Okanagan College Basketball teams were back in action after a holiday break, kicking off the second half of the season by hosting the always tough Langara Falcons, Friday and Saturday.
The first game started off strong and led the game for the first 3 quarters. However, some mental mistakes in the fourth let the game slip away.
In the second game, the team got down early 16-6 in the first, but then battled back and won each of the next 3 quarters on our way to a 69-61 win.
The energy and compete level was high for both games and Jordan Kemper had two big games on both ends of the floor. Jordan Andres hit two big three pointers late in the second game to put the game away and dominated the glass leading our team in rebounding both games. Maddy Postnikoff also had two of her best games of the year.
Jordan led our team in scoring with 30 points between the two games, Jordan Andres had 28 points while Sapna added 27 points in the two games.
The Coyotes now have the opportunity to play the number one team in the country in VIU this weekend.
Friday evening the OC Coyotes men’s team found themselves struggling early and battled hard in a tight 1st quarter falling behind 19-17 after the 1st, the 2nd was a tough quarter, with Langara big guys taking advantage of OC in the paint combined with some excellent shooting from the perimeter and OC found themselves losing the 2nd quarter 25-12 and going into half time down 44-29.
While the Coyote’s won the next 2 quarters, the team could not gain enough ground and fell to Langara 88-77. The top scorers for OC were Eric Marbury 23 pts, Mat Lafontaine 14pts, Hunter Hughes 14pts.
“We did not take care of the ball, we got out muscled down low, and we did not defend the three well at all, just a bad combination if your looking to get a W," said coach Dino Gini.
"Disappointed for sure, we need to bounce back and be much better in the tomorrows game.”
In Saturdays men’s game, OC came out with much more energy and the game had more flow to it, which was much more entertaining to watch, but on the court OC fell behind early. However, but opposite of Friday's game, OC dominated the 2nd quarter, winning the 2nd quarter 25-12 and that momentum carried through, combined with some great outside shooting and much improved ball movement OC came on top in a must win game, winning 88-85.
A strong game for Matt Lafontaine who finished with 32 pts, and was a factor the entire game on both ends of the court, Seth Blundell had a much better performance contributing with 17 pts, rookie big man Delwin Hothi had huge minutes finishing with 10pts and Jesse Vissia who played his first game of the season finished with 9pts.
"We were much better much better, we had great contribution from the bench, Delwin was huge, Jesse and Tye gave us veteran minutes which we need, Seth raised his game and took shots he passed on the night before, and Matt Lafontaine had a great game and as a team we took 40 3’s but more importantly shot 15-40 from the 3," said coach Dino Gini.
"All in all it was a win we needed against a very good Langara team”
If you get value from KelownaNow and believe local independent media is important to our community we ask that you please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter.
If you appreciate what we do, we ask that you consider supporting our local independent news platform.
