The Walnut Grove Gators are going for gold.
The Gators withstood the Holy Cross Crusaders’ best shot in the first quarter, exiting with the score tied at 21.
Holy Cross led for the majority of the quarter, with their largest advantage six points.
But it was all Gators the rest of the way as they outscored Holy Cross 69-37 the rest of the way for a 90-58 victory in Friday night’s semifinal at the BC 4A senior boys basketball championships at the Langley Events Centre.
“Defensively we stepped it up a notch,” said Walnut Grove coach George Bergen.
The Gators switched things up on the defensive end, mixing in some zone and making it harder for the athletic Crusaders to get into the paint.
And offensively, the guard tandem of James Woods and Ty Rowell orchestrated the attack with 50 of the team’s points.
Woods finished with a game-high 30 points to go along with eight rebounds and five assists while Rowell — the player of the game — had 20 points, 15 rebounds and three assists.
The Gators also got 18 points from Brett Christensen and another dozen points and 11 rebounds from Andrew Goertzen.
Azino Tyrell Urefe came off the bench to hit a pair of big three pointers in the second quarter to help the Gators pull away while Luke Adams had three points, five rebounds and five assists.
The Crusaders were led by 13 points from Marcus Browne while Uyi Ologhola and Gabriel Takeawoa each had 11 and Ian Park had 10 points.
Walnut Grove, the top seed entering the championships, will play No. 2 Kelowna in Saturday night’s championship game.
Tip-off is scheduled for 8:15 p.m.
Holy Cross will play Oak Bay for the bronze on Saturday at 4:45 p.m.