The VSS Panthers are going back to the B.C. Senior AA Girls Basketball Championships in Langley.
The Cats punched their ticket to the provincial sweet 16 with an 80-74 semifinal win over the Immaculata Mustangs of Kelowna 80-74 in the Valley semifinals Friday night at Okanagan Mission in Kelowna.
Megan Rouault drained 24 points and Brianna Falk hit 20 for the Panthers.
The first quarter was tight but VSS forged ahead in and led by 13 at the break. The Mustangs got within three points in the fourth but the composed Panthers hung on. Kelsey Falk added 18 points.
“The girls showed resiliency in able to calmly close out the game in a hostile environment and to do it with such class,” said Panther head coach Lonny Mazurak. “(Dave Tetreault) Coach T and I are very proud of our group tonight and are looking forward to the final against South Kamloops (Titans).”
The Cats opened the Valleys with a 97-51 win over the NorKam Saints.
After a sluggish 19-14 first quarter, the Panthers picked up their pace and ran away the last three quarters.
Brianna Falk flushed 33 points, while Megan Rouault canned 26, including seven from the Capital News Centre parking lot. Mackenzie Horst fired 16 points, including 10 in the first quarter when the offence was sputtering.
Meanwhile, defence was put on the back burner as the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack and the Brandon University Bobcats opened up their best of three Canada West men’s basketball play-in series.
The hometown Bobcats took the opener 101-97 Friday night at the Healthy Living Centre.
The WolfPack were down 48-40 at the half but outscored the Bobcats 30-25 in the third quarter. That included going on an 18-3 run.
TRU’s main scorer was Volodymyr Iegorov (5th year, forward, Donetsk, Ukraine) with 29 points. Joe Davis (2nd year, forward, Kamloops) added 24. Mike Rouault of Vernon chipped in with eight points, 14 rebounds (10 defensive), three steals and one assist in 32 minutes of playing time.
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