As a pre-tournament championship contender heading into the tournament, White Rock Christian Academy's first game of the BC Boys AAA Basketball Championships Wednesday was likely a little too close for comfort.
But a win is a win, as they say, and the WRCA Warriors advanced to the Elite 8 after a 69-66 overtime win over the Enver Creek Cougars at the Langley Events Centre.
After staking themselves a 13-point lead in the first half thanks in large part to nine points from Grade 12 co-captain Vartan Tanelian, White Rock let the Cougars – who won a play-in game Tuesday to advance into the main draw – back into the game in the second half. Enver Creek tied the game on two occasions and had cut the lead to six heading into the fourth quarter.
In the final frame, the Cougars held WRCA to just 10 points while clawing back themselves to tie the game, sending it into overtime.
In the extra period, White Rock managed six points, holding their Surrey rivals to just three, to pull out the win.
Tanelian finished as WRCA's high scorer, with 20 points, and Peter Spangehl and Matt Perrin had 19 and 14, respectively.
Enver Creek was led by guard Gurkirat Kular, who scored a game-high 23.
With the field now whittled to eight teams, White Rock now gets set to play the W.J. Mouat Hawks today (Thursday) at 4:45 p.m.