Search KelownaNow
A busy weekend of club basketball saw the host UBC Okanagan Heat U15s and U17s both split their four games at the university gymnasium.
The U15 Heat opened round-robin play by defeating the Lake City U15s of Penticton 66-53, despite getting off to a slow start. The difference for the winners proved to be their full-court pressure.
With some timely steals from Kassidy Day and Paige Watson, and Jenna Holland’s constant driving to the hoop led the Heat comeback
Following the opening game that featured highs and lows and a struggle with consistency, “focus” became the theme for the remainder of the weekend.
Up against the U17 Triple Threat team from Vancouver, the Heat found themselves trailing 22-6 after the first quarter but regained their focus to stay to within two points of the TT's output in each of the next three quarters. But in the end, it was a 61-40 triumph for Triple Threat.
Jaeli Ibbetson, the Heat’s player of the game, led her team with 13 points while Jordan Robb netted a pair of three-pointers. Key defensive stops came from Naomi Kent and Olivia Avani.
The Heat rebounded for a 61-53 win in their second game on Saturday against Team Alberta U14s.
Down by six early on, the Heat battled back against an aggressive Alberta team that was called for 28 fouls.
Kelsey Falk was selected the Heat’s player of the game, leading the charge with a dominant performance under the basket, particularly in the third quarter.
Team Alberta began creeping back in the late stages of the third quarter with their superb outside shooting, but Joelle di Silva, with a sweet pump fake, finished under the hoop to halt their run.
In their final weekend game, the Heat jumped out to a 22-14 lead in the first quarter against the U15 Junior (Mt. Royal University) Cougars and led 36-31 at the half, but they couldn’t handle the Alberta team’s two-three zone in the third quarter and found themselves trailing 58-46 going into the final frame.
When the Cougars went back to their man-to-man defence, the Heat, led by Robb’s eight-point effort and some solid defence from Melana Corrado, were able to cut the lead, but still dropped a 71-58 decision.
“Overall, it was a great weekend of basketball,” said Heat assistant coach Cassidy Deveer. “Our team was led by our court general, Jenna Robinson, but as a team, the work we put in on our play action really paid off. We’ll take this valuable learning experience and use it to train hard over the next few weeks leading up to our next tournament in Calgary.”
The U17 Heat also split their four games at the weekend event that attracted 14 teams overall.
Brianna Falk scored 14 points and pulled down six rebounds to lead the Heat to a 58-37 victory over the U15 Junior Cougars in their opening encounter.
Mackenzie Horst, who will be a key figure for the Immaculata Mustangs this coming high school basketball season, added 10 points and 11 boards to earn player-of-the-game honours. Grace Campbell contributed six points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals.
Game 2 saw the Heat drop a 57-42 decision to the U17 Junior Cougars despite a 12-point, eight-rebound performance by Horst and 10 points and three steals from Megan Rouault. Alley Corrado added six points and team-high four assists.
“We cut their lead to six points with about for minutes to go, but then we couldn’t get the stops we needed,” explained head coach Bobby Mitchell. “I liked our fight to get back in the game, and that’s something we can take with us going forward.”
Up against Triple Threat U17B team of Vancouver in their third game, the Heat received a 15-point effort (four 3s) from Emily Ferguson and 12 points and seven rebounds from Horst on the way to a 63-43 victory.
Chelsea Espenberg’s hit the first of seven treys by the Heat as a team, and that opened up the floor for Horst and Falk to operate with room under the hoop. The duo combined for 24 points and 12 rebounds.
In what was termed the “game of the weekend” by Mitchell, the Heat fell 68-67 in overtime to Triple Threat U17A in their final encounter on Sunday.
Horst came through with 21 points and eight boards to set the pace for the Heat, who also received a 13-point performance by Rouault. Corrado had one of her most complete games of the spring, scoring eight points, collecting five rebounds and six assists, as well as three blocks and three steals.
The Heat trailed most of the way and were behind by eight early in the fourth quarter, but went on an 8-0 run to pull even at 56-56.
Down by two points with 13 seconds remaining, the Heat executed a sideline play to perfection. Falk made a lob pass from out of bounds to Horst, who calmly gathered it in and scored to tie the game and send it into overtime.
Triple Threat jumped out to a quick four-point lead in OT and the Heat didn’t have enough time to get it back.
“It was a full team effort,” said coach Mitchell. “As well as those who led the team in points, we got a spark off the bench from Sarah Howald, who chipped in with six points. Maddie Dickie did a great job on defence to force turnovers and make it tough on the TT shooters while Emma Parmar came in late to do a great job defensively. And she set up a perfect screen for Mackenzie, who scored and was fouled to turn the sequence into a three-point play.
“We learned a lot about ourselves and we’re excited to get back to work at practice this week,” added Mitchell.
If you get value from KelownaNow and believe local independent media is important to our community we ask that you please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter.
If you appreciate what we do, we ask that you consider supporting our local independent news platform.