It was an exciting evening of basketball at Porter Creek Secondary School as the F.H. Collins Warriors squared-off with the Vanier Crusaders in Superhoops semifinal action on Tuesday.

The Crusaders got hot from behind the three-point arc and used an air-tight zone defence to stifle the Warriors’ attack and earn a berth in the Superhoops final winning 71-54.

Awaiting the Crusaders is the Porter Creek Rams, who secured a bye into the championship game last Thursday by beating Vanier.

The first quarter saw shaky play from both teams as they tried to put their stamp on the game.

F.H. found their offence first. The Warriors M.O. was clear - attack the basket. And they did, getting to the Vanier hoop with some ease. When they missed, their bigs were there to secure the rebounds for second chance point opportunities.

The Warriors defence closed out on shooters, and Vanier, usually a crisp passing team, had trouble working the ball around and laboured on offence.

Vanier did find some success late in the first and only trailed 16-13 heading into the second.

The defences for both teams continued to dictate the play early in the second stanza. Vanier began to find their offensive footing midway through, tying it at 18 all - then building a slight four-point cushion 28-24.

With less than a minute-and-a-half left on the clock, Vanier player of the game Josh Rumbaoa buried two step-back threes to give the Crusaders a ten-point lead heading into halftime.

Vanier coach Sean McCarron said the Crusaders began to turn things around in the second and third quarters as the week’s message sunk in.

“The big theme this week was shooting for perfection,” said McCarron. “By perfection I’m not talking about shooting or layups. I’m talking about the things you can control.

Everything from boxing out, two-foot stops, faking a pass, the things that make a difference in a basketball game.

“Today, I thought we did a better job through the middle two quarters of taking care of the ball, getting after loose balls and rebounding better.

“In the first quarter, guys who typically make shots just weren’t making them.”

To start the third, Vanier was able to work the ball around and get good looks from behind the arc, which they buried at a high clip.

“When we move the ball it’s a pretty good percentage to get a good shot,” said McCarron.

“And we actually made a bunch of those shots. Guys just have to trust that the ball is going to get back to them.”

F.H. continued to attack the basket but had less success as the Crusaders switched from man-to-man coverage to a 2-3 zone, effectively packing the paint and the driving lanes.

“Pack it in a little bit and see if any of those guys can knock down a shot,” said McCarron.

“If we aren’t a little tighter on the D, if we get beat, we tend to reach. We wanted to protect the key and see if they can hit some shots.

“If they do we’d call it off and change the D again.”

The Crusaders’ defensive effort and knock-down shooting helped them double their lead as they took a 52-31 advantage into the final frame.

In the fourth, the trend continued. With their shot at the Superhoops final dwindling, F.H. rushed their offence which led to mistakes. Vanier took the game 71-54.

McCarron said the team was not looking ahead to the final.

“Haven’t even thought about it,” said McCarron. “This game we needed to get through and there was no guarantee that we’d win tonight.”

The last time the Rams and Crusaders played was last Thursday when both teams were short players due to Arctic Winter Games and school commitments. The Rams won.

In their first Superhoops meeting, the Rams won on a buzzer-beater.

“We haven’t forgotten that,” said McCarron. “We respect them a ton. They are the number one team for a reason. They are balanced , they are big and aggressive, and they work hard.

“We’ll have to play really well to beat them tomorrow. We won’t be able to have any down quarters.”

McCarron said he is going to keeps tomorrow’s strategy close to the chest, but did say he passed the reigns over to the team.

“I asked the boys what we are going to do tomorrow,” said McCarron. “I had a number of them step up and tell me what they think will work. We are going to start on offence and defence with a plan dictated by the Grade 12s.

“If it doesn’t work we will make adjustments.”

The championship games will be played tonight at Porter Creek. The girls’ final begins at 5 p.m. followed by the boys at 6:30 p.m.