The Sylix girls from Okanagan Nation hope to repeat as champions at the 2012 BC Junior All Native Basketball tournament, but after a heart-breaking 53-52 loss to Island Storm Tuesday morning at Athletic Hall, they will have to do it the hard way.
The two teams traded leads in the first half, but in the third quarter the Snuneymuxw girls, despite being out-sized by the taller Sylix squad, put up a stifling defence while five-foot-seven Gabby Jeffrey struck for 10 of her 22 points on the game.
Sylix finished up the third quarter four points back at 42-38, and that gap gradually widened to 51-43 as the game wound down and the Okanagan Nation girls couldn’t buy a basket.
Tournament photos at: http://www.hashilthsa.com/photos
But with the Storm working hard to shut down the defending champions, they began to run into foul trouble.
First, Danielle Ruocco picked up the hoop and the harm, going one-for-two at the foul line, then teammate Jasmine Montgomery dropped a three-pointer at the one-minute mark to close the gap to three points, 51-48.
The Storm picked up a basket on the ensuing play to re-build their cushion, but Montgomery, with two more chances at the foul line, made it 53-50 with 28 seconds left on the clock. Almost immediately, Sylix Kayla Donald was awarded another two shots, dropping one to close the gap to two points.
With 4.5 seconds left in the game and the score 53-51, it all came down to Danielle Ruocco on the foul line. After dropping the first bucket and the tying point on the line, Ruocco missed the shot, but with a fraction of a second before the buzzer, picked up her own rebound and lofted a desperation lay-up that fell just short of the basket.
Veterans Montgomery and Elle-Leigh Snow were each good for 18 points while Ruocco added 11. Other than standout Jeffery, the Storm spread out the scoring, with Amber John leading the rest of the pack with nine points.
Storm coach Paul Seward said that’s partly his coaching style.
“We have girls who are offensive players and defensive players and girls who play the transition,” Seward said. “In the fourth quarter, we started to press them a little more. Both teams were tired but we were working with a bigger bench.”
Seward said a couple of “little mistakes” made the last minute of the game a real nail-biter, but he believes his squad will use the experience to work its way to the final. And he is actually hoping for a re-match.
“I hope that’s the team we meet in the final,” Seward said.
The winning coach said both teams exhibited a level of sportsmanship and competitive fire that makes all the hard work worthwhile.
“No cussing, no trash talk, that’s how the game should be played,” Seward said. “That comes from the coaches and it comes from the organization, and it comes from the senior players.”
Sylix captain Jasmine Montgomery, 17, was one of only four returning veterans from last year’s championship team, along with Elle-Leigh Snow, Dina Brown and Sophia Terbasket.
“This is my fifth year at the All Natives. We won at home last year, and two years ago we won in Prince Rupert,” Montgomery said.
Over the years, the team has taken part in women’s tournaments all over the province and down to Spokane in Washington State, just to get game time, Montgomery said.
“This is my fourth year at the All Natives. In my first year (2009), we took second, here in Port Alberni,” Dina Brown observed.
Taylor Baptiste said some of the younger players played at the All Natives last year, but not with the premier club.
“Some of us played on the junior team. We only got together two weeks before the tournament, because a couple of teams backed out,” Baptiste said. “I was only 13, and some of the kids hadn’t played full-court basketball.”
Nevertheless, the young squad placed a more than respectable seventh at the tournament and gained valuable experience for future years.
All Sylix members are from Okanagan Nation, but members are spread out all over the south Okanagan, Brown said.
“This was our first game and we were a little nervous. We’re just getting used to playing together,” she explained.
Brown is from Vernon, while Montgomery is from Similkameen, near Keremeos. Taylor Baptiste lives in Oliver, Erin Gabriel in Penticton, Vanessa Harris in Keremeos and Kayla Donald in West Bank.
“Most of our team is from Keremeos, so most of our practices were there,” Donald said.
“It’s three hours from where I live,” Brown said.
One of the perks for the reigning champions, the host Homiss Wolves and the Sylix girls, was starting play on Tuesday morning. But faced with their opening-round loss to the Storm, the Sylix girls had to get right back onto the court an hour-and-a-half later to begin the long grind through the lower ranks for a chance to make it back to the finals.
At noon, the girls tipped off against the Gitwinksihlkw Jr. Wildcats of Canyon City, and showed no mercy on the young, inexperienced Nass Valley squad. With a vast edge in size, skill and experience, Sylix coach Amanda Montgomery took the opportunity to put her girls through their paces, racking up a 26-point lead before the Wildcats managed to put the ball through the hoop at 7:30 of the second quarter. The half ended with Sylix taking a 24-4 lead.
Early in the second half, coach Montgomery was asked why she continued to play her starters.
“I’m showing the bench how to run the offence,” she said, and shortly after, platooned four players to run the same patterns.
With hyperactive five-foot point guard Erin Gabriel turned loose in the backcourt and six-foot-four Sophia Terbasket towering over the young Wildcats under the net, the Sylix girls administered some hard basketball lessons, but the Gitwinksihlkw girls kept coming back hard.
Despite their lack of experience and playing time, the Wildcats managed to play aggressively without racking up more than a couple of fouls throughout the game. And despite the lopsided score, the young Nisga’a girls came back smiling, obviously eager to learn from the more polished Sylix squad. The 57-6 score was merely an afterthought, according to coach Chester Nyce.
“We haven’t been able to get to the All Natives for five years because we just haven’t had enough girls. Most of these kids are only 14,” Nyce said. “Some of these girls have never played basketball before. We told them this is a learning experience. It’s a chance to get to the All Natives this year, and [the tournament] is up in Aiyansh next year.”
Sylix coach Montgomery said after taking the first round loss, her girls didn’t have the option of taking it easy on the overmatched Wildcats.
“It’s game by game now. We have a long road through the back door,” Montgomery said. “This was sort of a cool-out, and it let us work on our game.”
Told that the Storm coach hoped for a re-match in the final, Montgomery said the feeling is mutual.
“This time, we’re going to be prepared,” she said.
