Morris, Cotter steal BC title

Photo: Curl BC

John Morris and Jim Cotter are off to another Brier.

The team that finished second at the Tim Hortons Brier in Kamloops in 2014, won the belairdirect BC Men's curling title in Abbotsford Sunday afternoon, beating Dean Joanisse from the Golden Ears Curling Club 6-3.

Morris and Cotter, representing the Kelowna and Vernon curling clubs, stole four points en route to the provincial title.

The sixth end was the turning point in the game.

Leading 3-2 without last rock, Cotter, throwing skip stones, made a crucial raise double with his last rock of the sixth. Facing two, Joanisse's final rock picked a piece of debris and came up short.

A routine double with his final stone of the seventh jammed, giving Morris a steal of one more and an insurmountable 6-2 lead.

Joanisse got one in the eighth, but Cotter executed a double kill with last rock to blank the ninth, then ran Joanisse out of rocks in 10.

Morris, Cotter, second Tyrel Griffith and lead Rick Sawatsky, lost 10-5 to Kevin Koe of Alberta in the 2014 Brier final.

For Morris, this is his 10th trip to the Brier. Cotter and Sawatsky are making their seventh trip together while Griffith is going to his fifth.

The Brier will take place March 4 to 12 in St. John's, NL.