Morning Star Staff
Michael Rouault pocketed 27 points and 15 rebounds as the Fulton Maroons iced the Sa-Hali Sabres 74-71 in double overtime Friday night in Kamloops.
Fulton played Westsyde Whundas in Saturday’s final of the Sabres Invitational Basketball Classic.
Tye Kitzman flushed 15 points and Riley Beauchamp drained 10 for the senior Maroons.
Kitzman canned 24 points, while Rouault earned 19 points and 15 boards as Fulton opened with a 74-51 icing of the Valleyview Vikings. Cory Ang-Hamilton recorded 10 points and seven assists.
Meanwhile, the Charles Bloom Timberwolves fell 64-54 to the Barriere Cougars and then buried the Revelstoke Avalanche 58-47 at their home tournament in Lumby.
Bloom went down 11-1 early in front of a packed gym against Barriere, uncharacteristically missing some open looks, and then struggled to put things together offensively the rest of the way.
“We had a good run in the second quarter,” said Bloom coach Nathan Lee. “We led going into the half, but in the second half we were way too impatient and gave the other guys way too many opportunities to score. Full credit to Barriere — they were physical and played hard.”
Bloom scoring was headed up by Peter Ufimzeff with 13 points. Player of the Game Tommy Dyck dropped 10 points and pulled down eight boards.
The T-Wolves grabbed an early 12-3 lead and never looked back against Revelstoke.
“The boys responded better,” said Lee. “Our scoring was very balanced with nine of our 10 players hitting the scoresheet. We were more active defensively, and we were able to execute better offensively. We aren’t where we need to be but we are getting there and I’m proud of how hard the boys are playing as a team.”
Ufimzeff collected 18 points and a dozen assists, while Player of the Game Mathew Grahn dropped 13 points. Grade 10 rookie Jared Sexsmith scored eight points and pulled down 11 boards.
Caleb Law rung up 24 points as the Seaton Sonics slammed Revelstoke 73-45, while the Merritt Panthers iced the Chase Trojans 50-44 and the Ashcroft Rams upended the Heritage Christian Saints 75-39.
In the Kalamalka Lakers Rock The Rim, Chris Gallant dialed up 17 points as Kal stuffed the D.W. Poppy Red Hawks of Langley 71-39.
Tye Oddy fired 14 points for the Lakers, while Jamie Pruckl supplied eight points, seven assists and four steals. Nick Stanhope had nine rebounds.
“Kalamalka played very controlled while keeping the intensity up which caused a lot of turnovers in their favour,” said Kal assistant coach Justin Vanderham. “Crisp passing broke down D.W. Poppy’s zone defence, and after taking a 30-14 lead at half-time, the Lakers didn’t look back.”
In the VSS Panthers tourney, the Cats grounded the Okanagan Mission Huskies 78-56 behind 23 points and a dozen boards from Shelby Hartwig.
Dynamic defensive efforts from Mitchell Pepper, Liam Paulsen and Zach Kronbauer was the key to the first-half dominance by the Cats. John Garvie provided 15 points and Chris Inscho added 14 for the VSS, who led 41-16 at the break.
The Summerland Rockets held off the Pen-High Lakers 68-62 in other Friday action.
