Quieting a large partisan crowd early on, the Immaculata Mustangs cruised to a 61-41 victory over the host Holy Cross Crusaders of Surrey to claim their third straight B.C. Catholic senior girls basketball championship on Saturday.
The Mustangs, led by tournament most valuable player, Ashlyn Day, best defensive player/all-star Kate Johnson and all-star Teaghan Wallace, built up a 39-16 lead by the end of the first half. And with its signature smothering defensive effort in the second, Immaculata was never in danger of relinquishing it.
Wallace, coming through with what head coach Andrew Gini described as her best half of the season, scored 12 points in the opening two quarters. Day and Johnson went on to score 20-plus points overall.
Immaculata, ranked No. 4 in the provincial senior AA rankings going into the weekend, earned a berth in the Catholic final by defeating honourable-mention St. Thomas More Knights of Burnaby 54-50 in semifinal play. Day proved clutch down the stretch, finishing with a layup in the final minute to put her team up by three.
In their opening game, the Mustangs took down the St. Pat’s Celtics of Vancouver 76-30.
Coach Gini said it was another character win for a team that struggled early in the season, but has overcome adversity to continue its steady climb in the provincial rankings.
“Everyone has shown tremendous character and fight that will benefit them for the remainder of the season and beyond,” said Gini. “All of the players are stepping up for us — the bench players have begun to prove they can hit shots down the stretch and take the pressure off our go-to players.”
Gini conceded that the toughest part of the season is ahead of them, but he’s confident his group is going to battle hard.
“I believe our team has the most heart of any team in the province and will be competitive against anyone in B.C.”
The Walnut Grove Gators of Langley defeated the Kelowna Owls for a third straight time this season to capture the Snowball Classic senior boys basketball tournament championship in Abbotsford on the weekend.
Ranked No. 1 among B.C. high school quad-A boys teams going into the 57th annual edition of the Snowball, the Gators staved off a Kelowna comeback to down the No. 2 Owls 90-84 in the tournament final.
The Gators got off to a quick start, taking a 23-16 lead by the quarter, but held only a two-point advantage (48-46) at the half. The two top teams in the province were tied 69-69 going into the final quarter.
First-team all-star, Mason Bourcier, coming off a 52-point effort in a 108-75 win over Rolling Hills Prep Academy in California in semifinal play, netted another 43 points in the final.
Owen Keyes and David Wieczorek of the Owls were also selected to the tournament’s first all-star team.
A fourth meeting between the top two high school teams in the province could materialize early next month at the 44th annual Interior Savings Western Canada Basketball Tournament at Kelowna Secondary School.
The host Owls, the 2016 provincial champions, and Walnut Grove are at opposite ends of the eight-team tournament scheduled for Feb. 2-4. If they were to meet again, it would be in the championship game. KSS, the two-time defending champions at the Western Canada, open against unranked South Kamloops Titans while the Gators will meet the Campbell Collegiate Tartans of Regina in their first game.
Other teams competing this year are the current B.C. No. 4-ranked Oak Bay Bays of Victoria, the No. 9 Semiahmoo Totems of Surrey, the Raymond Comets of Alberta and the Oak Park Raiders of Winnipeg.
Up next for the Owls is an Okanagan Valley league game against the NorKam Saints in Kamloops on Jan. 26 and a meeting with the Rutland Voodoos on Jan. 31.
With stellar performances at the Centennial Top Ten Tournament in Coquitlam on the weekend, the Kelowna Owls are expected to move up in the provincial senior AAA high school girls basketball rankings.
Seeded No. 10 going into weekend play, the Owls upset No. 3-ranked Panorama Ridge Thunder of Surrey (61-38) and hung in with No. 1-ranked Oak Bay Breakers, finally losing 73-63.
In other games, the Kelowna Secondary School representatives defeated honourable-mention Riverside Rapids of Port Coquitlam 76-44 and nailed down fifth place among the 16 teams by downing the Argyle Pipers of North Vancouver 69-47.
The Owls opened the prestigious event with the win over Riverside, sparked by the return of Grade 12 guard Courtney Donaldson, who had been out of the lineup since early December.
Donaldson, a second-team all-star, scored 22 points, grabbed seven rebounds and had four assists to earn player-of-the-game honours. Kennedy Dickie added 15 points and nine rebounds while Alley Corrado chipped in with 13 points, six rebounds, seven assists and four steals.
Against Oak Bay, Donaldson again led the point parade with 19. Dickie, the POG, added 16 in a losing cause.
Dez Day and Dickie each scored 14 points and Corrado contributed eight against Panorama Ridge while Madi Martens scored six key points down the stretch to earn the player-of-the-game designation.
A 15-point performance by Corrado led the Owls in their final win over Argyle. The Thompson Rivers University-bound guard netted 15 points, while posting seven assists and seven steals. Donaldson finished with 12 points and six assists while Rachel Hare and Day each recorded 10 points.
The Owls won’t play again until Feb. 2, the start of a four-team round-robin tournament held in conjunction with the boys’ Western Canada tournament.
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