It turns out, the College Heights Cougars just needed a little more time to find their game.
The Cougars downed the Cedars Christian Eagles 48-32 in the final at D.P. Todd's senior girls basketball tournament Saturday.
It was redemption for the Cougars' semifinal loss to the Eagles at Kelly Road's tournament Dec. 6.
"Last weekend, we barely had a practice," said CHSS head coach Craig Horswell. "We had a couple more practices and games under our belt and this weekend the girls elevated their games and intensity and got into their zone."
The Cougars created several turnovers and ran out to a 25-14 half-time lead. They boosted the score to 40-23 at the end of the third quarter and eventually secured the win.
"College Heights played well and we didn't have our best game," said Eagles head coach Randy Strybos. "They had a player who came back and she was a factor. We rallied a bit in the second half but I think we learned a lot in that game. Hopefully it taught us something. 46-32 is a low-scoring game so we both played good defence."
The Eagles opened the tournament Friday with a 74-36 victory over host D.P. Todd and beat Kelly Road 77-26 in the semifinals to advance to Saturday's final.
Jenna van Delft tallied 35 points in the win against the Trojans.
College Heights beat PGSS 73-43 on Friday and followed that up with an 80-10 victory against Quesnel's Correlieu secondary on Saturday.
Kelly Road defeated PGSS 84-48 to win the bronze medal.
"We have a really talented team with three Grade 11s and eight Grade 12s," said Horswell. "We've got one league game [against D.P. Todd, 8 p.m.] on Wednesday and then the Duchess Park tournament. We're just building for the zone championships that we're hosting [in February]."
The Prince George Senior High School Basketball League resumes Wednesday.
In senior girls play, Cedars Christian takes on KRSS at 6:15 p.m. at Kelly Road, while Duchess Park visits PGSS.
Both the Cougars and Eagles are competing in the Duchess Park Senior Condor Classic Thursday and Friday.
The senior girls tip off at 3:15 p.m. on Thursday when the Condors take on the Eagles. That's followed by a contest between North Peace and CHSS and Kelly Road taking on Dawson Creek at 5 p.m.
In senior boys exhibition play, College Heights beat Correlieu 70-60 on Saturday. The Cougars are in Vanderhoof tonight for an exhibition match against Nechako Valley and travel to D.P. Todd for a league game Wednesday. Duchess Park also visits PGSS. Both games are at 6:15 p.m.
