Senior Girls Basketball
The SMUS Senior Girls Basketball team played four games this past week, winning all four and capping it all off on homecourt with a championship run in the 51st annual Victoria City Police Tournament.
Tuesday night’s league tilt against 4A Oak Bay ended in a 54-35 win for SMUS, ranked No. 1 in the province among 3A teams. The Blue Jags pressed early and sustained good defensive pressure throughout while executing on offence. The flow of the game saw all Blue Jags get ample court time. Charlie Anderson finished with 19 points while Alex Motherwell added 16 and Olivia Pickering chipped in with eight.
In its opening-round game of the Police Tournament, SMUS squared off against Lambrick Park, winning 56-26. Almost all of the Blue Jags’ 10-player roster factored into the scoring. Sophia Eiley contributed some excellent minutes, narrowly missing on several attempts, while pulling down three rebounds and contributing two steals and one assist. Junior players Mya Beare and Indigo Edgington also contributed nicely at both ends of the floor.
In a semifinal game against 4A Claremont, SMUS was aiming to improve on its post defence. Starting in their press, the Blue Jags caused several turnovers resulting in 24 steals over the course of the game. Some excellent decision-making in transition led to several easy scores for Anderson enroute to a 30-point performance and a 56-32 win. Maddy Albert finished with 14 boards and three assists while Pickering added nine boards.
In the championship game – the first meeting of the season for two highly-ranked 3A teams – the Reynolds Roadrunners were hoping to knock the Blue Jags off their No. 1 pedestal. SMUS again used its full court pressure to break out to an early lead. But some foul trouble for the Blue Jags and a couple of uncontested three-point buckets helped Reynolds linger around.
Joss Olcen played another superb defensive game for SMUS as she guarded the Reynolds’ ball-handlers all night long and also chipped in six points. The one-two punch of Anderon and Motherwell propelled the Blue Jags to an eventual 57-44 win over Reynolds. Anderson finished with 27 points while Motherwell had 16. Olivia Vincent added some timely scoring in the paint and pulled down six rebounds. Anderson was recognized with Police Tournament MVP honours and Motherwell was named to the all-star team.
The Blue Jags now have a much-needed rest week coming up with no games scheduled.
Senior Boys Basketball
The SMUS Senior Boys Basketball team won three of its five games this past week, including a third-place finish in the eight-team Victoria City Police Tournament boys’ draw.
The Blue Jags opened the week with a Lower Island AA league road win at St. Andrew’s, beating the Sabres 78-48. Lincoln Faulkner led the way with 16 points in the win while Jack Driscoll had 11 and Kian Colgate 10.
That set up a clash of league undefeated rivals on Tuesday at SMUS between Lambrick Park and the Blue Jags. SMUS started strongly and led that contest for much of the way before eventually surrendering 89-82 to the visiting Lions. Five Blue Jags finished in double figures, led by Faulkner, Davis Hardy and Damon Bains, who each had 15. Lambrick big man Alex Baulne, plagued by foul trouble in the first half, led the Lions’ comeback by scoring 23 of his 25 points after the break.
The Blue Jags tipped off the boys’ draw in the Victoria City Police Tournament with a 77-65 win over GP Vanier of Courtenay on Thursday. Faulker again paced SMUS with 19 points while Hardy added 13.
The win moved the Blue Jags into a semifinal matchup against Brentwood College, the Island AA rivals’ first meeting of the season. It was a tense back-and-forth game in the first half, but Brentwood’s ball movement and three-point shooting allowed the visitors to pull away over the final 20 minutes for a 77-61 win. Faulkner had 19 points in the loss while Colgate added 13. Milan Pasquale paced Brentwood with 34 points, 21 of those coming in the decisive second half.
SMUS shook off that loss with an impressive performance in the third-place game, beating 4A Royal Bay 89-61. Faulkner again topped the Blue Jags in scoring with 20 points and was selected as a Police Tournament all-star. Colgate added 19 points in the win, Will Woods had 15 and Bains 11.
The Blue Jags will take part in the Countdown to the Playoffs tournament at Brentwood this week, beginning Thursday.
Junior Boys Basketball
The weather played havoc with the Junior Boys Basketball team’s schedule this week, scuttling a planned visit to the Lower Mainland for a top-tier junior tournament. Nevertheless, things worked out quite nicely for the Junior Jags.
The week started well, with SMUS turning in one of its most dominant performances of the season, beating visiting Mount Douglas 78-37 on Tuesday to run the Blue Jags’ Lower Island league record to 7-0. Every player in the lineup scored for SMUS with Dani Pelyhe leading the way with 16 points, Eliot Tait 14 and Henry Williamson 10. Parker Sheehan and Will Zielinksi led a total team effort in guarding Mount Douglas’s star player.
After their Wednesday night road game at Claremont was postponed because of snow, the Blue Jags were also forced to cancel plans to compete in the weekend St. Thomas More Junior Chancellor Tournament in Burnaby. But when that same wintry weather also prompted the King George Dragons to cancel their team’s appearance in the senior Victoria City Police Tournament, the SMUS Juniors gladly accepted the challenge to fill the vacant spot in the eight-team senior draw.
SMUS went toe-to-toe with the athletic senior Royal Bay boys and trailed by only three points midway through the fourth quarter before eventually falling 84-72 in their Police Tournament opener. Pelyhe led the Junior Jags with a season-high 38 points in the loss while Eliot Tait had 22.
A hard tumble in the opening game forced Pelyhe to sit out the Juniors’ second game of the tournament against the Shawnigan Lake School seniors. Nevertheless, the Blue Jags rode a 28-point performance from Tait, 14 from Jaiden Daniels and 10 from Williamson to beat Shawnigan 75-68. Quinn McMeekin combined with Tait and Daniels to dominate the boards and McMeekin’s back-to-back three-pointers in the third quarter were key in propelling the Jags to the win.
SMUS capped off the tournament with another impressive effort, trailing a fundamentally sound Vanier senior team by just six points at the half. But with Tait sitting out this one due to an injury, the Blue Jags eventually dropped a 77-53 decision to the Towhees. Pelyhe was back to lead the way with 22 points. And Declan Longridge helped fill the void left by the injured Tait, collecting a number of physical rebounds and adding five points of his own.
Pelyhe was honoured for his weekend performance with a Police Tournament all-star award. Meanwhile, SMUS Junior guard Will Bateson put on a long-distance shooting clinic in the tournament’s three-point competition, winning all three rounds to take the title.
Overall, the tournament was a fantastic experience for the Junior Blue Jags, who have another big week coming up with a road league game at Claremont on Tuesday (7:15 pm), a home game Wednesday vs. Royal Bay (7:15 pm) and the Claremont Spartan Invitational tournament Friday and Saturday.
Junior Girls Basketball
The Junior Girls Basketball team had a relatively quiet week, beating Pacific Christian 70-25 in its only action last week. Mya Beare scored 22 points in the road league win while Mikaela Dubé added 20.
The Junior Girls will play host to Claremont in another league game this Wednesday, tipping off at 5:45 pm.
Grade 9 Boys Basketball
The Grade 9 Boys Basketball team enjoyed two impressive wins this week, beating Vic High 48-45 on the road Monday and then defeating Dover Bay 52-44 in a game that was part of an Oak Bay jamboree on Saturday. In the win over Dover, Ming Tsang scored 26 points for SMUS.
“The boys have been playing great team basketball and showing lots of improvement,” says Coach Graeme Hyde-Lay. “The boys look to keep their momentum going on Monday in their game against GNS.”
That Monday contest will begin at 5:45 pm at GNS. The Grade 9 Boys will also take part in a tournament at Mount Douglas beginning Thursday.
