Holy Cross' Brent Padilla (centre) finds his way past Kelowna's Jarred Taylor (left) and Taye Parmar during 2020 Legal Beagle consolation final in PoCo. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Legal Beagle 2020: No. 2 Owls finally slip, yet Kelowna shows its resiliency with win fourth-place win over Holy Cross

PORT COQUITLAM — Harry Parmar moved his arm in an upward arc.

“Very rarely does a season go like this,” he said, his body language indicating one upward step after another. “We hit a dip, and now we’ve got to get out of it.”

 By the time Parmar’s team, the Quad-A No. 2-ranked Kelowna Owls, left PoCo for the drive back north to the Okanagan, they had at least one foot out of the mud.

Speaking on the heels of a 96-86 win over Surrey’s Holy Cross Crusaders in the 4th-6th place consolation final here at the 31st annual Terry Fox Legal Beagle Invitational, the weekend turned into an exercise in resiliency after KSS suffered a 67-57 loss to Vancouver’s St. George’s Saints in its Friday quarterfinal opener.

The Owls regrouped and beat Vancouver College 87-82 on Friday night before putting together a key 12-0 run in the fourth quarter Saturday to turn a tight affair into an 83-72 win en route to its win over the Crusaders.

“Sometimes you will get others best games and sometimes our guys don’t understand that,” said Parmar. “We have to be ready. When you get a ranking you have to be ready to answer it.”

Prior to Saturday night’s championship final between No. 1 Centennial and No. 3 Burnaby South, Kelowna was the only B.C. team this season to have beaten either.

“Maybe it was a good weekend to not play those teams and play some other teams,” said Parmar. “The ranking is what it is, and sometimes you won’t always have your best.”

Malcom Greggor led the Owls with 34 points, hitting nine triples in the win. Ajay Gill with 13, Jayden Lalonde with 12 and Hunter Simson with 10 also hit double figures on offence.

Brent Padilla scored 29 to lead Holy Cross which also got 17 points from Brent Levy.

In Saturday’s earlier games:

Holy Cross defeated Bishop O’Byrne 77-69, and Kelowna topped Vancouver College 87-82 to set the table for 4th-6th place consolation final.

Meanwhile, in the 8th-10th game, Vancouver College fell 98-68 to Bishop O’Byrne.

Port Moody’s Heritage Woods Kodiaks defeated Vancouver’s Kitsilano Blue Demons in the 89-85 in the 7th-9th place game.

Friday’s championship bracket play saw St. George’s defeat Kelowna 67-57, and Burnaby South beat Bishop O’Byrne 82-73 in the 10-team tourney’s unique quarterfinal play-in games.

In the evening’s semi-finals, Centennial beat St. George’s 79-53 while Burnaby South beat Terry Fox 81-61.

Friday’s consolation bracket saw Holy Cross defeat Heritage Woods 87-76, and Vancouver College beat Kitsilano 81-58 in a renewing of one of the province’s oldest rivalries.

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