For a time, it looked like the Mt. Boucherie Bears just may pull off the upset.
Then the KSS Owls kicked their game into gear.
The top-seeded Owls overcame an 18-point half-time deficit to down the Bears 85-79 in the Okanagan Valley AAAA boys basketball final Friday night at Boucherie.
“Boucherie was playing well and we are just trying to do too much in the first half,” said Owls’ coach Harry Parmar. “Once we started playing better defense, playing a team game and stopped turning the ball over so much, things began to go our way. The guys did a good job of coming back. “
KSS, which outscored the Bears 26-14 in the final quarter, were led by Parker Simson who had 25 points. Buzz Truss added 20 points, Cooper Simson had 17 and Nav Sandhu added 13. The Owls turned the tide in the third quarter with three straight unanswered three pointers.
“It was a total team effort,” said Parmar, “but Buzz, Parker and Cooper really led the way, and Liam Duncan was great on defense.”
Qunicy Johnson paced the Bears with 26 points, with Josiah Joseph adding 23.
While he wasn’t thrilled with his team’s showing over the first 20-plus minutes, Parmar is happy to earn a spot at next week’s provincials in Langley.
“Our goal was to win the valleys and we did what we had to do.”
The Owls, ranked No. 10 in the province, will open the B.C. high school boys’ AAAA championship Wednesday, March 12 at the Langley Events Centre against No. 7 Sardis from Chilliwack.
