The Howe Sound Secondary Sounders finished second in a four-team tournament they hosted over the weekend.
They lost one game to Notre Dame, who came out on top, but beat both Riverside and Whistler.
Coach Max Roy was pleased with the team鈥檚 showing in the games, although admits their shooting was off when they faced off against Notre Dame.
He said the toughest times of the season are typically the beginning and the resumption of play after the Christmas break, when it is often difficult for the players to find the same intensity.
鈥淲e were running pretty well on all cylinders in December,鈥� coach Max Roy said. 鈥淚t takes a few games to get back into it.鈥�
The Sounders did win a tune-up exhibition game against Delta鈥檚 Seaquam 88-75 the day before the tournament. As Roy said, the good news was that the game marked a season-high in terms of points scored, but it also was the most they had given up in a game.
In the tournament, itself, the team played to extremes, walking away with an easy 75-40 win against Whistler on Friday. Sounder Jon Hjelseth Maehlum started off the scoring with an easy lay-up and the team never looked back from there, with both Hjelseth Maehlum and Alex Hauge hitting three-point shots throughout the game.
T.J. Saurez even joined the party, hitting a few long distance shots that brought the partisan crowd to its feet.
The next day the Sounders came out sluggish and never really got into the game against Notre Dame, who walked away with an easy 70-43 victory. Roy said later that the聽 team struggled with rebounding and could not hit their three-point shots to get the offence started.
The team refocused a few hours later to face Riverside. Like the Whistler game, they ran up an early lead.
Riverside made a game of it in the second quarter, as they started to use their size to feed low-post players and run fast breaks to cut the deficit to four at halftime.
Midway through the third quarter, the visitors were within two points of Howe Sound, but the hosts then regrouped and slowly built up the lead again to 10 by the end of the quarter. Through the final frame, it was all Howe Sound, who won 72-50.
The Sounders were able to get back on track in part because of their perimeter passing, which led to opportunities for three-pointers or opened up lanes for easy buckets.
They also regained the defensive focus, using full court presses and half court traps to put pressure on the opponents.
Hjelseth Maehlum led the way in the last game with 34 points, including six three-pointers.
The coach also credited players like Kaito Watanabe for their intensity throughout the tournament, and added that Alex Domingo scored his first-ever points during the Whistler game.聽
Having to play several games over a few days, the coach said, has been a good way to get the team back to the level it was playing before the break. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been exactly what we need,鈥� Roy said. 鈥淭he way we play, it鈥檚 all about intensity.鈥�
