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Eagles fly to B.C. bronze, Pudlas tournament MVP

After celebrating the Cedars Christian Eagles' bronze-medal win at the single-A girls basketball provincial championship in Lumby, the Eagles lined up for the individual award ceremony.

After celebrating the Cedars Christian Eagles' bronze-medal win at the single-A girls basketball provincial championship in Lumby, the Eagles lined up for the individual award ceremony.

The list of the honourable mention team, second team and first team all-stars was announced and Eagles Grade 12 guard Hannah Pudlas wasn't one of them. That was a bit of a surprise.

What came even more as a surprise was when her name was called -- as tournament MVP.

In the final game of her high school career with the bronze medal on the line, Pudlas left an indelible impression, scoring 30 points to lead the Eagles to a 75-60 win over Similkameen of Keremeos. She became the first provincial tournament MVP from any Prince George basketball team since Laura Foster of Duchess Park did it in 2000 playing for the championship-winning Condors. For Pudlas, a fourth-year senior team player, it was a rare treat indeed.

"It's kind of surreal, I never imagined going into the season ending it like that," said Pudlas, who led her team in scoring throughout the tournament. "We lost a lot of players from last year and it was basically a whole new group of girls but it turned out great. I really wanted to win because it was the last game, it was just fun playing with my best friends."

The Eagles were provincial single-A silver medalists in the three previous years. Shannon Kragt collected 18 points in Saturday's win over fifth-ranked Similkameen The Eagles also had a standout performance from forward Alanna Hedges, named a second team all-star.

"When the tournament MVP comes from the bronze-medal team it speaks well to Hannah's contribution as a go-to player," said Eagles head coach Al MacDonald. "That's a special achievement. She had her A-game going and it was recognized. She just managed to get a good supporting cast to bring it all together for us.

"It was a tough battle [against Similkameen], it was 60-56 in the fourth quarter and then we went on an 18-point run. We finally wore them down a bit and took it away. It speaks to the program and we're pleased with bronze."

Four other Eagles played their last games as graduating players, including Shannon Kragt, Nicole Kragt, Alyse Willmann and Brooke MacDonald.

Immaculata defeated Kelowna Christian 69-49 in the gold-medal game.

Meanwhile at the double-A girls provincial tournament in Langley, the Duchess Park Condors finished seventh, beating the Sahali Sabres of Kamloops 61-37 in the seventh-place game Saturday. The fourth-ranked Condors opened with an 11-point win over Britannia, then ran into back-to-back losses, 47-45 to fifth-ranked Wellington and 72-64 to York House.

"We really wanted to finish the season off with a win," said Condors Grade 10 guard Nicola Erricson, who made the honourable mention team. "Losing the two games was tough, but we had won so much during the season [they were 27-4 going into provincials] it was good to realize teams do lose before they come back with a strong finish."

Madison Landry,a three-time tournament MVP this season and the Condors' leading scorer and best defensive player, suffered a high-ankle sprain in the tournament opener and did not return.

"It had an impact," said Condors head coach Al Erricson.

Duchess Park won the most sportsmanlike team award for the third straight year at the provincial tournament. The Condors will be without four graduating players for next year's team -- Carlee Rerick, Carly Shaw-McLaren, Carly Frenkel and Alexis Schlick.

Windsor of North Vancouver claimed gold with a 69-64 win over St. Thomas Aquinas in an all-North Vancouver final.

The PGSS Polars ended their triple-A provincial championship in Langley with a 74-45 victory over Mount Baker of Cranbrook to finish 15th. Kelsey Videgain and Issy Bourque each scored 21 points for PGSS. Bourque was player of the game, as she was in three of the four games the Polars played.

Brookswood of Langley beat Oak Bay of Victoria 64-57 in the final.

At the double-A boys tournament, also in Langley, the D.P. Todd Trojans were ranked sixth going in but ended up 15th after going 1-3 in the tournament. The Trojans defeated Mount Baker of Cranbrook 69-60 in the 15th-place game.

Lambrick Park of Victoria won gold, 70-64 over St. Michael's University of Victoria.

At the single-A boys championship in Langley, the Tumbler Ridge Kodiaks lost 55-41 to Pemberton on Saturday and finished 16th at 0-4.

West Point Gray Academy won gold with a 73-56 win over St. Patrick's.