The Hornets travelled to Kamloops this past weekend as the Okanagan Valley #2 team and the 11th seeded team in the 16 team field. In their first game the Hornets faced off against the #6 seed Lambrick Park Lions of Victoria. Lambrick had all the ingredients to win the provincials; size, quickness, and basketball savvy. The Hornets practiced all week to deal with the size and initially it seemed as they only trailed by 16 in the 3rd quarter 50-66. At the beginning of the 4th the team fell apart as they were pummelled 25-4 enroute to a 91-54 loss. Gurk Dhaliwal and Amit Chahal had 16 points followed by Parm Sidhu’s 10. Amit Chahal was named player of the game for the Hornets. The loss dashed all hopes the Hornets had of winning another banner as they were sent to the losers side of the draw.

In their second game the Hornets faced off against Delview of Surrey. The Hornets came out playing tentative basketball, however they were able to push the lead to 10 at half 37-27. In the second half the Raiders took a 3 point lead late in the third quarter, and that is when the Hornets seemed to wake up as they were able to win the fourth quarter by 12, enroute to a 85-76 victory. Malcolm Heinrich was on fire as he scored 28 points and was named player of the game. Amit Chahal had 18. Parm Sidhu 16 and Navi Dhaliwal added 11 more in the victory.

In their third game in as many day the Hornets tipped off against Duchess Park of Prince George. This game was the rubber match of the season for the teams as they split their meeting this season.  The Hornets came out with confidence and poise at they outscored the Condors 33-17 in the first two quarter. A second half push by the Condors was quickly erased as the Hornets won the quarter by 5 pushing the lead to 21. In the fourth the Hornets did to the Condors what the Lambrick Park Lions had done to them as they crushed the Condors 29-10 in the fourth as they cruised to a 80-40 victory. Parm Sidhu was named Player of the Game for the Hornets as he scored 18. Amit Chahal and Gurk Dhaliwal had 16. Malcolm Heinrichs had 15 and Navi Dhaliwal added 10 more. The win allowed the Hornets to advance to the consolation fnal, a game they had never won, and this season would prove no different.

In the consolation final which started at 8:30, for the Hornets, it might as well have been played at 3 in the morning as the Hornets team seemed to be sleeping for most of the game as they found themselves outscored 18-5 in the first quarter. This was a lead that the team never cut into, and in the end King George Dragons of Vancouver proved to be too much for the Hornets as they cruised to a 75-49 victory.  Gurk Dhaliwal was named player of game for the Hornets as he scored 16 points. Amit Chahal had 14 . The rest of the Hornets added a meager 19 points. The lack of points from Parm Sidhu, Malcolm Heinrichs, Navi Dhaliwal and the rest of the Hornets bench were too much to overcome from. Once again the Hornets failed to win a 6th place, placing. Parm Sidhu was named to the Tournament Honorable Mention all star team.

The last time the Hornets placed 9th was in 2008, and in 2009 they won it all. The Hornets of 2013/2014 are not going to relyluck to win a title they; are going to look at the 2009 and 2011 teams and try to work as hard as they did to win a title. The Hornets were 24-14.

Maurizio Basso