Kelowna basketball trio still in hunt, playing in provincial semis

The Kelowna Owls have advanced to the B.C. School Sports senior 4A boys basketball championship tournament’s Final Four for the third straight year.

A 67-41 win over the St. George’s Saints of Vancouver on Thursday in Langley earned the defending-champion Owls a berth in Friday’s semifinal (8:45 p.m.) against the No. 3 Oak Bay Bays. The other semifinal will see No. 1 Walnut Grove Gators of Langley taking on No. 5 Holy Cross Crusaders of Vancouver.

​The winners of the semis will meet in the championship game at centre court on Saturday at the Langley Events Centre beginning at 8:15 p.m.

Although the Owls, ranked No. 2 going into the 16-team tournament, didn’t have one of their better games offensively — shooting 26-for-77 (33.8%) from the field — against No. 7 St. George’s, they did hold the Saints to just 24.6% (17-for-69) shooting.

“Today you saw the way we can play defence,” Owls’ head coach Harry Parmar told Varsity Letters’ Howard Tsumura in a post-game interview. “That (St. George’s) is a good team and we basically held them to 30 points.

Senior Mason Bourcier set the pace with 25 points and 11 rebounds in a game that saw the Owls start with a 10-0 run and hold a 17-10 lead by the quarter. It was 31-18 at the half and the Owls extended the lead to 56-27 going into the fourth quarter. UBC Okanagan-bound Owen Keyes added 16 points and pulled down 17 rebounds while Grade 11 Matt Williamson chipped in with 11 points.

Grade 12 Spencer Braam was a physical force and shot the ball well, finishing with eight points and 12 boards.

Bourcier, a key member of the Owls who won the provincial title last year, said he believes the 2017 team has a good shot at a repeat.

“We got off to a bit of a slow start this season, but we are learning and we believe we can beat any team in the province,” he told Tsumura. “We have the same work ethic and the same grit (as the 2016 owls) and I think anything is possible.”

Oak Bay earned its berth in the semis against Kelowna by defeating No. 6 W.J. Mouat Hawks of Abbotsford 74-52.

In their only meeting this season, the Owls, who claimed provincial bronze in 2015, downed Oak Bay Bays 68-47 on the strength of another solid defensive effort.

Meanwhile, a much-anticipated final between the Owls and No. 1 Walnut Grove is still a distinct possibility after the Gators disposed of No. 8 Kitsilano Blue Demons 104-64 on their quarter-final game on Thursday.

The Gators, who have defeated the KSS Owls in all four of their meetings this season, will take on Holy Cross, who upset No. 4 Vancouver College Fighting Irish 99-86 in a quarter-final on Thursday. That semi begins at 7 p.m.

Heritage Saints and KCS Knights move on to 1A semis

The Heritage Christian Saints and Kelowna Christian School Knights advanced to the B.C. School Sports senior 1A boys basketball championship tournament semifinals on Thursday.

While they both arrived at their common destination, the journey proved drastically different at the Langley Events Centre.

The No. 3-ranked Saints, playing in their first-ever provincial senior boys championship, went on a shooting spree and netted a 108-84 victory over the No. 6 Sparwood Spartans. Meanwhile, the fifth-ranked Knights trailed for most of their quarter-final game against No. 4 Credo Christian Kodiaks, but came on late to pull out at 58-56 victory.

A 22-point performance by Sam Bell in the first half sparked Heritage against a gritty Sparwood team as the Saints went out to a 34-22 lead at the quarter and took a 61-42 lead into the third quarter.

Hill, with five three-pointers in the game, finished with 31 points. In all, six of the Saints made it to double figures, including Josh Weekes (16), Ben Robideau (15), Isaac Opuama (15), Raymond Barrett (13) and Jordan Nenasheff (11).

The victory earned HCS, the first-time Okanagan Valley champions, a date with the No. 2-ranked B.C. Christian Academy Panthers of Port Coquitlam, coached by the Saints’ former mentor Gib Hinz, who also coached the KCS Knights to provincial titles.

An aggressive, but well-discipline team, B.C. Christian moves the ball extremely well, but will have to be aware of the outside shooting and the depth of the Saints, who hit for 13 treys against Sparwood. B.C.Christian downed No. 7 Bulkley Valley Christian 78-54 in their quarter-final on Thursday.

As for No. 5-ranked Kelowna Christian, they’ll be the underdogs going up against top-ranked Ron Pettigrew Lions of Dawson Creek in the semifinal matchup beginning 5:15 p.m. The winner will meet the survivor of the Heritage-B.C. Christian game for the championship on Saturday starting at 1:30 p.m.

Meanwhile in BCSS senior 2A play on Thursday in Langley, the George Elliot Coyotes of Lake Country dropped their second straight game, coming out on the short end of an 87-66 decision to the St. Thomas Aquinas Fighting Saints of North Vancouver.

The Coyotes, ranked 13th prior to the tournament, will meet No. 16 Prince Charles of Creston on the consolation side of the draw on Friday starting at 8:30 a.m.