LANGLEY - The Tamanawis Wildcats fell short Sunday (Dec. 7), losing 95-73 to the Kelowna Owls in the Tsumura Basketball Invitational boys' final.
Wildcats' co-coach Doug Mackenzie said he's satisfied with the silver medal, but wished the performance was more consistent."I just wish we could've played with more intensity in this game," he said, noting Tamanawis couldn't maintain spells of pressure on Kelowna."It starts in practice. The guys need to push each other harder in practice."Aminder Basra finished the game with a team-high 20 points and 12 rebounds, while Miguel Tomley chipped in with 18 points.The Wildcats beat Brookswood 70-52 on Friday and Abbotsford 78-69 on Saturday to make it to Sunday's final of the eight-team tournament at Langley Events Centre.Mackenzie noted he still has a young squad that showed a lot of strength to come back to beat Abbotsford in the semifinal.Kelowna entered the tournament ranked as B.C.'s seventh-best team, according to TheProvince's Big 10 Rankings, while the Wildcats are an honourable mention on the list.The Fleetwood Park Dragons finished seventh at the tournament after defeating neighbouring Enver Creek 63-55 on Sunday.Nick Day, assistant coach of the Dragons, felt his team could have been in the final, but found it hard to rebound after a tough opening-game loss to Abbotsford, 67-63 in overtime.Day noted the team has to be more clinical on offence in the future."For us, it's about consistency," he said. "It's about creating good habits and trying to be consistent, and that's hard at the high school level."North Surrey finished fourth after losing 71-69 to Abbotsford in the bronze-medal game.In the girls' bracket, Holy Cross finished the tournament in seventh after beating Mark Isfeld 69-29 on Sunday.Head coach Steve Beauchamp was satisfied with how his team played, giving Handsworth and Charles Best a run for their money.kyle.benning@gmail.com