The Salmon Arm Golds senior basketball team’s run of 10 wins in a row was broken in their first game at the Abbotsford tournament over the weekend.
Game one was against the second ranked AAA team in the province, Steveston London. A slow start saw the Golds fall behind by 15 in the first quarter, as Steveston went on to win 78-61.
Josh Kujat led the team in scoring with 16 points, six rebounds and four steals, while Dillan Olson contributed 14 point and Dawson Mayes chipped in with nine. Head coach, Rhys Waters was unable to make the trip as he was under the weather, so assistant coach Jordan Grieve took over the coaching responsibility.
“The boys fought extremely hard to get back into the game led by great team defence. We got to within five points at the end of the third quarter,” said Grieve.
“We showed that we can compete with the best AAA teams in the province.”
The Golds responded well in their second game as they downed Mission easily 68-33.
The first quarter was a back and forth but the Golds held on to a four- point lead after the first quarter.
In the second frame, the Golds took over control of the game and never looked back.
“Everyone got into the game and every player scored,” said Grieve. Dawson Mayes earned game star honours as he contributed to the Golds fast-break offence. Dillan Olson knocked back a game- high 20 points and Dawson Mayes added 10 of his own.
In the final game of the tournament, three of the Golds’ starters got into early foul trouble, but Trajan Boyd played a great game off the bench.
The momentum in the game shifted in favour of both sides throughout the game, but Wellington came out on top 75-66.
“What really kept us in was the play of Olson who scored a game-high 27 points including some huge second-half three pointers,” said Grieve.
“Overall the defence did its job we were just a little to careless with the basketball to walk away with a 1-2 record.”
