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Lakers competitive Owls during loss

Lakers senior girls basketball coach not disappointed by loss to Kelowna Owls
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PEN HIGH LAKER Haylee Robertson watched desperately wanting her free throw to sink with teammate Tessa Lannon-Paakspuu also watching in the background against the Kelowna Secondary Owls.

Pen High Lakers coach Lesley Lacroix was more than happy with a 63-46 loss against the Kelowna Secondary Owls Wednesday night.

“I’m thrilled,” the senior girls basketball bench boss added following the defeat at Pen High. “I thought this was going to be a 40 to 50 point loss. This is a top-10 ranked team in the province. This bodes very well for us at this time of the year.”

Haylee Robertson scored nearly half the Lakers points, finishing with 22, while collecting 11 boards. Natasha Reimer was a rebounding monster, grabbing 23 to go with nine points. Tessa Lannon-Paakspuu with finished with eight points, six assists, and 10 boards.

While the Lakers lost by 17 points, the majority of the spread was 10 points.

“It was the second half of the last quarter when we started to fall back a bit,” said Lacroix. “They are just a deep team.”

It didn’t help that Lacroix had to keep Reimer on the bench because of foul trouble, which she said made a big difference. Lacroix likes that her team is playing aggressive and knows they will make mistakes. She said it’s not about playing perfect basketball, as long as they make up for it defensively if they turn the ball over.

“We passed the ball into Haylee really well,” said Lacroix. “She played a hell of a game. Caught some really tough passes over the defensive end as they were fronting her.”

Lacroix also said the Owls got an edge from their perimeter shooting, an area the Lakers cannot match them in right now.

Over the weekend the Lakers were in Abbotsford for a tournament hosted by WJ Mouat. They opened by getting trounced 85-11 against the host team, ranked third provincially. They followed that up with a 66-50 loss against the Walnut Grove Gators, who they faced in Penticton recently. Reimer led with 15 points, Robertson had 13. Reimer also drained 16 points as the Lakers lost to Victoria’s Claremont school 55-45, but defeated Spectrum, also of Victoria, 68-34. Reimer was the offensive ring leader with 23 points and 19 boards. Lannon-Paakspuu had 19 points and six assists, getting player of the game honors, and Robertson had 14 points.

The Lakers were in Rutland Tuesday night to take on the Voodoos and head to Nelson this weekend for a tournament.