Kayla Burns takes the ball past Summerland defenders en route to winning the South Zone championships at Osoyoos Secondary School on Feb. 7. Dale Boyd/Osoyoos Times

Dale Boyd

Osoyoos Times

Osoyoos took the top spot in the Junior Girls South Zone Championships basketball tournament last weekend.

Osoyoos beat out Keremeos in the first round of match-ups on Feb. 6 at Osoyoos Secondary School and headed to the gold medal game with Summerland on Feb. 7.

The Rattlers beat Summerland 47-26 in the final.

Kayla Burns led the way with 21 points and Cassidy Burns chipped in with 12 points. Caitlin Robinson was top defender and rebounder for the hosts of the hometown tourney.

“The stands were packed with fans and it was great to see. Also being able to play on our home court in front of friends, family members and students was pretty special,” said coach Brad Burns. “According to OSS staff, I have been told it’s the first time since 1997 that an OSS junior girls team has won the South Zone league and earned the right to host the South Zone Championships in Osoyoos.”

Osoyoos heads to the Valley Championships this weekend hosted at Kalamalka Secondary in Vernon to take on some of the top teams in the province including No. 7-ranked Dr. Knox and No. 1-ranked Kelowna Secondary.

Coach Burns said the future is bright for the OSS girls program with a strong core of Grade 8 girls moving up to the program next year. A majority of the junior team will be moving up to the senior team next year where they will be playing other 1A schools that are of a similar population — Kelowna Christian, Vernon Christian and Barriere to name a few.

“This will level out the playing field a bit for us as a smaller school and the competition level in the zone will remain very high with multiple teams in our zone placing at past provincial championships,” Burns said. “For example, Kelowna Secondary is a 4A school with a student population of almost 2,000 students in Grades 10 to 12 — we have 217 students in Grades 8 to 12. A pretty huge accomplishment for our school and community and I’m super proud of our girls.”