The Kalamalka Lakers didn’t get the result they wanted, but they certainly hosted an entertaining opening day of basketball at their Rock the Rim Senior Boys Tournament Friday.
Leading by 22 points at the half, the Lakers bowed 71-69 to the A.L. Fortune Falcons of Enderby in the opener. Luke Tompkins paced Fortune with a game-high 26 points and Wyatt Fassbender chipped in with 19.
Max Wilford had 18 points for Kal, with junior call-up Chris Gallant draining 11 and Paul Major supplying 10.
“It was a barn burner first night. Best first four games of a tournament I’ve seen in a while,” said Lakers’ head coach Rick Serafin. “It was a great opening night of b-ball and it looks like all eight teams are going to get three good games of ball, win or lose.”
The second tilt had plenty of back-and-forth action between the D.W. Poppy Red Hawks of Langley and the Rutland Voodoos, with the Hawks earning a 70-68 win.
Leading scorers for Poppy were Josh Hoonrete, with 25 points, Joey Lakatas, with 21, and Devon Stone, with 14. Travis Worthing dialed up 29 points for Rutland and Daya Lalli canned 16.
In yet anther two-point decision, the Seaton Sonics clipped the Westsyde Whundas of Kamloops 64-62.
The Sonics got clutch shooting from Besim Malaqi (24 points) and Chris McEachran-Law (17 points) to pull out the win. The Whundas were led by Grade 10 student Joe Davis, with 16 points.
The final game of the night was another nail-biter, with R.E. Mountain Eagles of Langley squeaking out a 63-59 win over the cold-shooting Pleasant Valley Saints of Armstrong.
Shehryaar Sehgal flushed 22 points for Mountain, with Peter Chung adding 15. PVSS was led by Matt Sutherland with 18 points and Brandon Aikema with 14.
The Charles Bloom Timberwolves opened their senior girls home tourney Friday with a 59-42 win over the Sonics, who were last-minute stand-ins after a team dropped out.
The T-wolves worked their full-court press to take a 28-11 lead into the half, but Seaton battled back, closing the gap to eight points in the third.
Bloom’s Shannon Baetschman delivered 15 points, Josalynn Sheilds had 14 points and Tina Jones added 11. Morgan Schunter and Jeny Moen were strong on defence.
Seaton’s high scorer was Danielle McLelland with 14 points.
Host Pleasant Valley had trouble solving the Golden Golden Eagles’ zone defence, falling 39-30 in their Snoball senior girls tourney opener in Armstrong.
Simran Dahmi scored 22 points for Golden, while PVSS Game MVP Aurora Cox fired eight points for the Saints.
In the other Friday game, George Elliot fell 27-19 to the Princeton Rebels.
At the senior girls tournament in Lake Country, the Vernon Panthers used 16 points and 15 rebounds by Quincy Leier to brush back the George Elliot Coyotes 61-45 Friday.
Also having big games for VSS were Mary Rice (11 points, nine rebounds), Sage Blundell (nine points) and Bailey Limb (nine points).
“George Elliot played us tough and had a two-point lead early in the third quarter,” said VSS co-coach Bobby Mitchell.
“The girls played well all game, but really stepped it up half way through the third and kept control of the game from that point on.”
VSS tangled with the Gladstone Gladiators of Vancouver and Williams Lake Thunder in Saturday round-robin play.
