Coyotes continue winning ways

Okanagan College Basketball Teams continued to impress heading into their 1st official PACWEST season, with exhibition games this past weekend.

The men’s team improved to 4-0 in exhibition play so far this season, with back-to-back victories over Ambrose University( from Calgary). The men’s team played with energy and passion in Game 1, putting their depth on full display in a solid 80-74 victory over Ambrose. New recruit Hunter Hughes had a strong game scoring 20 points, playing tough at both ends of the court. Point guard Matt Lafontaine added to the attack with 15pts, and Curtis Wilson and Jeff Tubbs chipped in with 13pts and 11pts. Ambrose University actually led the game the majority of the way but OC managed to come back late in the 2nd half, capped off by a timely Davide Ciancio 3 pointer in the late stages of the 4th quarter to seal the victory for the Coyotes.

Coach Dino Gini, “ We struggled in the first half but we made some adjustments and played much better the second half. It was great to play in front of a supportive crowd, they really fuelled our comeback.” Game 2 took place Saturday out of the Penticton Campus which resulted in the Coyotes 4thconsecutive exhibition win, a hard fought 73-66 victory over Ambrose. 11 Coyotes players managed to get on the score sheet, demonstrating the depth of OC. Top scorers were Jeff Tubbs and Hunter Hughes with 10pts.

Coach Gini, “We really focused on playing all of our players. I was very excited to see some newcomers get and take advantage of their opportunity to make an impression with our coaching staff. It’s all part of trying to put together the top 14 players for league play, and honestly were going to have some tough decisions moving forward.’

The women Coyotes had their first exhibition games of the season as well this past weekend.

OC came out slow, appearing a bit nervous in front of the hometown crowd and fell to Ambrose 73-55. Coach Andrew Gini, “It was good to finally get a game in. It was the first chance for some of our younger guards to get some good minutes and to see what level we need to play at.” Megan Blair led the team with 19 pts while Dez Day and Sapna Deo had 8 pts and 7 pts respectively. In the second game at the Penticton campus OC came out much stronger and led for the entire game. Nicole Hart led all scorers with 14pts followed by Sapna Deo with 12pts.

Okanagan College Coyote’s had balanced scoring with a number of players adding 6-8 pts. Coach Andrew “Defensively we were solid, especially in the second half where we strung together a number of good defensive possessions.” Ciara Bamford and Madison Dickie played tough defensively especially in the latter stages of the game, with Jenna Maclennan and Maddy Postnikoff making some big plays down the stretch to seal the victory an impressive 62-49 win.

Both Coyotes teams are off until they hit the road October 4th 5th and 6th where they will take part in the annual Red Deer College tournament.