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Silver for Richmond boys at U14 B.C. championships

Wins over Fraser Valley, Haida, Vancouver secured final spot

Richmond came through with a silver medal finish at last week's Basketball B.C. U14 Boys Zone Team Championships at the Langley Events Centre.

Wins over Fraser Valley North Blue, Haida Gawli, Van West Red and Van East in round-robin play sent the boys onto the semi-finals against Burnaby/New West - a team they had lost twice earlier in exhibition play.

Richmond trailed entering the final quarter but continued to play with composure and chipped away at the deficit.

Down by three with 36 seconds remaining, the boys came up with a big defensive stop and Fardaws Aimaq (Steveston-London) was fouled on the ensuing rebound.

He split his free throw attempts and Richmond produced a five second violation.

With just eight seconds now remaining and no timeouts, Pavel Prasad (Hugh Boyd) rushed to the other end of the court and fired up a three-pointer.

He was fouled in the act of shooting and hit two of three attempts to send the game into overtime.

In the extra period, Aimaq had a key three-point play, while Kevin Dhillon (Cambie) produced some big time blocks to send Richmond to the gold medal game.

In the final, Richmond struggled to defend Vancouver Island South's five-out offence, and the boys looked drained from the hard fought battle in the semi-finals. They stayed within single digits before settling for a well deserved silver medal.

"The boys made us proud and have improved tremendously since day one," said assistant coach Landon Dy. "It's an awesome group of guys that are keen on learning the game of basketball."

Ryan Yeung (McMath), Aimaq and Prasad all earned invites to the provincial team selection camp.

The Richmond roster also featured: Justin Dy-Pe (MacNeill), Josh Ignacio (MacNeill), Ian Moon (McRoberts), Antonio Pablo (Palmer), Matt Chan (Richmond) and Jeremy Kuo (McRoberts). The head coach was Brian Meier while Norm Schulz rounded out the coaching staff.