and worked on our game as a team and came out quite strong and fluid."
