KSS Owls pulled away in the second half to win the opener of the Western Canada Basketball Tournament

Owls cruise in opener

Photo: Wayne Moore

The KSS Owls are off to the semi-finals of their own tournament thanks to a dominant second half performance.

The Owls outscored Edmonton’s Ross Sheppard Thunderbirds 42-27 in the second half in an 80-59 opening night victory in front of a packed house of partisan Owls fans at KSS Thursday night.

Guard Jake McParland led the Owls with a game-high 22 points including six three-pointers.

Tarun Saroya had a double-double hitting for 18 points while grabbing 14 rebounds.

Carter Hull had 13 in a losing cause for the Thunderbirds.

Backed by a boisterous crowd, the Owls got off to a quick start, hitting the first six points of the game and building their lead to nine before going cold from the field.

A late run at the end of the first quarter pushed the Thunderbirds to a 22-21 lead.

The Owls eventually took over a back-and-forth second quarter with a late 9-3 run to end the half and head to the locker room with a six point lead.

The second half was all Owls.

“Against a zone I believe you have to move a lot, so I think we started to move better through the zone,” said Owls coach Harry Parmar about adjustments made at halftime.

“You have to hit shots and we started doing that. And, we didn’t let it (zone) set up.

“We tried to get out early and if their zone can’t set you have a good chance of winning.”

The ball hawking defence created a number of turnovers in the third quarter as the Owls opened on a 9-0 run to push the lead to 15.

They led by as much as 20 during the third quarter.

The Owls will now face Oak Bay in Friday’s featured semi-final. The teams have met once previously with Oak Bay coming away with a convincing 27-point win.

Oak Bay, ranked third in the province, advanced with a thrilling 91-86 win over the Vincent Massey Trojans, the number three team in Manitoba.

Torren Franklin led the Bays with 32 points. Magnus Carlos had a game-high 42 for the Trojans.

The other semi pits All Saints Legends of Calgary against the Spectrum Thunder, the number one ranked team in B.C.