The Superhoops final pitted the Porter Creek Rams against the Vanier Crusaders on Wednesday night at Porter Creek Secondary School.

The teams were all too familiar with each other. Early in the year, the schools played in a barnburner of a game which Porter Creek won on a buzzer-beating layup by Kiiwaadin Swan.

Last week, they squared-off again with a shot at the finals on the line. Neither team was at full capacity, due to Arctic Winter Games and school commitments, and it was once again the Rams pulling out the victory.

On Tuesday, the Crusaders cruised past the F.H. Collins Warriors in the semifinals to secure their spot in the final and a chance to finally overcome the Rams.

The third time was not the charm the Crusaders were hoping for as Porter Creek played a full 40 minutes, cruising to an 85-51 victory.

When the clock hit zero, the Rams swarmed the bench in celebration; it was a win years in the making, said Grade 12 starter, Kenny Hyatt.

"It's a great feeling man to finally get one," said Hyatt. "We came so close last year, so it's finally nice to get one.

"It's nice for us. We've been playing since Grade 8 together as a team. Same coach and everything. It's finally nice to get one."

In the semifinal game, Vanier used strong three-point shooting to get past the Warriors. Hyatt said he and his teammates were at that game and knew the message would be to close out on shooters.

"(The message was) locking up their key players and we knew their personnel and who were the shooters," said Hyatt. "We locked up pretty well on them. A big thing was collapse on the shooters."

It was the Rams' defence that dictated the tone of the game. Hyatt said in the final, everything came together on both sides of the ball.

"We came together as a team together pretty good in the end, but we've been practising all season," said Hyatt.

"We locked up on defence a lot better than we did at the beginning of the season and our offence was clicking a lot more."

It was sustained energy through all four quarters for Porter Creek. Hyatt said their coach Paul MacDonald told the team to continue to fight as if they were down on the scoreboard.

"Beginning of every quarter, Mac just said pretend like we are down 20," said Hyatt. "We played from that and kept our energy up."

In the early goings of the first quarter, both teams struggled to find their offence. It was Porter Creek who found their footing first.

The Rams began hitting from behind the arc. Vanier adjusted and closed out on shooters, but Porter Creek attacked the closeout and drove to the basket.

Vanier worked the ball around, trying to work the inside-outside game; they were able to find their shooters, but the Rams closed-out hard. The Crusaders always had a hand in their face when they let it fly.

Porter Creek took a 21-7 lead into the second.

After shaking off their slow opening five-minutes to start the game, Porter Creek was relentless. On offence, they scored from three, in halfcourt sets and on the break.

The Ram defence was stifling. Nothing came easy for Vanier, who only managed three points in the second quarter.

As the third quarter progressed into the fourth, it was evident it was Porter Creek's day. Regardless of who was on the court for them, they played as a team, outworking their opponent.

They played that way until the final buzzer, earning a well-deserved win.

This isn't the last time the Rams and Warriors will square off this year. The Yukon Championships will be held in two weeks.

Hyatt said winning Superhoops was a big confidence boost for the team. He also noted that he expects Vanier to come back stronger the next time they play.

Player of the games honours was given to Porter Creek's Tanner Ulrich and Vanier's Jimbert Trinidad.