K-Town Girls Leave Vancouver on a High
Kelowna Owls Sr. Girls vs Burnaby Central Wildcats
December 9, 2023
Kelowna Owls came flying into the 3rd place game of the girls side of the No Regrets Basketball Tournament on Saturday afternoon as they faced the Burnaby Central Wildcats. Kelowna, rocking their sharp all black “K-Town” jerseys, stormed out to a 16 point lead early, led by the smooth play of their point guard #5 Mav Chahal. The K-Town girls put the heat on the Wildcats early, pressing them at any chance and turning up the tempo as they looked to get up and down the court. The Owls played an opportunistic style of basketball, looking to create turnovers on defense, run the court and shoot from long range at will… chants of “BOOOOOOOOM” could be heard throughout the game as the Owls, led by sharpshooter #9 Emma Pinkerton, poured in threes from all over the court.
Burnaby Central fought back with their own version of a full-court press in the second quarter trying to press Kelowna to get back in the game but were unable to connect on many of their three-point attempts, leading to fast break opportunities for Kelowna. #5 Chahal made Burnaby Central pay the price as she sliced and diced the Wildcats to score and set up teammates at will leading Kelowna to a 45-21 lead at half.
The Wildcats did what they could to tame Kelowna’s depth by relying on scoring from one of their leaders #3 Ankita Chopra who had a big 4th quarter and solid play from #9 Jayla Huynh, who quarterbacked the Wildcats and found her teammates in good situations while hitting some outside shots. #12 Vobia Kalome was also key for the Wildcats who’s strong all-round play gave the team a chance at staying in the game.
The Burnaby squad deserves full credit for keeping their head in the game while being down by more than 30 points early in the game. They fought for second and third chances around the hoop and showed no quit in the third quarter, chipping away at a large deficit and refusing to go away easily. But a very talented Kelowna team was hard to contain as the Owls kept pouring it on, finishing the 3rd quarter up 67-43. The Owls, led by legendary Canadian national team player, and SFU alumnus, Coach Pete Guarasci, were clearly disappointed they were not in the finals. However, they kept their focus and executed down the stretch to put the finishing touches on a convincing 75-61 win to secure a third place finish for the Owls at this year’s tournament and return home with something to build on.
Final Score: Kelowna Owls 75, Burnaby Central Wildcats 61