At the Tsumura Basketball Invitational in which the Kelowna Owls wowed fans and opponents with their suffocating defence, it was a highlight-reel block by a Centennial Centaur that stood out as the turning point in the championship game on Saturday.
With 1:37 left in the final at the Langley Events Centre, 6’8” Dom Parolin of the Centennial Centaurs sprinted back and swatted the ball off the backboard on what looked to be a guaranteed two points by the Owls’ Jayden Lalonde. A Centaurs teammate corralled the rebound and the Coquitlam representatives maintained their one-point lead and went on to an 84-81 victory.
Photo Credit: Contributed
“I thought that was the turning point in the game. It was Lebron James-like and you don’t throw those comments around loosely,” said Centaurs coach Rob Sollero. “We thought it was a guaranteed two points for Kelowna. He just came out of nowhere and blocked that.”
Parolin scored 41 points in the title match and finished the four games with an average of 31.5 points per game to earn the most valuable player award. He showcased an impressive arsenal of inside moves throughout the tournament, including the ability to hit from beyond the arc and in the final, grabbed 20 rebounds, contributed four blocks and three steals.
“I just knew we needed a momentum booster. It was a big block (and) I think we took over the game after that moment,” Parolin said.
The game featured 13 lead changes and six ties with the Centaurs trailing by as many as 13 in the second quarter. They whittled the deficit down to four points at the half and down to a single point with one quarter to go setting up the stage for the late-game dramatics.
“We needed to slow the game down and play to our strengths. Get the ball inside and close out on open shots and be disciplined on defence,” Parolin said about the coaches’ message in the locker room.
Photo Credit: Contributed“The thing that stood out for me today was resiliency,” Sollero said. “They never quit, they battled, they went down a few times and we stayed fairly composed. We could have given up a few times but we just never gave up. They just kept fighting and fighting.”
In addition to Parolin’s monster game, Dante Petrescu scored 14 points for the Centaurs.
Meanwhile, veteran coach Harry Parmar applauded the play of the Parolin and the Centaurs while predicting the Owls will be better as the new season goes on.
Photo Credit: Contributed“He (Parolin) played outstanding. We made some mistakes and they deserved the victory,” Parmar told tournament namesake, Howard Tsumura of Varsity Letters. “We had some missed assignments defensively that we have to clean up, but they are a good team. He’s a tough matchup. We don’t have a whole lot to go at him with. For us to do it right, though, we need to bring more pace. We’ll go back to the drawing board and we’ll work harder.”
Malcolm Greggor and Lalonde both netted 20 points in a losing cause for the Owls, who were ranked No. 2 among Quad-A teams in the province going into the 20-team tournament, one spot ahead of the Centaurs. Ajay Gill pitched in with 13 points while Jonathon Haughton and Jarred Taylor added nine points apiece.
Photo Credit: ContributedThe Centaurs’ Sellero had high praise for the KSS team that was playing without Hunter Simson, one of their top players.
“They just take you right out of your comfort zone,” he told Tsumura. “It’s so hard to run your sets because they are scrambling all over the place. A lot of credit to their guys. Their defence was phenomenal.”
Still just beginning to gel because five members of the team just completed their provincial silver-medal season at the B.C. School Sports triple-A volleyball championship, the Owls won three games to reach the final of the quad-A tournament.
A 78-77 semifinal win over No. 1 Burnaby South Rebels earned the Owls a berth in the title match, with Taylor, a Grade 11 guard, hitting back-to-back free throws with 3.4 seconds remaining.
“Coach (Parmar) always says to just stay calm and shoot our shot and just play our game and that’s what I did,” said Taylor. “I was confident. We shoot a lot of free throws in practice, so I wasn’t worried.”
Taylor finished with 19 points while Greggor led the Owls with 23 points to go along with 10 from Lalonde.
In their quarter-final game, the Owls displayed their depth and balance in a 101-71 waltz by No. 9-ranked Terry Fox Ravens of Port Coquitlam.
Greggor again led the way with 20 points while Lalonde, Gill, Braden White and Rylan Ibbetson all chipped with 13. Ethan Braam added 11.
“It’s nice, we want balance,” Parmar told Tsumura. “I know about the whole superstar thing, but this is a team, it’s not an individual thing.”
The Owls opened the tournament by handling the Seaquam Seahawks 93-69.
Greggor’s 19 points paced the Owls’ attack while Lalonde hit for 71 and Haughton for 16.
Parmar welcomed back his five players fresh off an outstanding volleyball season.
“The other guys had been playing well and making connections, but then when you throw five more bodies in there, it changes things,” said Parmar. “But four of the five played last season. Besides, it’s not about today. It’s about February and March and we’ll figure things out.”
The Owls are back in action on Tuesday when they take on the Mt. Boucherie Bears in an Okanagan Valley regular-season game in West Kelowna beginning at 7:45 p.m.
