Dave Killick laughed when asked if his senior girls basketball team did something to upset the basketball gods.
He coaches the Princess Margaret Mustangs, who lost an exhibition game at home to the Princeton Rebels 53-25 on Wednesday evening.
“I think we might have,” joked Killick, since his team missed several close layups and watched the ball bounce a few times around the rim and stay out.
The bad bounces had him and co-coach Jeff Goodis shaking their heads.
“We’re just saving it for this weekend,” said Killick of a big tournament in Kamloops. “That is pretty important for us. If we’re saving a few hoops for the weekend I’m OK with that.”
It took a few minutes for either team to score, but eventually the Rebels built an 8-5 lead and never trailed. After the first quarter, they were up 12-6. In the second quarter, the Mustangs were outscored 15-4. In the second half it was 26-15.
“I thought we did a lot of good things,” said Killick. “We tried a couple of different defences we never tried before. We were pretty pleased with that.”
While his players did the right things to generate offence, and the ball refused to go in, Killick said he thought they executed well. The Mustangs coach praised the play of the Rebels, ranked No. 2 provincially in A ball. The Mustangs also had their share of turnovers, but part of that was giving other players more court time. The Mustangs rested leader Kari-Grace Pym due to foul trouble and a sore leg. Killick said they were trying some things they maybe wouldn’t in a league game.
“It was just a chance to play a very good single A team,” he said. “They have three kids that are provincial calibre players.”
Brooklyn Pichette, one of three Mustangs captains, said they played really well. She wasn’t surprised with their offensive struggles because of how good the Rebels are.
“They play good defence so it wasn’t really that much of a surprise,” said Pichette, who led with nine points. “We played as hard as we could.”
Abby Winstone added seven points, while Payton Charlie and Dana Klamut scored four and three, respectively.
Senior boys
The Mustangs senior boys basketball team defeated the Mt. Boucherie Bears 58-41 to clinch the Rutland tournament last weekend.
Coach Brian Hurst said Jas Sahota showed great leadership throughout the game getting the team into their offence.
"The team Shared the ball very well with every team member hitting the score sheet," said Hurst in an email. "Coach Raj Dhillon thought through the first three quarters this was our best team effort of the season. The team is still looking to put together a full 40-minute effort.
During the final, Jarret Cantelon finished with nine points and three steals, while Eniola Obefami had six points and 14 rebounds. Raven Klar came off the bench to add six points and four steals. Sanam Klar finished with 11. Hurst also praised forward Russ Manning for a good job of battling the bigger players team inside and keeping them off the offensive boards.