With the LKSSAA boys basketball regular season over, the Ursuline College Chatham Lancers find themselves as the top team in Chatham-Kent.
But in the AAA division, they'll likely need to get past Sarnia teams St. Pat's and Northern to be crowned LKSSAA champs. Head Coach Jim Dunlop can't pinpoint exactly where their success stems from, but knows it comes from effort.
"I know my guys play really really hard. At the end of the day, if you can work hard at life, you're probably going to be successful," says Dunlop.
The Pines capped off the regular season on a five-game win streak, most recently against St. Pat's who they'll now play at home in the first round of the playoffs. As for Northern, it was the Lancers that handed the Vikings their only regular season loss this year.
"It's a funny thing, last year we had the same scenario: we lost by 55 the first time we played Northern , then we beat them in overtime. This year we lost to them by 30, and then beat them by one," explains Dunlop. "We tend to get better as the year goes on."
UCC will play St. Pat's at home in the semifinals. If they win that game, they'll be in the championship against the winner of Northern vs. CKSS.
In the AA division, McGregor has its semifinal game at home against Wallaceburg. All games are being played Wednesday at 6:30pm.