Sunshine Coast teams competed hard, but missed out on trophies at a four-team bantam girls' basketball tournament at Elphinstone Secondary School last Friday and Saturday.
Oceanview Orcas of Powell River upset Sutherland Sabres of North Vancouver 35-29 to take first place at the Feb. 17 and 18 tournament.
The host Cougars took third with a 50-33 win over Chatelech Eagles behind the brilliant efforts of guards Gabby Gunn and Ali Blattler, who scored 18 and 16 points respectively.
Ali was named to the all-star team along with Kylee Hunsche of Chat, Calli Ann Abbot and Lauren Davis of Oceanview and Maria Curl of Sutherland.
In earlier round-robin games, the Cougars had two close losses to Sutherland and Oceanview and a decisive 51-25 win over Chat. After a full-court press gave Elphi a 20-point halftime lead, strong defence by all players maintained the lead after theycalled off the press. Ali led a balanced scoring attack with 16 points in the Chat game. Centres Larissa Hunter and Taylor Fiedler rebounded strongly and combined for 15 points.
Pender beats Pemberton twice
After a tough first season in North Shore League play, the Pender Harbour junior girls travelled to Pemberton last weekend for two games, coming back to the Coast with a pair of wins.
On Friday night, Pender won 38-32 in a hard-fought battle, coming back from a seven-point halftime deficit.
On Saturday, the Sakinaws were full value for the win, blasting the Red Devils 46-18.
The junior girls North Shore League was a very strong league with two teams in the top 10 in the province, said Pender coach Earl Antilla. We didn't do that well, but the girls played hard every game and didn't give up.
Gray traded to Texas
After leading his Osoyoos Coyotes in the first half of his season in scoring, Josh Gray of Gibsons had his playing rights recently traded to the Junior A Texas Brahmas of the 20-team Western States Hockey League.
After a slow start in the league, Josh had his first four-point game in his third game, and another three-point night against the El Paso Rhinos in his fourth game.
