Morning Star Staff
They took the tourist route, but the VSS Panthers are in the B.C. Senior AA Girls Basketball Championships next week at the Langley Events Centre.
Lonny Mazurak and Dave Tetreault’s crew iced the Okanagan Mission Huskies of Kelowna 82-40 to finish third in the Valley playdowns Saturday night at the Panther Pit.
VSS had earlier grounded the Fulton Maroons 80-39.
The Immaculata Mustangs of Kelowna toppled the Princess Margaret Mustangs of Penticton 81-56 in Saturday night’s final. Both teams advance to provincials.
Provincial Under 17 teamer Jordyn Cullum drained 31 points as the Cats shelled the Huskies. Jordan Korol, who will play for the UBC O Heat next fall, flushed 24 points and Kristy Fugel added eight.
VSS jumped out to a 32-8 lead with great halfcourt defence and never looked back.
“Offensively, our posts dominated the paint in the half court,” said Mazurak. “Rebekah Salway, Anna Rice and Kristy Fugel did a great job getting them the ball in areas they could score.
“Coach T and I are proud of the resiliency of the group today. Having eight players play two pressure elimination games within six hours of each other at the level they did, was extraordinary.”
Cullum counted 27 points, Korol produced 23 and Rice delivered a dozen as VSS stuffed Fulton.
“The girls responded well to the tough loss Friday (to Maggie) and played with urgency and discipline,” said Mazurak. “The bench – Jordynne Tomiak, Katie Macgivillray, and Jessica Melvin – played great as they gave us very important minutes.”
Emma Johnson rang up 26 pts as the Mustangs mauled Maggie. Ashlyn Day chipped in with 21 points, while Megan Admussen-Bluru led Maggie with 33 points.
Immaculata enjoyed 20-0 run late in the first quarter and cruised to the title.
Junior Maroons fall short
The Fulton junior boys season came to a close Saturday morning with a 50-37 loss to OKM at the Valley playdowns in Kelowna.
The Huskies led 22-15 at the half before Fulton’s defence collapsed in the second half and its shooters could not find the outside scoring touch needed against OKM’s tight zone defence.
Landon Currie collected 11 points, five steals and six rebounds for Fulton, while Nathan Banga bagged 10 points, eight from the charity stripe.
Noah Lee pitched in seven points and Hunter Krieger had six.
“Caden Doyle and Greg Geistlinger played spectacular defence on OKM’s star player, Nic Smitch, all game long, holding him to one field goal per quarter,” said Maroons’ head coach Johnal Lee.
“The boys had a great season. Half a game away from earning a spot to the provincial championships. This was a heartbreaker for them.”
In junior girls play, Fulton finished seventh after going in as the North Zone No. 2 seed, stopping the Princeton Rebels 32-28 in their last game.
Ashton Abramenko sank eight points and Kieanna Boomer-Jones scored five.
Fulton earlier lost 56-18 to OKM and fell 53-24 to South Kam Titans.
Mack Morin, with nine points, and Abbey Hughes, with five, led Fulton against the Titans.
“I would like to thank Kevin Morrison for all his dedication and hard work as an assistant coach,” said Fulton head coach Mike Scheller. “I truly believe we got better as the season wore on. We were young; nine of the 12 girls still have junior eligibility left. Jasmine Fox, Kieanna Boomer-Jones both played very hard as Grade 10s. Mack Morin and Abbey Hughes can also be congratulated on very solid seasons.”
Grade 8 Panthers provincial bound
The VSS Grade 8 girls are off to provincials in Pitt Meadows next week after winning the zone championships by bouncing the Charles Bloom Timberwolves 48-23.
The Panthers, who topped the league at 10-0, got 14 points from Kelsey Falk, and 10 apiece from Jessee Harman and Jaide Vandeleest. Harman had her best game of the year, hitting several clutch shots in the opening half. Bree Vanderleest put in eight points.
Mike Bertram’s Cats had a bye into the semifinals, where they dispatched the Kalamalka Lakers 52-20 behind 20 points and 12 rebounds from Falk and 10 points from Abby Williamson.
Emilia Durfeld pocketed six points, while Olivia Sawka and Jaide Vanderleest each had five and Sarah Crerar and Harman had four apiece.
