Tyson Taylor
sports@pqbnews.com
The KSS senior girls team was back in action last weekend at the 59th Totem Tournament in Port Alberni, where they came in third.
Kwalikum Secondary School faced the Woodlands Eagles for third on Saturday in an interesting match as the teams face each other again in league play this week.
Michelle Waters and Michaela Witte paced the Kondors in that game as they scored 12 and 13 points to help KSS win.
The KSS Kondors were victorious in their first game of the tournament, a 55–41 win over the Vanier Towhees from Courtenay. Waters and Witte earned player of the game honours.
“We had a great first game from Michaela, Michelle and Greta Wratislav. We rotated the girls in a bunch and they all filled in and played well. We weren’t as solid defensively as we wanted to be but we picked up the win after our break down to San Diego so it was nice to see the girls pick up where they left off,” coach Jesse Witte said of their first game.
The second game saw the Kondors run into reigning tournament MVP in Kristy Gallagher and the Parkland Panthers from Victoria.
The Kondors had a good first quarter but trailed early and then it fell apart in the second, with Parkland stretching their lead to 20 points heading into the break. The Panthers stretched that lead even further half way into the third quarter as their lead went up to 30 before KSS started to make a comeback.
The Kondors went on a run to close out the third and then continued to ride that momentum heading into the fourth. With Parkland’s MVP on the bench, KSS closed the gap down to 10 points with four minutes to play. But it was too much for the Kondors to overcome as they fell 70–58 in the end.
“I thought we played better on defense as a team than we did our first game. If you take away the 42 points that Gallagher scored, we had the game won. You don’t see a player like that all that often so it’s hard to really come up with a game plan for just the one game we’ll see them for during the season.”
Coach Witte credited the girls for sticking with it and fighting to come back in the last half.
“It was good to see the girls keep it together out there. They could have folded up and called it a game but they stuck with it and made a game out of it. I thought that Kaylynn Yacoboski had her best game I’ve seen her play out there. She played really well and has been constantly improving each practice and game she plays.”
The tournament hosts six boys and girls teams and will expand to 16 teams next year.
