The clock struck midnight for the Cinderella Richmond Colts but not before making some serious noise in their first provincial tournament in 17 years.
A day after delivering a thrilling upset of the No. 3 Argyle Pipers, the 14th seeded Colts dropped an 84-64 decision to the No. 6 Pitt Meadows Marauders on Thursday at the Langley Events Centre.
As much as Richmond High’s athleticism allows them to compete with so many teams, there are few answers for big size mismatches in the post. That’s what the Colts were up against in their quarter-final game.
Six-foot-8 and 320-pound senior Giovanni Manu had his way in the paint all night — scoring 33 points to lead the Marauders to victory. If Manu’s physical presence wasn’t enough to deal with, then there was 6-foot-7 Colton Leon who chipped in with 21.
It’s a far cry to what the Colts saw on a regular basis in Richmond League play.
“No. 34 is on a different planet. He is animal out there,” said Colts coach Brandon Harbour of Manu. “It’s a tough match-up for us because we need to go in transition and he was making all those easy (lay-up) baskets where they have time to set-up. We just couldn’t get going.
“We tried our best and worked our butts off but we just can’t stop a guy like that.”
Just like they did the previous day, Richmond did got off to an excellent start and took a lead into the second quarter. The momentum would eventually swing dramatically and carried over into the second half when Pitt Meadows reeled off 10 more unanswered points.
Daniel Afanasiyevskyy paced Richmond with 21 points. Murad Mohammed chipped in with 17 despite eventually fouling out.
The win over Argyle saw the Colts rally from a 10-point deficit after three quarters, closing the game on an 11-6 run to stun the Howe Sound champions and produce the school’s biggest win in years.
Mohammed poured in a game-high 27, including the winning free throw with four seconds left . Afanasiyevskyy added 26 and Evan Brusse 12.
“it was probably the best game I have ever coached,” added Harbour. “It was the most fun to be part of for sure. “We just never quit.
“When Murad was at the free throw line I was just thinking ‘please knock this down.' He made the first one and missed the second which made me nervous because they still had four seconds but Daniel got the (offensive board) to seal the deal.”
