The Britannia Bruins’ 1-2 punch consisted not of two top players, but of some early three-point shooting followed by some stifling defence.

It worked brilliantly, as the Bruins won their second provincial AA boys basketball title in three years with a 65-48 victory over the Richmond-R.C. Palmer Griffins at the Tournament Capital Centre on Saturday.

The game was a low-scoring affair for both teams, but Britannia started hot. The Bruins made five three-pointers in the first 6:30, and led 27-11 after a quarter.

Once they got that lead, the Bruins employed some top-notch defence.

“Our guys knew that they had a lot of work to do, and they clamped down on defence,” said Bruins co-coach Jesse Brown. “Our defence is what got us here and it’s the reason we won.”

Gerardo Gonzalez had two of Britannia’s early threes, with Wayne Hoang, who ended with 14 points, making the other three. Hoang had a feeling he might make some noise in the final.

“Today, I woke up and I started to visualize,” said Hoang, who has lost about 65 pounds in the last 18 months. “I visualized me shooting a whole bunch of threes — I guess it worked.”

The Bruins had one player remaining from their 2008 championship team — Semir Ibrahim was named tournament MVP after scoring 12 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in the final.

William Ramirez scored 13 points, and Osaro Obaseki led the Bruins with 17 points.

Obaseki was named a tournament all-star, and had a ridiculous eight blocks in the final.

“He came up huge,” Brown said. “This has been a great rivalry, Palmer and us.”

Ranjodh Hare had 19 points and 12 rebounds for Palmer, and Mike Zayas and Maziar Arjmandi each scored 11.

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The Sa-Hali Sabres finished fifth thanks to an 89-63 victory over the Oliver-Southern Okanagan Hornets on Saturday.

Tournament all-star Ian Smith had 31 points for the Sabres, and Chase Blair made five three-pointers and scored 19. Shane Toporowski ended with 12 points.

Greet Gill scored 18 points for the Hornets.

mhunter@kamloopsnews.ca