The boys Grand Final would be a show down of pool two rivals. The Harbour A boys team had entered the tournament as the sixth seed and had lost only the one match against Hibiscus Coast on day two.

In that game Jared Thornton scored 33 points for Harbour dominating inside the paint and getting a load of fastbreak points from Logan McIntosh passes.

Unfortunately he was taken out of the final from poor foul calls including one only 12 seconds into the game where Thornton grabbed an offensive rebound with a Hibiscus player on his back, only to be called for a dubious foul.

After the few early fouls and some nerves Harbours Miggy Falqueza made a three pointer and the score stood at 8-3 to Hibiscus.

 The early period saw Harbour try to impose its style of play on the game. Many possessions saw Harbour slow the ball down to run a halfcourt set while on defense they sprinted back in order to force Hibiscus to do the same.

The game plan worked and Harbour led at the end of one 21-17 after a strong period by Terence Abdon, Dominic Chen, and McIntosh.

Abdon started the second quarter strong with a sweet layup and then was fouled shooting a three. He was only able to knock down one of them though as Harbour shot very poorly for the game at the charity stripe.

Half way through the quarter Hibiscus had a 6-0 run as Harbour chose to give the starters some rest. Thornton and McIntosh checked back in for the A team and had a quick 8 points between them to bring Harbour back even.

McIntosh then scooped the ball up as it nearly went out of bounds and nailed the corner three just before halftime which gave Harbour the 40-38 edge.

 The second half started great for Harbour when Falqueza hit a three off of a McIntosh offensive rebound. Chen then assisted on McIntosh’s next hoop then scored two points of his own the following possession.

Chen played very well for the first few minutes of the half but was curiously subbed early into the period. Yang made it to the line knocking down a pair as Harbour continued to control the pace of the game subduing the aggressive Hibiscus Coast for the time being.

Harbours Cruz had back to back assists and was a menace marking the point guards of Hibiscus. Oliver Hayward scored two from one of Cruz’s assists but then committed several turnovers that kept the game close.

The third period ended the way it started for the combo of Falqueza and McIntosh who drained another three for the A team. With 3.1 seconds left Coach Chris Simpson called timeout drawing up and alleyoop play for Thornton who was able to connect on the pass.

Entering the final quarter Harbour remained in front 60-57.

Harbour pushed ahead at the beginning of the fourth extending the lead out with easy fast break hoops. Abdon was able to take some of the scoring load and calmed the nerves from Harbour.

Hibiscus called a timeout to implement their fullcourt pressure defense.

Harbour had difficulty in their first match up with this defense but was able to break the press easily and brought the game back to its established pace.

With 3.45 left in the game Harbour called timeout leaving them only one remaining for the stretch. The timeout seemed to have worked with the lead up to 9 points with only 2.14 left.

After a small Hibiscus run Coach Simpson used the last remaining timeout with 1.40 to play and his team still up 80-71 to ease the nervous as the boys were looking shaky.

Unfortunately for Harbour this timeout didn’t work out as Hibiscus made several tough hoops. Harbours Chen picked up an unsportsmanlike foul that had everyone in the building questioning apart from the Hibiscus Coach who aggressively lobbied for the call.

Abdon hit a clutch layup for Harbour but this was the only points the team could manage in the final minutes.

Hibiscus made another tough layup then got to the line making one out of two putting them 83-82 ahead.

Harbour had the ball with 20 seconds to go and managed to get Thornton to the line shooting two with under 5 seconds remaining.

The noise escalated in the arena and Thornton was unable to hit the clutch freethrows. McIntosh had one last chance to win the game with a rebound off the missed freethrow but was not able to get a clean look over two defenders and that was the ball game.

Harbour going down 83-82 after a 14-2 run closed the game and the won the title for Hibiscus.