With nobody watching from the bleachers, no drum-beating foot-stompers and the hollow drone of a basketball’s bounce about the only sound coming from Duchess Park gymnasium, Thursday’s opening game in the North Central triple-A girls zone championship felt more like a scrimmage than a game with provincial implications.
The College Heights Cougars and Duchess Park Condors didn’t like it one bit.
They would have much preferred to have all their families and friends watching them play. Instead, with no video broadcast, the best they could do was go home after the game and fill them in on all that they missed in a game that ended in a 100-38 College Heights victory.
The eventual outcome was never in doubt, and the Cougars led 34-13 after one quarter, 62-27 at the half, and 85-32 after three quarters.
Kayla Lupul, one of five Grade 12s on the College Heights roster, said her team has gotten used to playing without a crowd. Their only games this season with spectators in attendance happened in the pre-Christmas Condor Classic at Duchess Park.
“It was very weird, but I was also kind of used to it because we’ve played a lot of games with no spectators at all - it was almost like a scrimmage,” said Lupul, who collected eight points.
The good news is the Ministry of Education on Tuesday updated its policy on school gatherings to allow 50 per cent gym capacity for sports events, but that change won’t take effect until Saturday.
“I’m excited for that, my mom is so excited to come and watch - the last time she sat in the crowd was the Condor Classic,” said Lupul, whose Cougar team last season was limited to practices only when the high school season was cancelled by the pandemic.
Cougars guard Sophia Fuller said it was up to her teammates to inspire themselves and that was difficult to maintain during the game, with no crowd cheering them on.
“It’s just awful, we need the crowd to be able to play, that keeps our energy up,” said Fuller, who shot a game-high 21 points. “We have to be more of a team on the bench as well.
“Now that we won City Finals and we’re about to go to provs, we’re all finally connecting and working together as much as we wanted to in the beginning.”
The Condors have played the Cougars four times this season and a 36-point loss is the closest Duchess Park has come to beating them. Despite not traveling to any out-of-town tournaments this year due to pandemic restrictions, College Heights is ranked No. 5 provincially, while the Condors earned an honourable mention.
Lupul said her team was determined to not let up on the gas in Thursday’s game, knowing they have to raise their intensity level if they move on to the B.C. championship.
“We wanted to drive and take it to ‘em with a full-on effort,” said Lupul. “We have won against them before, but we didn’t want that to be in our minds, we wanted to play to our full potential.
“We’re almost like a family and we work really well together. We don’t hog the ball, we play off each other’s strengths and most importantly we cheer each other on. I’m just excited that we’re able to play. The seniors last year had nothing and it was quite sad.”
The Cougars have no other senior girls team within a day’s drive that’s close to them in calibre. To make up for that they’ve had to schedule games against junior A boys teams and as their 100-point effort shows, they’ve benefitted from that faster-paced competition.
“The girls played really good,” said Cougars head coach Wade Loukes. “We’ve played a few games recently where I’ve made the mistake one time of telling them to walk up and slow it down (to keep from running up the score against weaker opponents) and they didn’t like it, so I said I wouldn’t do that again.
“They really like to run. We do lots of fast-break drills in practice and it shows in our games. We’ve got another game next week against the Duchess Park junior A boys because they’re going to provincials and it’s a good primer for both teams. Rules are loosening up. Saturday we get spectators and I can’t wait because it’s fun to be around that sort of atmosphere.”
Like College Heights, the Condors had extensive travel plans this winter wiped out. They were supposed to go to Abbotsford in early December but that was wiped out in the flood, as was a trip to Chilliwack in December. They were also entered in a Kamloops tournament that got wiped out in the COVID Omnicron flare-up in January.
Condors forward Payton Cruz said her team didn’t let the fact they knew going in they were likely to lose bother them in their first game of the tournament. They didn’t worry about what the Cougars were going to do and instead tried to focus on their own strategies.
“Essentially, it was just one play at a time and making sure we make smart decisions and making sure I’m a team leader and not throwing away the ball,” said the Grade 11 Cruz, a defensive specialist who hit for five points. “I think we definitely weren’t getting back on defence and I feel like we weren’t making quick enough decisions. We were there but just didn’t see it in time and that stuff you can work on in practice.”
It didn’t help the Condors’ cause that they started with just eight players and did not have the services of starting forward Georgie Halpape, who hurt her wrist snowboarding. The Condors struggled to put up points but to nobody’s surprise, Mataya Lyons led them with 13 points.
Rachel Loukes gave the Condors plenty of trouble, racking up steal after steal while collected 16 points, while Lorenn Cacares had a 14-point game.
“Rachel is a fantastic player and wonderful girl, I’ve known her since she was young, and she works hard and she’s going to get her 25, 30 points on us,” said Condors head coach Natasha Cruz. “It’s whether or not we can contain anyone else, and Sophia came out and hit some big shots for them and some of their other younger girls hit some threes.
“So, we’ve got to go back to the drawing board and hopefully we’ll get a little bit closer to them.”
The three-team tournament resumes Friday at 12:30 p.m., when the Condors will be back in their home gym to face the Correlieu Coyotes of Quesnel. Then at 2 p.m., College Heights will take on the Coyotes.
“This was a tough game for us but we definitely came back more calm in the second half,” said Condors Grade 12 forward Katie Shchepotkina. “This is definitely very good for us to have tough games because it kind of shows us what we could see in provincials. We just have to make sure tomorrow and Saturday we’re very prepared.
“We only have four seniors on the team and it’s more pressure on us (to win) and it’s definitely weird not having anybody here. But as long as our bench, if we all hype each other up, then we’re all good.”
The second- and third-place teams meet Saturday at noon for the right to play in the first final at 5 p.m. If second final is needed it would be played Sunday at 10 a.m.
North Central has two berths in the 16-team provincial triple-A championship in Langley, March 2-5 and the Condors need to win their next two games to keep that trip to the provincials a possibility.
Duchess Park is also hosting the eight-team junior A girls zone championship, which started Thursday. The No. 1-ranked Sir Alexander Mackenzie Grizzlies of Hagensborg opened with a 49-25 win over the No. 8 Cedars Christian Eagles.
In other quarterfinal results, No. 2 Duchess Park defeated No. 7 Quesnel Junior Secondary 57-14, No. 3 College Heights topped No. 6 North Peace 60-34, and the No. 4 Westside Warriors eclipsed No. 5 Nechako Valley of Vanderhoof 49-25.
In semifinal matchups Friday at 9 a.m., Sir Alexander Mackenzie meets Westside, and Duchess Park will battle College Heights.
The winners advance to the A-final Friday at 7 p.m. The second provincial berth will be B-final Saturday at 2 p.m.
