The Penticton Lakers junior girls basketball team will do battle at 5:30 p.m. Saturday with the Kelowna Owls in the championship game of the provincial qualifying tournament at Pen High.
The Lakers got some sweet revenger earlier in the day when they knocked off longtime rivals the Summerland Rockets 31-23 to advance.
The Lakers had lost to the rockets in the final game of a tournament in Kelowna in December.
It’s a big rivalry,” said Lakers coach Lesley Lacroix after the game. “These teams have been competing against each other in close, close games since they’ve been in grade 7 and grade 8 and that just brings out out a real competitive nature on both sides. Big bodies get banging in the key and it’s fun to watch.
“The big improvement defensively was the big change around. Kate Glibbery played amazingly on defence and Maria Iannone brought her defensive game and her offensive game and we just managed to shut down that penetrating scoring threat.”
Penticton had a slim 14-12 lead at the half and piled in another 13 points in the third quarter while giving up just eight points.
Iannone had five points for the winner. The Lakers leading scorer was Sophie Brydon who finished with 10.
Lexi Corday was the Rockets top point getter with 10 as well.
“I think we handled it (physical play) good,” said Iannone. “I think at the end we knew they really wanted it and that we knew that we had to push harder if we wanted to win. We never gave up and kept trying.”
