The 62-point margin of victory pretty much told the tale.
The Kelowna Owls spooked the Prince George Polars 101-39 Thursday at the quad-A boys provincial basketball championship in Langley, handing the Polars their second loss in two games at the 16-team tournament.
As expected, the No. 10-ranked Owls focused on limiting PGSS guard Tyrell Laing, knowing he's accounted for more than a third of the Polars' total offence this season. Laing, one of three Grade 10 players on the PGSS senior team, sunk 22 of his team's 34 points in their opening game Wednesday, a 97-34 loss to Gleneagle of Coquitlam, but was held to 11 against Kelowna.
"They're keying on him pretty well, they're forcing him to give the ball up right way and once he gives it up they're denying him," said Polars head coach Nav Parmar.
"It's such a fast-paced game, we're asking him to do too much at times, bringing up the ball or getting in a half-court set and getting others involved. Now all 11 guys are on the same page now and they understand next year it's going to take a commitment from everybody, it can't be a one-man team."
Johnny Tatla and Simarjot Gill each contributed seven points for PGSS. Buster Truss collected 28 points to lead the Owls.
The 15th-ranked Polars are matched against the No. 14 Pitt Meadows Marauders in their next game today at 3:15 p.m.
Before this week, none of the Polars had competed in a provincial basketball championship, junior or senior, and Parmar says the experience they are now gaining will make them that much better when they return to the court next fall. The current team has just two Grade 12 players.
"The one thing I'm really happy about is they see the level of commitment and dedication that needs to be put in this off-season," said Parmar.
"Now they see what they have to do to compete at this level and how disciplined the other teams are on offence and defence. They knew it was going to be a tough go coming in and we've been competing but there's too much size for them to overcome. Every team we've played so far has two or three guys over six-foot-six of six-foot-seven.
"I didn't want us to get deflated over these games, I wanted them to see how good these teams are how hard they work to become that good. We're just trying to make some progress and build some momentum going into each game and they've been doing a pretty good job. They're just excited to be here. The atmosphere here is unbelievable and overall it's been a great experience for us playing the best teams in the province."
