Bombers finish tough Salmon Arm tourney with 2-2 mark
By The Nelson Daily Sports
The L.V. Rogers Bombers finished a tough tournament in Salmon Arm with a 2-2 record posting wins over Pleasant Valley of Armstrong and Langley Christian Lightning.
The Salmon Arm Golds High School Boy’s Basketball tournament was the first test of the New Year against high caliber teams from the Okanagan.
The Bombers opened the 10-tournament riding the slick shooting of Josh Matosevic to outlast Pleasant Valley 62-40.
LVR started the game off slowly, and were tied 11-11 after one period before Matosevic took over, finishing the game with six three pointers for 23 points.
LVR led 31-19 at the half and continued to build on the lead through third quarter, extending the margin to 51-31.
Matosevic was named player of the game for the Bombers. Robby Dixon contributed 12 points while Vinnie Watson added 10.
LVR then entered the lion’s den as the Nelson-based squad faced host Salmon Arm Golds in the feature game of the evening.
LVR trailed early as the Bombers struggled to solve the defensive zone trapping of the Golds, but clawed back to within 14 points, 31-18, at the half.
LVR ended up dropping the contest 65-47.
Dixon led the Bombers with 10 points, while Vinnie Watson and Josh Matosevic contributed eight and six points, respectively.
Saturday morning saw the Bombers bounce back against Lightning.
Paced by Watson and Kai Shave, each finishing the game with 17 points, LVR posted a 70-41 win.
The Bombers once against struggled with some early full court pressure.
However, once the press break started working, LVR were able to convert easy buckets against the press.
LVR held leads of lead of 23-13 after the first quarter, 44-28 at the half, and 58-38 after three quarters as the Bombers took advantage of their significant height advantage against the undersized Lightening.
Matosevic had 13 points and Jake Anderson 12 to round out the LVR scoring.
In the final game of the round-robin draw, a short bench finally caught up to LVR as the tired Bombers lost 58-43 to Kelowna Owls “B” team.
LVR came flying out of the gates and held leads of 19-12 after the first quarter and 27-26 at half time before fatigue set in.
KSS decided to push the pace and increase the defensive intensity. The result saw the eight-man Bomber squad run out of gas.
Watson led the Bombers with 17 points in the loss followed by Matosevic with 12 and Dixon’s with six points.
