It was the battle of the Penticton basketball titans in the final of the Maggie Mania senior boys basketball tournament Saturday.
In the final of the two-day event, it was the host Princess Margaret Mustangs and the Penticton Secondary Lakers who tipped off for gold.
Hot off Thursday’s 64-50 Cross City Challenge match, the Lakers also took the tournament championship with a 68-48 decision.
“Maggie plays a slow down, grind it out style,” said Lakers assistant coach Eron Labadie afterwards. “They do a good job of taking you out of your rhythm and forcing you to play their type of basketball.
“Fortunately, playing them for the second time in three days gave us a better understanding of what we needed to do. The first thing was to try to limit the offence of their big guard Will Casimir-Eneas.”
The coach credited the work of James Hill and Spencer Toneatto to keep him in check as much as possible.
Austin Afonso regained his scoring touch in the tournament, finishing the game with 19 points and four rebounds. He had 20 points in the semi-final against JL Crowe.
South Okanagan Secondary of Oliver took the bronze with a 93-73 win over Grand Forks and Trail’s JL Crowe slipped past Pleasant Valley of Armstrong by an 80-79 margin to claim fifth place.
The Lakers went undefeated in the round robin portion of the tournament with an 81-52 decision over Oliver and an 82-53 verdict against JL Crowe.
Maggie got by Pleasant Valley 64-41 in their first match and downed Grand Forks 69-40 to earn a spot in the finals.
Related: Mustangs sting Hornets in home victory for second place tie
Pen High hosted this year’s Cross City Challenge in the hotly contested match that went back and forth in front of an enthusiastic crowd of supporters for both sides.
Jake Stewart had a breakout game for the Lakers shooting five for seven field goals and was good on all four attempts from the foul line for a game high 15 points. He added six rebounds and four assists.
Mason Holt did all his damage from the paint, hitting for 12 points and three rebounds while Spencer Toneatto came of the bench to nail 10 points and put in a strong defensive game.
Related: Tough battles for Penticton Secondary Lakers at basketball tourney
According to Lakers assistant coach Eron Labadie, Mustangs Will Casimir-Eneas was a one-man wrecking crew on the court throughout the match.
“At times he looked like he was going to take over,” said Labadie. “He drew special defensive attention from us in the second half but still managed a game-high 16 points and three blocks.”
Casimir-Eneas finished the game with 38 points, while teammate Colton Olexa hit for 15 points while Matt Olsen connected for 10 points and pulled down 12 rebounds.
The Lakers scheduled game against Mount Boucherie Tuesday was postponed until next week due to the rock slide.
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Mark Brett | Reporter
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