Two Burnaby schools will be under the gun when Lower Mainland high school AAA boys' basketball resumes on Tuesday.
First-round winner Burnaby South Rebels and the third-seeded Byrne Creek Bulldogs both lost on the second day of the provincial high school qualifier on Friday.
Burnaby South, 85-69 winners over No. 9-seeded Winston Churchill, played a lacklustre first half before putting together a second-half rally in a 67-57 loss to top-seeded host Vancouver College.
Byrne Creek also looked out of sorts against Vancouver runner-up Charles Tupper, dropping a 74-64 decision to the eastside school also at College.
In the first game, South ended the first quarter 10 points down to the Fighting Irish and trailed 43-24 at halftime.
But the Rebels came alive in the third quarter, outscoring College 22-9 to pull within a half-dozen points of the lead.
"We started out slow. We couldn't get our offence together," said senior forward George Kovac, who had seven points, 11 rebounds and one blocked shot. "(At halftime) we had a team huddle in the locker room and said, 'we to fight for our team lives and play like it."
Gino Pagbilao and Quentin Nguyen led the comeback second-half charge.
Pagbilao scored eight points of his 14 total points in the third quarter, shaving the deficit to 52-45 with drive to the hoop.
Nguyen tallied 11 of his team-high 19 point in the latter half, nailing a jumper to pull South to within five points of College with five minutes left in the game.
Nick Irvine also hit in double figures, scoring 14 points and adding 12 boards for South.
Burnaby South will take on Point Grey at 4:30 p.m. at St. George's on Tuesday.
In the following game, 6-10 Tupper post Cameron Smythe scored 25 points and senior guard Daniel Kim added 21 to pace the Vancouver runners-up to the win over the Burnaby champs.
Bulldogs' leader Kennedy George was in foul trouble all game long, but managed 14 points.
Jada Lado led Byrne Creek with 18 points and seven rebounds.
"I believe they (Tupper) kind of figured us out and they were getting the ball to Cam a lot and that was hard for us," said Lado. "They picked us apart."
In an attempt to kickstart the Bulldogs' sputtering offence, Byrne Creek scored 24 points off its bench, including a pair of three-pointers apiece from Glen Morgan and Thomas Abraham.
Byrne Creek is scheduled to play Killarney in the late game at Vancouver College on Tuesday.
New Westminster, 81-57 losers to No. 2 Kitsilano, will play Churchill in the early game at College, beginning at 3:30 p.m.
