Bombers get swept during Panthers' hoop tourney
By The Nelson Daily Sports
Lack of execution turned into three losses as the L.V. Rogers Bombers went zero for three at the Panthers High School Boy’s Basketball Tournament Saturday in Vernon.
LVR lost to host, and tenth-ranked AAA Vernon, 64-48 before dropping a pair of games Saturday to Summerland Rockets and 66-65 to Okanagan Mission of Kelowna.
“We dropped the match with an embarrassing loss in my opinion based on lack of effort and mental toughness,” said Bomber coach Jeremy Phelan following the Summerland loss.
LVR opened against the top-ranked Panthers.
However, poor defence against the older Vernon squad was the story of the game.
Josh Matosevic scored 19 points while Robby Dixon netted 13. Eamon Studer and Darian Johnson each had five points.
Saturday morning we saw a solid team from Summerland. Again the LVR defensive effort was nil and execution poor as the Bombers took a whole half to figure out against their 1-3-1 zone.
Matosevic and Vinnie Watson scored 14 points each. Darian Johnson netted six points while Jake Anderson and Robby Dixon potted four.
After a single game break, we faced off with the OKM Huskies of Kelowna.
The Huskies had only six players and sat their star player the whole game as a precautionary measure due to injury.
LVR jumped to a 15-3 lead.
However, the wheels fell off after that and OKM actually led 35-18 at the half.
The Bombers trailed the remainder of the game until mid-way through the fourth quarter when the bench players mounted a recovery effort against an 18 point deficit.
With 10.3 seconds left and LVR down by three points, Johnson hit an open three-pointer to tie the game at 58-58.
The Huskies failed to convert on their last possession and the game went to overtime.
Matosevic and Darian Johnson were fouled out in hte overtime frame.
With less than 30 seconds left and the Bombers leading 64-62, the Huskies fouled point guard robby Dixon, challenging him to convert a pair of freethrows.
Dixon made one of two putting the Bombers up by three points.
The Huskies managed to convert a possession and recover the ball, taking it in for a layup on the lacking bomber defense.
The Huskies went on to win the match 66-65 sending the Bombers to 0-3 on the weekend.
Matosevic had 22 points before fouling out with Watson netting 10 points.
Johnson had nine while Kai Shave and Robby Dixon contributed six points each.
Anderson netted five points and Eamon Studer chipped in with four.
