St. Thomas More Knights may have lost a battle, but not the war.
The Burnaby independent school lived to fight another day despite dropping the Lower Mainland AA high school boys' basketball final 67-55 to the host King George Dragons on Thursday.
That loss, coupled with R.C. Palmer's 92-67 victory over St. Patrick's, gave STM the second zone berth into the upcoming AA provincial championships to be held in Kamloops March 7 to 10.
Earlier in the week, STM defeated Palmer 6441 on Wednesday, making Friday's if necessary matchup unneccessary.
Giovanni Trasolini and Denzel Laguerta were both named all-stars for the Knights. Trasolini and Ben Hieltjes led STM in scoring in the championship final.
But it was the lack of scoring that proved the difference in the final outcome.
The Knights went 0for20 from the three-point line and made just nine of 21 attempts from the charity stripe to give King George the advantage in the AA final.
"King George wanted it more and outplayed us," said STM head coach Aaron Mitchell. "We were only down five (points) with three minutes remaining, but you can't go 40 minutes and not hit a three against a team that plays two-three zone the whole time, and expect to win."
STM will face Fraser Valley No. 3 Abbotsford Christian in its opening game on March 7 at the provincials.
