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Unranked going into the annual junior boys basketball tournament at Kelowna Secondary School on the weekend, the Okanagan Mission Huskies showed they belong among the top teams province with three more strong performances.
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The Huskies, 12-2 overall in the young season, won two of three games and gave provincially No. 4-ranked St. George’s Saints of Vancouver a scare in their only loss.
A well-balanced attack saw OKM open the eight-team tournament with a 63-45 win over the Westsyde Whundas of Kamloops. Matty Kopp scored 18 points to pace the Huskies offensively while Ben Hitchens added 11 to go along with a 10-point effort by Phil Michl and seven points apiece from Rylan Brownlee and Justin Charlton.
Up against St. George’s in the semifinal game, the flu-riddled Huskies held an 18-16 lead at the quarter and were ahead 31-28 at the half. But the Saints held OKM scoreless for the first five minutes of the third quarter to take the lead for good on the way to a 65-54 victory.
Kopp again led OKM with 17 points, with Hitchens contributing 12 points and Brownlee 10.
The third/fourth-place matchup saw the Huskies cruise to an 85-31 win over the D.P. Todd Trojans of Prince George. Kopp’s 28 points were tops for the winners while Brownlee and Hitchens both scored 11.
Meanwhile, the host KSS Owls won their first two games of the tournament but fell 85-27 to St. George’s in the championship game.
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Chiefs keep Summerland in their sights
The Kelowna Chiefs scored five consecutive goals en route to a 5-4 victory over the visiting Summerland Steam on Saturday and ended their four-game Kootenay International League Junior B Hockey League losing streak.
Jason Village and Josh Kobelka (star of the game) both scored twice and assisted on a pair of goals as the Okanagan-Division’s third-place Chiefs (16-12-1-0-1) kept the second-place Steam (19-7-1-0-3) within sight in the standings with their second win in four meetings with Summerland this season. Jaden McNulty rounded out the Kelowna scoring while Dakota Kittle helped set up four Chiefs goals.
Tanner Marshall earned the win in goal, stopping 32 of 36 shots and Matthew Huber took the loss in the Summerland net, giving up the five goals on 30 Chiefs shots.
A night earlier in Princeton, the Chief dropped a 4-2 decision to the host Posse, who scored their final goal into an empty net. Village and Joel Scrimbit were the Kelowna marksmen while Kittle and Kobelka assisted on both goals.
Marshall was tagged with the goaltending loss, allowing three goals on 31 shots. The Chiefs, 1-for-5 on the powerplay, fired 40 shots at winning netminder Chandler Billinghurst.
The Chiefs are now idle until Dec. 28 when they travel to Osoyoos to take on the Coyotes. Their next home game isn’t until Jan. 20.
High-scoring OK Rockets split with Canadians
Eleven goals in two games weren’t enough to prevent the Okanagan Rockets from falling further behind the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League leaders on the weekend.
The Kelowna-based Rockets opened their two-game home stint by outscoring the visiting Greater Vancouver Canadians 7-4 on Saturday at the CNC, but a 7-4 loss to the same team on Sunday left the second-place Rockets (17-5-0-2) seven points back of the Cariboo Cougars (21-2-1-0) in the BCMMHL standings. The Cougars swept the North Island Silvertips of Nanaimo 8-1 and 11-1 on the weekend in Nanaimo.
Two goals and three assists from Vernon’s Coleton Bilodeau set the pace for the Rockets in Saturday’s win while Rayman Bassi of Kelowna scored once and added two helpers. Single markers came from Jordan Robinson, Seth Barton, Jeffrey Karpowich and Tanner Bahm. James Johnson was the winning goaltender.
On Sunday, Bilodeau strengthened his hold on the league’s scoring lead with a goal and an assist in a losing cause. The 16-year-old now has 17 goals and 25 assists in 24 games.
Max Kryski, fourth in league scoring with 16 goals and 21 assists in 23 games, scored once and assisted on Bilodeau’s goal. Hayden Courtney and Robinson added a single goal each in a game that saw the Rockets give up three unanswered goals in the third period.
Up next for the Rockets is the annual Mac’s AAA midget tournament in Calgary beginning Dec. 27 against the Calgary Royals. The Rockets play the Saskatoon Contacts on Dec. 28 and the Austrian national U18 team on Dec. 29. They’ll round out pool play against the Sherwood Park Ennis Kings on Dec. 30.
The Rockets return to league action Jan. 7 with a pair of games in Squamish against the Vancouver Northwest Giants.
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