Ashlyn Day

For leading the charge of the Immaculata Mustangs’ senior girls basketball team this season, Ashlyn Day has been named KelownaNow’s Athlete of the Month for January.

Day’s hardwood talents were most on display recently at the 2017 B.C. Catholic basketball championship tournament earlier this month at Holy Cross Regional Secondary School in Surrey.

While guiding her team to a flawless 3-0 record and third consecutive tournament win, Day twice scored 37 points (a tournament high), and walked away from the event as the leader in field goals made (17), 3-point attempts (11), free throw attempts (13), free throws made (12), free throw percentage (92.3%) and steals (seven). She was also named a first Team All-Star and was voted most outstanding player of the tournament. It’s a trend that her coach, Andrew Gini, has seen from Day not only this season, but ever since she was called up to the senior time in ninth grade. But her scoring prowess has become particularly accented this year.

“This year, she’s been a beast,” said Gini. “She’s played on the senior team since Grade 9, and has always been a really good shooter and scorer, but this year she’s scoring ridiculous numbers.”

“In our first tournament she scored 51 points the first game, and then 45 another game. She hasn’t scored under 35 much this year. I’ve never seen a girl or guy basketball player average 40 points a game, which she is right now. It’s crazy. She’s playing at a level that I don’t think any other player in B.C. is playing at. She’s hitting shots from everywhere on the court. She can score in every way you can think of.”

“I’ve never coached anyone who can score like her,” continued Gini. “I don’t think I’ve ever even seen someone who can score like her, guys or girls. Defenders double team her, and she still scores. That’s probably the most impressive part.”

Now in her Grade 12 year and committed to the University of Victoria for next season, Day seems to have raised her game for her final year at Immaculata – something that her coach and team has needed her to do in the absence of a number of her teammates.

“She’s always been one of our best offensive and defensive players the past four years, but she’s stepped it up a lot this year,” Gini said. “We’ve lost some key players to graduation and some to injury, so we needed her to step up this year and she has. It shows how good she can be, and how good she’s going to be next year at university. She’s stepped up her compete level a lot this year — she’s always been competitive, but now you can see she wants to win, and she knows she has to step up for us to do that. She’s been competing hard all year, every single game.”

With the losses of Teaghan Wallace, Hannah Flynn, and others, the Mustangs have regularly only been playing with eight players on their roster – a cardiovascular challenge, considering most teams boast 12 on the scoresheet.

As a veteran player, Day knows the value of mentoring her younger teammates and spurring them on to play their best so the group can succeed – it’s something she experienced when she was in their position years ago, and has helped her blossom into the player she is today. Furthermore, a teams needs to be able to depend on its entire bench if it’s to be successful, not just one individual.

“Every year I’ve tried to be a role model for my teammates,” said Day. “Helping everyone out with what to do, trying to get everyone else scoring. I looked up to the seniors quite a lot in Grade 9 and 10, and in Grade 11 and 12 a bigger role was expected of me. With only two seniors this year, the two of us have to keep everyone else in line, make sure everything goes well, and step up when it’s not looking good for our team.” “It’s not too hard because everyone’s really fun and easy going. The younger girls just don’t have the experience competing at such a high level yet. Our role as seniors is to help everyone else figure out where they fit in.”

Day will need to keep her teammates and herself dialed in over the next few weeks – the Mustangs are currently ranked fourth in the provincial AA division (behind Langley Christian, Seycove, and Vernon Secondary), and will be dueling with the likes of OKM, Vernon Secondary, and South Kamloops at the Valley Championships February 17th-18th.

The showdown will be played in Kelowna, hosted by the winner of Immaculata’s season series with OKM, which will be determined on February 1st in their final meeting of the year.

No matter the gym in which the tournament takes place, Day and the Mustangs will need to be at their best if they are to earn one of the three or four available berths for Okanagan area teams to the provincial championship tournament on March 1st-4th at the Langley Events Centre.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to compete really well,” said Day.

“Valleys are going to be a battle,” coach Gini said. “Every game’s going to be close. We won it the last four years, but this year I think anyone can win. No one’s guaranteed anything.”