Junior Girls Basketball
The SMUS Junior Girls Basketball team qualified for the Vancouver Island Junior Championship tournament by winning two of three Lower Island playoff tournament games this past week.
The Junior Blue Jags opened the Lower Island tournament with an 82-40 win over Belmont on Thursday. Indigo Edgington led SMUS with 25 points in the victory while Elspeth Rodger had 21 and Mya Beare 18.
In a Friday semifinal, SMUS beat Lambrick Park 52-35 as Edgington scored 19 points and Rodger 13. The Blue Jags wrapped up the Lower Island tournament with a 50-27 loss to Oak Bay in the championship game on Saturday. Edgington again led the way with 14 points to make the tournament all-star team along with SMUS teammate Crystal Cai. Mikaela Dubé added nine points for the Blue Jags in the final.
The Blue Jags will head to Mark Isfeld Secondary in Courtenay for the Vancouver Island Championship tournament which starts this Thursday. They go into Islands as South No. 2 and will play North No. 2 Dover Bay in their first game at 2 pm. SMUS is looking to qualify for the BC Championship tournament February 22 to 25 at Pacific Academy.
Senior Girls Basketball
The Senior Girls Basketball team wrapped up Lower Island league play this past week with a convincing win over cross-town 3A rival Reynolds. A slow start to the game saw the Blue Jags up 21-16 at the half. Then, thanks to some nifty finishing and outside shooting by Charlie Anderson and Alex Motherwell, the Blue Jags pulled ahead to win 68-45. Anderson finished with 26 points and Motherwell added 17.
The Senior Girls host the Island 3A Championship tournament this coming weekend at SMUS. Games will run from Thursday through Saturday, with the final scheduled for Saturday at 4:30 pm.
Grade 9 Boys Basketball
The SMUS Grade 9 Boys basketball team fell 61-28 to host Royal Bay in a Lower Island playoff semifinal last Wednesday. The Blue Jags’ Josh Leung was a standout in the match, hustling and battling all game.
The team plays its final game of the season on Monday at Esquimalt, beginning at 4:15 pm.
Junior Boys Basketball
The Junior Boys Basketball team qualified for this week’s Vancouver Island Junior Championship tournament with a second-place Lower Island playoff finish this past weekend at SMUS.
The Blue Jags opened the Lower Island tournament with a 58-39 win over Pacific Christian on Thursday. Forward Eliot Tait led SMUS with 14 points in the win while Parker Sheehan added 10 and Jaiden Daniels had eight. SMUS then advanced to the final with a 65-50 semifinal victory over Claremont, coming back from a two-point halftime deficit for the win. Guard Dani Pelyhe had 22 points to lead the Blue Jags while Tait added 17, Sheehan 13 and Will Zielinksi nine.
SMUS, ranked No. 9 provincially, got off to a poor start against the No. 2-ranked Oak Bay Bays and never recovered, losing 53-35 in Saturday’s Lower Island final. Pelyhe was the only Blue Jag in double figures with 18 points as the team shot poorly and committed too many turnovers against the talented Bays. The SMUS backcourt duo of Pelyhe and Sheehan were both named to the tournament all-star team.
The Junior Jags now head into the Island Championship tournament as South No. 2 and will face Nanaimo’s Wellington Wildcats in their first-round game on Thursday at 3:30 pm at Oak Bay. The top four teams from the double-knockout tournament advance to the BC Junior Championships that begin February 24 at the Langley Events Centre.
Senior Boys Basketball
The SMUS Senior Boys Basketball team wrapped up the Lower Island AA league season by splitting their final two games last week.
The Blue Jags rolled to an 87-20 win at Parkland on Tuesday, with Taiga Parmar’s 16 points leading the way. Kian Colgate added 14, Damon Bains 13 and Lincoln Faulkner 12 in the win.
That set up a showdown for first place at Lambrick on Wednesday night in front of a large and noisy crowd. The Blue Jags got off to a terrible start and trailed by 18 points after one quarter. However, SMUS did not quit, battling back to get within four points in the fourth quarter before eventually surrendering a 72-63 decision.
Colgate turned in a tremendous performance for SMUS, scoring a game-high 37 points with 22 of those coming in the second half as the Blue Jags’ rally fell just short. SMUS finished the regular season in second place at 8-2 while Lambrick placed first with a 10-0 record.
Both teams now advance to the Vancouver Island 2A tournament that begins February 22 at Brentwood College.
