The Cedar Spartans senior boys' basketball team kept the ball rolling with strong tournament results over the weekend.
The Spartans AA squad placed third at its tournament this past weekend at the Cedar Community Secondary School gym. Cedar finished with a 57-50 win against Belmont in the third-place game Saturday. Coach Rick Hart said his team played well against Belmont.
"We started moving the ball around pretty good and played together," he said. "They played zone so it was good for us to go against a pretty aggressive zone defence."
Jake Crow scored 18 points in the game and Brendan McCarthy scored 13.
Cedar started the tournament with solid wins over the Carihi Towhees and Isfeld Ice before getting stopped by the Kwalikum Kondors in the semifinals. Kwalikum went on to win the tournament with a victory over St. Thomas Aquinas.
The other tournament action in Nanaimo on the weekend was at the Wellington Secondary School gym, where the Alberni Armada defeated the Nanaimo District Islanders 61-34 in the final.
"The NDSS girls did admit they were happy just to be there…" said Jim Richardson, Isles coach. "Alberni shot well in the first quarter and played a stifling zone defense the ND girls had a hard time penetrating."
The Islanders started with a 62-58 win over Kwalikum on Friday in which Leigh Richardson scored 34 points, going 12-for-15 from the free-throw line. Lina Dinh scored 14.
ND also played a later game Friday, crushing the Timberline Wolves 69-37. Megan Skeeles had a strong game for the Islanders with 16 points and Darian Sport also played well.
Cedar's senior AA girls finished third at the Wellington. They defeated Isfeld 57-43 on Friday, then lost to the Alberni Armada 64-60 Saturday before finishing up later that day with a 62-35 win over Kwalikum. Megan Cawthorne led Cedar with 14 points in the first game, then Jordan Stotts paced her team's offence with 20 points, then 17 points in Saturday's action.
Wellington's girls were busy at their tournament with four games over two days. They lost 42-41 to Isfeld to start the tourney and then dropped a 60-36 decision to the Armada later that day. On Saturday the Wildcats girls dominated Timberline 69-16 then avenged their loss to Isfeld with a 65-37 victory.
Garaline Tom led the'Cats in the tournament opener with 12 points and Jordyn Hrenyk scored 11 in Friday's later game. In Saturday's win over the Wolves Mariah Van Sickle scored 29 points and Tom added 19. Tom then scored 34 in Saturday's matchup with the Ice.
GAME ON … High school basketball action today is headlined by a senior AAA boys' matchup between the Dover Bay Dolphins and the Wellington Wildcats at 7 p.m. at the Wellington Secondary School gym. Also, the Cedar girls host Woodlands at 4 p.m., the Barsby Blazers senior AA girls host Kwalikum at 5 p.m., the Blazers senior AA boys visit the Woodlands Eagles at 5 p.m. and the Dover Bay senior AAA girls host Frances Kelsey at 5:30 p.m.
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