The Kelowna Owls will take their No. 1 ranking in B.C. AAAA basketball to Coquitlam this weekend for the Legal Beagle senior boys tournament.
KSS will play its first game Friday morning against the winner of Thursday’s matchup between Kitsilano and Cowichan.
The tournament at Terry Fox features five of the province’s top 10 teams.
Meanwhile, the Owls are coming off a strong showing at the Tournament of Champions last week at Franklin High School in Seattle.
The Owls went 2-1, with their only loss coming to the eventual tournament champs, the Cleveland Eagles of Seattle.
KSS opened the tournament slowly against the Eagles and despite a solid second half, fell by a 65-57 score.
Tournament all-star and Grade 11 post Grant Shephard scored 18 points and had 12 rebounds to lead the Owls. Seniors Davide Ciancio and Parker Simson had 16 and 11, respectively.
Kelowna came back strong in its second game beating Mount Tahoma of Tacoma 86-65.
It was a tight two-point game at the end of the third quarter before the Owls pulled away in the fourth.
Shephard had a dominant 31-point (13-for-16 from the field) and 15 rebound effort.
Simson had another solid outing with 17 points and six boards while fellow senior Nav Sandhu had 17 points on 5-6 shooting and eight rebounds.
After being in foul trouble in each of the first two games, the Owls finally adapted to the American style of officiating and limited their fouls in the final game, a 76-70 victory over the host Franklin Quakers.
Shephard had 21 points (8-for-10 from field) and 13 rebounds, while senior Matt Lafontaine shot the lights out from beyond the arc, hitting six of nine threes, and finishing with 21 points. Ciancio finished a fine tournament with 13 points. Grade 11 Mason Bourcier had 11 points and was clutch at the free throw line in the fourth quarter going 7-for-8 with the game on the line.
The Owls were 11-2 on the season heading into Tuesday’s league game in Rutland.
