Morning Star Staff
Another year, another Okanagan Valley Senior AA Girls Basketball League banner for the VSS Panthers.
This time, the Cats brushed back the South Kamloops Titans 71-63 in Saturday’s final at Okanagan Mission Secondary in Kelowna.
VSS is ranked No. 3 for the provincials which go March 1-4 at the Langley Events Centre.
Kelsey Falk flushed 18 points for VSS, while Megan Rouault, Brianna Falk and Mackenzie Horst each drained 15.
The Panthers and South Kam were either tied or separated by one point in the opening three quarters. Early in the fourth, with the Cats down by four, Rouault picked the pocket of a Titan guard for a layup which rattled South Kam.
“They turned the ball over in-bounding after the basket which led to a 16-4 run for us to finish the game,” said Panther head coach Lonny Mazurak.
“The defence only gave up one field goal in the last six minutes. (Assistant Dave Tetreault) Coach T was real pleased with the lock-down man defence played by the group. Special shout out to Kelsey, Brianna,and Rou for handling their top guard and Mackenzie Horst for her physical play against their 6-foot-5 post.”
Meanwhile, the VSS junior girls qualified for the provincials in Langley by finishing fourth at the Valleys.
The Cats started the tournament with a 30-26 overtime loss to Princess Margaret Mustangs of Penticton. Sarah Crerar led the scoring with five points, while Megan Claeys shut down Maggie’s big pointgetter with stifling defence.
VSS then rallied past Sa-Hali Sabres of Kamloops 37-32, getting 27 points in the final half. Callie Bertram scored all of her nine points in the fourth quarter by hitting three treys to kickstart the comeback. Ashley Budgen also canned nine points, while Jesse Harman added seven.
The Panthers closed with a 54-37 win over the NorKam Saints behind 14 points by Crerar and 13 from Bertram.
“They had trouble with our presses and we were able to get out to early leads of 18-6 and 26-8,” said VSS head coach Mike Bertram. “Steph Cardenas played great defence with six steals and Gabbi Boyd did some great rebounding in the second half. This is the first time our junior girls have qualified for provincials in five or six years which is quite an accomplishment seeing that we sent three of our top players to the senior team for their Valleys.”
The host Fulton Maroons, coached by Dale Olson, open the Valley senior AA boys playdowns Thursday, 3:30 p.m., versus Princess Margaret.
The Seaton Sonics take on the George Elliot Coyotes of Lake Country at 5:15, while the Pleasant Valley Saints of Armstrong meet the Westsyde Whundas of Kamloops at 7 p.m.
The semifinals go Friday at 7 and 8:45 p.m. with the championship game Saturday at 8:45 p.m.
The winner of Saturday’s consolation final at 7:00 will get the third provincial berth.
The B.C. tourney goes March 8-11, in Langley.
