For the fourth time in five seasons the Kelowna Owls will carry the Okanagan’s colours at the B.C. 4A high school boys basketball championship.
The Owls, ranked No. 3 in the province, will take on No. 14 Prince George in the opening round of the B.C finals next Wednesday night at the Langley Events Centre.
KSS qualified with a 73-51 victory over their local rivals, the Mt. Boucherie Bears, in the valley final on Friday night at RSS. It was the rubber match between the two schools, as the Owls and Bears had split the two regular season meetings this season.
Grant Shepherd paced KSS with 26 points and 14 rebounds, while Parker Simson chipped in 20 points and had eight steals. Kache Kopec led the Bears with 24 points.
In the most important game of the season to date, Owls’ coach Harry Parmar said his team came to play.
“The Bears are a tough team and we came out and played well against them,” said Parmar. “It was hard fought, but the kids kept their composure and kind of pulled away at the end. It was a nice win.”
Despite a solid year in which they were ranked eighth in B.C., the Bears don’t earn a berth to Langley as the Okanagan earns only one berth.
“It’s too bad only one team gets to go,” said Parmar. “Fraser Valley gets six berths, and the (Bears) can beat a lot of those teams.”
As for provincials next week, Parmar said his Owls plan to take a calm and calculated approach.
“It’s going to one possession at a time for us,” said Parmar. “The guys matured as the season went on and have learned to pretty much whatever style we need to.”
If the Owls defeat P.G., they would most like see Burnaby South in the quarterfinals on Thursday, March 12.
Junior Owls 9th…
The Kelowna Owls won four of five games to place ninth at the B.C. School Sports provincials junior boys basketball championship last week in Langley.
The only loss KSS suffered was a 60-55 setback to Terry Fox in their second game of the tournament.
The Owls opened up with an 85-27 win over Caledonia.
Kelowna also posted wins over St. Georges (61-47), Van College (55-50) and Sentinel (57-35).
Mason Bourcier of the Owls was named a second-team all-star.
