The Kelowna Christian School Knights and Heritage Christian School Saints will go into the 16-team B.C. School Sports provincial senior A girls provincial basketball championship tournament seeded fifth and sixth respectively.
The Knights, 72-35 winners of the Heritage in the recent Okanagan Valley final, will meet No. 12 Agassiz Eagles in their first game on Wednesday (2:15 p.m.) at Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford. The winner will move on to the quarter-finals against either No. 4 Nechako Valley or No. 13 Richmond Christian.
Heritage Christian will open against No. 11-seeded Sparwood at 9:15 p.m. at CBC with the winner advancing to quarter-final play against either No. 3 Mulgrave of West Vancouver or No. 14 Buckley Valley Christian.
Despite finishing third at the Okanagan Valley championship tournament, the Kelowna Christian School Knights go into the B.C. School Sports senior A boys basketball championship tournament in Langley seeded third — one spot ahead of the Okanagan’s runner-up Heritage Christian School Saints.
Up first for the Knights, whose only loss at the Valley tournament was a 60-57 decision to provincially-No. 2-ranked Similkameen, will open provincial play against No. 14-seed Pemberton, looking to advance to quarter-final play against with No. 6 Bulkley Valley Christian or No. 11 St. Andrew’s of Victoria.
The HCS Saints of Kelowna, second-place finishers at the Valley championship — losing 86-80 to Similkameen in the final — are seeded fourth in the 16-team tournament and will play their first game at the Langley Events Centre against No. 13 Golden. The winner will meet either No. 5 Khalsa School of Vancouver or No. 12 Fort St. James in a quarter-final match on Thursday.
Seeded fourth prior to the opening tip-off, the Okanagan Mission Huskies finished sixth among the 16 teams at the B.C. School Sports senior AA girls basketball tournament in Langley.
The Huskies, runners-up in the Okanagan to the eventual provincial champions from South Kamloops, fell 84-62 in their final game on Saturday to No. 6 Duchess Park.
OKM finished with a 2-2 record during the four-day tournament at the Langley Events Centre.
Malley Richardson of the Huskies was selected as a honourable-mention all-star.
The Kelowna Owls won three of their five games and finished seventh among 24 teams at the B.C. junior girls invitational tournament in Langley.
Seeded ninth going into the tournament, the Owls met No. 1-ranked Walnut Grove Gators of Langley in their second game, losing by just eight points to the eventual provincial champions.
The Owls downed the Penticton Lakers 44-34 in their final game to end up as the top Okanagan team in the provincial tournament.
Katrina Fink, the Owls’ captain and top scorer this season, was selected to the provincial second all-star team.
The Okanagan Mission Huskies won one of four games and finished in 20th place.
Neither the Kelowna Owls nor the Mt. Boucherie Bears could improve upon their pre-tournament ranking at the B.C .junior boys basketball championship tournament in Langley earlier this week.
The Owls, seeded seventh among the 32 teams competing for a provincial title at the Langley Events Centre, lost three of five games and settled for 12th place overall. The Bears (No. 16), although winning four of five games, finished in 17th place.
Kelowna Secondary School opened the tournament by disposing of the No. 28 Tananawis 44-37, but dropped a 53-42 decision to No. 23 Belmont of Victoria 53-42 in their second, ending their chances of winning a B.C. championship.
A third game on the championship side saw the Owls —Okanagan Valley champs — bounce back to down an aggressive and physical No. 18-ranked Burnaby Mountain team 65-47.
“It was a strong performance for the Owls who during the year had never cracked the top 10,” noted head coach Al Lalonde. “With over 500 junior boys basketball teams in the province, the Owls should be very proud of their performance.”
He added that the strength of his team is that it was indeed a team.
“All the boys contributed to the success of the team. These student-athletes are a special group that stuck together as a team and created a special bond.”
Mt. Boucherie lost its first game 53-35 to Fleetwood Park of Surrey, but came through with four straight wins on the consolation side for their 17th-place finish.
The Bears defeated Heritage Woods of Port Moody 67-54 in their final game after winning over Dawson Creek (59-53), G.P. Vanier (56-42) and R.E. Mountain (76-41).
The Vernon Panthers ended up as the top Okanagan team. They won four of five games, their only loss being an overtime decision (62-57) to Lord Tweedsmuir in quarter-final play. Tweedsmuir fell 54-46 to St. George’s in the championship game.
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