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After a relatively slow start, the Kelowna Owls gained momentum as the game wore on and recorded a relatively easy 58-37 win over the Carson Graham Eagles in their opener at the provincial AAA high school girls basketball championship on Wednesday.
The victory at the Langley Events Centre earned the No. 6-ranked team in the province a meeting with three-time defending-champion and No. 3-ranked Brookswood Bobcats of Langley on Thursday beginning at noon.
In their previous two meetings this season, the Owls fell 67-42 and 98-62 to the ’Cats, who opened the provincials by defeating No 14 Claremont Spartans of Victoria 79-55.
Guard Dez Day hit on six of 10 shots from the field and finished with 15 points to lead the Owls, who received nine-point efforts from senior Alley Corrado and Grade 10 Kennedy Dickie. Courtney Donaldson added eight points for the Okanagan Valley champions and Chelsea Espenberg chipped in with five.
Immaculata wins, OKM loses in AA openers
Kelowna teams split their opening games at the B.C. double-A high school girls basketball championship tournament in Langley on Wednesday.
The No 5-ranked Immaculata Mustangs, third-place finishers at the Okanagan Valley championship held in Kelowna recently, got off to a strong start by downing No. 11 College Heights Cougars of Prince George 83-63.
Meanwhile, the No 8 Okanagan Mission Huskies came out on the short end of a 65-53 decision to the No. 9 Ballenas Whalers of Parksville.
A day after teammate Ashlyn Day was selected as a Super 15 player, Kate Johnson showed why she could have easily been included on the prestigious provincial list.
Johnson scored 45 points and grabbed 23 rebounds to lead the Mustangs to victory over College Heights. She and Day combined for 67 shots from the field, with Day recording 34 points and adding 12 boards.
The Mustangs will meet the South Kamloops Titans in quarter-final play on Thursday beginning at noon. SouthKam, who edged the Southridge Storm of Surrey 74-72, went into the 16-team tournament seeded fourth after finishing as runners-up at the Okanagan Valley championship.
As for the OKM Huskies, who defeated Immaculata in three of four games this season, they couldn’t contain Grade 10 guard Constanze Ehrmeir, who scored 23 points and added 15 rebounds in the Ballenas victory.
Hannah Walline was the top scorer for the Huskies with 11 points and Marin Felt added nine points and six rebounds.
OKM will drop to the consolation side of the draw on Thursday, taking on No. 16 David Thompson Lakers of Invermere beginning at 8:30 a.m.
Junior Owls advance to provincial quarters
Trailing for most of the game, the Kelowna Owls went on a 10-point run in the fourth quarter and recorded a 45-38 win over the Heritage Woods Kodiaks of Port Moody in their first game on Wednesday at the B.C. junior girls high school basketball tournament in Langley.
Jaeli Ibbetson netted 16 points and Paige Watson pitched in with 10 to lead the Owls’ offence. Defensively, No. 1-seed KSS was sparked by the efforts of Jordan Kemper, selected as the player of the game.
“It might not have been our best game — or even a good one,” admitted head coach Kim Przybyl (Whelpton), whose team was down 22-20 at the half and 35-34 early in the fourth before their 10-0 outbreak. “But we were able to dig in our heels and do whatever it was going to take to win.
“With a game under their belts, we know our girls will start to play more like themselves moving forward. We love the character they displayed in this game.
“One game, one possession at a time will continue to be our focus."
The Owls will meet No. 9 Seycove Seyhawks of North Vancouver in quarter-final play on Thursday beginning at 11:30 a.m.
Meanwhile, the No. 10-ranked Okanagan Mission Huskies won both their games on Wednesday, defeating No. 23 Prince George and upsetting No. 7 Earl Marriott Mariners of of Surrey 43-38.
The Huskies will meet No. 2 St. Thomas Aquinas of North Vancouver in a quarter-final game beginning at 2:30 p.m.
Kelowna quartet will play for provincial ringette titles
Four Kelowna Ringette Association teams will represent the Thompson Okanagan region at provincial championship tournaments this month.
The Kelowna Rage, bronze-medal winners at the recent Kelowna Sweetheart tournament after going 3-0 round-robin play, will compete at the Ringette BC under-14A championship in Surrey beginning on Friday.
Joining them in Surrey for their respective provincial championships will be the Kelowna U16A Elite and the Kelowna U19A Heat.
The Elite, gold-medal winners at the 2017 Sweetheart, earned their berth at provincials by defeating Vernon 5-1 and 2-1 in the recent best-of-three Thompson Okanagan Ringette League playoff series.
Coming off a bronze-medal performance at the Sweetheart tournament, the Kelowna Heat were the lone U19A team in the Thompson Okanagan region and will have the opportunity to play for a provincial title and the right to represent B.C. at the Western Canadian championship in Winnipeg March 22-25.
Meanwhile, the Kelowna Adrenaline will bid for a provincial U16B title in Port Coquitlam March 10-12.
The Adrenaline defeated Westside 5-1 in the TORL Cup championship game for the right to advance to the provincials. The win over Westside avenged a 3-2 round-robin while the Adrenaline opened the playoffs by defeating Shuswap.
Chiefs even KIJHL series, Game 5 goes Thursday
The Kelowna Chiefs skated to a four-goal lead early in the second period on Tuesday and went on to a 7-4 victory that evened their best-of-seven Kootenay International Junior Hockey League series.
Jason Village scored twice while defenceman Joel Scrimbit contributed a goal and three assists to the win that knotted the Okanagan Division semifinal series at 2-2.
The fifth game is scheduled for Thursday in Summerland (7:30 p.m.) while the sixth will be played on Friday at the Rutland Arena beginning at 7 p.m. A seventh game, if necessary, is set for Saturday in Summerland.
The winner will meet the Osoyoos Coyotes in the Okanagan/Shuswap Conference final. The Coyotes earned their berth by defeating the North Okanagan Knights in four straight semifinal games.
On Tuesday, Kolten Carpenter, Scrimbit and Village staked the Chiefs to a 3-0 first-period lead, while Josh Kolbelka made it a four-goal margin with a powerplay marker 5:55 into the second period. Michael MacLean scored the first Summerland goal less than five minutes later, but Brett Witala made it 5-1 before the middle frame was over.
The Steam came on strong in the third period, outshooting the Chiefs 16-8 and scoring three goals — two by Calvin Rout and one by Konsta Jaske. The Chiefs rounded out the scoring with an empty-netter with 47 seconds left.
Brandon Gaucher earned the win in goal, stopping 31 of 35 shots fired his way. Matthew Huber was tagged with the loss, allowing five goals in 40 minutes of play. Jared Breitkreuz gave up one goal in the third period.
The Chiefs, third-place finishers in their division, 27 points behind Summerland, opened the series with a 3-2 win in Summerland, but lost the next two games 4-2 and 3-1 before their bounce-back performance on home ice.
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