Bombers cruise past East Kootenay teams to capture Comets Hoop Tourney
By The Nelson Daily Sports
By Bruce Fuhr
The Nelson Daily Sports
The L.V. Rogers Bombers rode the red-hot scoring from Matt Zukowski and John Zak to sweep to the title at the Prince Charles Comets High School Boy’s Basketball Tournament Saturday in Creston.
Zukowski dropped in a game-high 16 to lead LVR past the host Comets 78-23 in the final contest of the four-team round robin tourney.
“We won but what I liked is we won properly,” said head coach Ross Naka. “We had some put backs, with his the offensive boards, looked sharp and played well.”
LVR opened the tourney Friday by blasting Sparwood 92-42 and defeated the Selkirk Storm of Kimberley Saturday morning 62-45.
Against the Comets, the Bombers allowed the hosts to hang around before ringing up 29 in the second quarter to lead 48-17 at the half.
Garrett Perry and Adam Berg each added 13 for LVR while Zak rested a sore ankle finished with eight.
Against Sparwood, the Bombers took time to get accustomed to the Prince Charles gymnasium before scoring 54 in the half to win the game going away.
“It was 8-8 when I called a timeout,” Naka explained in the opener against Sparwood. “(Sparwood) was in a 2-3 zone and I was wondering if this was the way the game was going to go. But we came out strong after that.”
Zak led the way with 26 while Zukowski had 19.
The Storm was the only team of the three to push the Bombers.
Still LVR led from start to finish to win by 17.
LVR held period leads of 14-9, 30-24 and 48-34.
Zukowski led the attack with 18 points from his post-position while Zak added 14.
“It was good to go to the East Kootenay to see what they have over there (in respect to the top teams in the zone) and for them to see what we have,” Naka explained.
The teams meet in February to determine the zone champ and rep at the upcoming B.C. High School AA Boy’s Basketball Championships in Kamloops.
The Bombers venture west this weekend to Spoolmak Country to play in the Sahali High School Boy’s Tournament.
First action is Thursday against Duchess Park of Prince George.
The Bombers play rival Fulton of Vernon and Valleyview of Kamloops in the four-team pool.
The teams cross over to the respective teams in the other pool for the playoff round.
sports@thenelsondaily.com
