Well the chance to repeat as champions was ended on the first day of the AA provincial Championships as the Hornets full team did not seem ready to play. Greet Gill tried his best scoring 46 points grabbing 17 boards and 5 block and 6 steals, you would think that with stats like that that the Hornets would have won their first game against Duchess Park. Well they lost a close one 83-78, Gill’s effort was somewhat in vane as his teammates could not match his intensity in a game they should have won. The team did recoup to put in a superb second game performance versus LVR of Nelson, Gill led the team with 26 points, followed by a much better performance from the rest of the team as three other Hornets scored in double figures. Grade 10 shooting guard Gurkamal Dhaliwal poured in 17 points, followed by Amit Chahal with 12 and Bablu Brar with 11. The seemed to be on the right track however the early game against Lambrick Park was just enough to derail the Hornets making it impossible for them to finish in the top 10 for the 5th straight year.
The Lambrick Park Lions from Victoria shot an impressive 48% from the field and 45 % from 3 point land eclipsing the Hornets in shooting and on the scoreboard as they easily defeated the Hornets 85-61. It was the Hornets worst loss with Gill in the line-up and amazingly enough the Hornets had a chance to win it as theycreeped to within 10 with 7 minutes to play. However sloppy shooting and poor passing reared its ugly head when the Hornets needed to be more polished. Gill once again tried to lead his troops but once again the rest of the Hornets seemed sluggish, Gurk Dhaliwal who was heavily guarded did his best as he scored 13, almost matching the output of the rest of his teammates.
In their final game the Hornets started slowly as they trailed at half to the Maggie Mustangs of Penticton. However a great pep talk at half seemed to awaken the slumbering Hornets as they outscored the Mustangs 24-6 in the third quarter and 20-15 in the 4th enroute to a 17 point victory 75-58. For the first time Greet Gill did not lead his team in scoring as he had only 19 points. The team was lead in scoring by Amit Chahal with 22, Gurkamal Dhaliwal and Raj Sidhu both chipped in 13 points. Gill was named to the tourmament all star team the third year in a row that he made an all star team at theprovincial. Gill averaged 31 points per game, 17 rebounds per game 5 steals, and 5 blocked shots per game which are quite an accomplishment to end your career on, he will now pursue his education and basketball at one of the major universities in Canada as atleast 5 have expressed interest in him: UVIC, UBCO, SFU, Uof S and UBC.
Although they did not have their best tournament placing only 11th the team did finish the season with a win and they had a great record of 28 wins and 15 losses as well as capturing the Valley Championship for the 3rd time and their 5th zone championship in a row, all in a season to be proud and a season to build off of for next year.
Thanks to Mo Basso for this