Okanagan College Basketball wraps up the season

Okanagan College's men's and women's basketball teams travelled to Langara College in Vancouver this past weekend to play their last two games of their inaugural season

On Friday, the women's team came out of the gate slow and couldn't get into any sort of rhythm. Down by 14 at the half, they ended up losing by double digits, shooting 2/19 from the 3.

"We had a hard time finding energy maybe it was the 3 week gap between games maybe the road trip not sure," said coach Andrew Gini. "I don’t think I made proper adjustments in the second half allowing the opposing team to pull away."

In the second game of the weekend, the team showed a lot of character and mental toughness coming out with energy and playing smart. Megan Blair had a career-high and a season-high scoring 36 pts with nine three-pointers, while Jessica Bergman added 11 pts and Jenna Maclennan put up 8 assists in a 67-53 win. Out of possible 20 assists, the team finished with 18 assists and was sharing the ball very well.

“In our first season for Okanagan College we competed against top teams in the country won some big games and grew as a team," said Gini. "We have an awesome group of players that are close off the court and want to put in the work in to compete for a championship next year."

"It won't be easy but I believe we can build on this year and have the opportunity to come back and beat anyone in the country.”

The men's team also played Langara College Friday evening right after the women's team, and like the women, the men team had a hard time finding their legs. The talented Langara Falcons came out strong with energy, shot the ball extremely well and had a huge first quarter. The Coyotes could not make a comeback, losing 105-81.

“We took it on the chin in the first game, a very talented and well-coached team that beat us in every aspect of the game on Friday," said coach Dino Gini. "On Saturday, our guys played the best game of the year, shooting almost 50% from the three and almost 50% from the field, we were simply really, really good. So proud of how they responded, such an awesome way to end our season. It was the perfect script for both teams and I am extremely proud of what we have accomplished"

The final score 99-73 with Curtis Wilson's 29 points leading the way. Matt Lafontaine added 20 points while Connor McCormack had 12.”

Both teams had the opportunity to play every PacWest team this season, we played ACAC teams and some tough American teams so we had a very challenging season. I want to thank all of our sponsors if it were not for them and their financial support we could not operate. To all of our players, we are so proud, we worked hard on and off the court, you were challenged to work hard on the court and you were challenged to reach out to the community and ask for help. Our coaching staff is top notch, they put their heart and soul into this program. We are a group of passionate coaches with experience and a lot of drive and motivation to make our young student-athletes better basketball players but most importantly make our players learn what it takes to succeed, what is required to build a program, what is required to win, work ethic, all components of being successful after basketball. To everyone that came out to our games a big thank you. The interest in our program is tremendous and we are thankful for everyone's support, and there were many that helped in many different ways.