Jr. Bombers rally past Wildcats; Grand Forks takes home big prize at West Kootenay Championships
By The Nelson Daily Sports
L.V. Rogers Seniors Jairo Mangapot, Ben Hradil-Kasseckert and Thomas Baxter combined for 34 points sparking the L.V. Rogers Bombers to a 61-52 victory over Mount Sentinel Wildcats in Consolation round action at the West Kootenay Junior Boy’s Basketball Championships Saturday at Stanley Humphries in Castlegar.
Trailing 18-5 after one quarter, the Grade 10 players went to work as the Bombers outscored the Cats 56-34 the rest of the game to register the win.
Mangapot led the trio scoring 12 points whileHradil-Kasseckert and Thomas Baxter each had 11.
Morie Leidtke added eight points for LVR.
Sam Christofanetti-Sopow and Felix McMillan each had 15 points to lead the Wildcats, the defending West Kootenay Champs.
Josh Sookorukoff added 10 points.
LVR opened the day dropping a 50-39 decision to Salmo Falcons.
The Bombers had climbed back into the contest, trailing 42-39 late in the contest.
However, Salmo was able to take advantage of turnovers by the Bombers to score six unanswered points to hold off the Bombers.
West Kootenay second team All Star Alex Soukra led all scorers with 31 points.
Leidtke led the Bombers with 16 points while Mangapot had 11 and Baxter, who earned West Kootenay Second-Team All Star recognition, added eight points.
Top seed Grand Forks Wolves broke open a close game with a 20-7 third quarter en route to a 59-47 victory over J. Lloyd Crowe Hawks of in the Championship game of the West Kootenay Junior Boy’s Tournament.
The Hawks led 25-23 at halftime before Grand Forks rang up 20 in the third period.
Grand Forks defeated Boundary Central of Midway Friday to advance to the final while Crowe defeated host Stanley Humphries Rockers 45-35 in the other semi final.
The Rockers stopped Boundary Central 47-40 to capture third overall in the seven-team tournament.
Morgan Lynn led the Rockers with 25 points while Ronnie Puno scored 15 for Boundary Central.
Meanwhile Josh Soukeroff scored 17 points to lead Mount Sentinel past Salmo 51-47. Sukra scored 27 for Salmo.
Other First Team All Stars included Morgan Lynn of Stanley Humphries, Nahum Colwell of Crowe, Ronnie Puno of Boundary Central and Grand Forks players Noor Sibat and Liam McKinley.
Second Team All Stars were Baxter of LVR, Sukra of Salmo, Christofanetti-Sopow of Mount Sentinel and Karrsey Leung of Crowe and Marvin Archer of Stanley Humphries.
K.J. Taktsand and Tristan Franki of Boundary Central and Rory Bond of Salmo earned honourable mention status.
