Superhoops resumed after a long break because of the holidays, as well as high school exams. After the rust was shaken off, the Porter Creek Rams and the Vanier Crusaders battled down to the wire Thursday night at Porter Creek.

The Crusaders led for most of the game, but Porter Creek came roaring back in the second half to down Vanier at the buzzer 76-74.

Porter Creek took their first lead of the game just before the midway point of the fourth and final frame. Using hot shooting from behind the arc, the Rams pushed past the Crusaders to lead 68-62.

The teams traded baskets in the waning moments of the game, and with 11 seconds left, and Porter Creek up 74-72, Vanier guard and player of the game, Josh Rumbaoa, pulled up for three.

He missed the shot but was fouled on the play. Rumbaoa hit two of three foul shots to tie the game with five seconds remaining.

Queue the heroics.

Porter Creek called a timeout and got a side out-of-bounds on Vanier’s half of the court. The ball landed in the hands of Rams player of the game Kiiwaadin Swan, who drove the basket and made an acrobatic reverse layup to put the Rams up for good.

Rams coach Paul MacDonald said coming out of the timeout, the plan was to get the ball in Swan’s hands, even if an into-contact reverse-layup wasn’t what he imagined.

“It was two screens get him the ball and attack,” said MacDonald. “I was anticipating maybe a little less of a circus shot. I wanted the ball in his hands. He can make those circus shots.

“I didn’t say circus shot. But I did say ‘you screen here, you screen here, inbound, and inbounder is going to get the ball back and attack.’ I anticipated a foul and maybe a foul shot.”

It took the Rams until the second half to find their game. In the first two frames, Vanier was dictating the play. The ball was humming on offence as they drove and kicked to open shooters.

On defence, they picked up the Rams ball handlers early and forced them into turnovers.

MacDonald said over the break, he tried to get the team games, but the rust showed early.

“I thought their defence was extended pretty good in the beginning,” said MacDonald. “They had the three games in Skagway that we didn’t get. I tried to get them some men’s league games but the men don’t come with the intensity that the kids do.

“It looked like we hadn’t played in a while.”

Two minutes into the second, MacDonald had seen enough and had a strong message to the team during a timeout.

“’I said we are either throwing in the towel or you five guys are going to start (playing),’” said MacDonald. “They started picking away at it. We were down 25 and we got it down to 25.”

During halftime, MacDonald said he told the team whoever is playing the hardest is going to get the minutes and the team responded.

The Rams came out of the break with new-found energy. They crashed the boards hard and generated second chance point opportunities. This helped them chip away at the lead.

MacDonald said he usually tells the team, when down big, to cut the lead in segments, but instead he told them to take it one possession at a time.

“I often to say ‘get it to 10 by the quarter, get it to five with five minutes left,’” said MacDonald. “I didn’t say that tonight. I said ‘basket for basket’ and really emphasized the defence.”

The Rams continued their strong quarter and their hard work on offence began to pay off. They found open shooters for open looks, who confidently stepped into the shot and buried them at a high clip.

Their defence suffocated the Crusader attack, the Vanier passing was stifled.

Porter Creek finished the third quarter only down by six, 57-51. Their strong play continued, but Vanier was there to answer. It was back-and-forth down the stretch, setting the stage for Swan.

Superhoops is on again tonight at Porter Creek, this time the F.H. Collins Warriors will be the visitors.