As expected the junior A girls from Duchess Park inched closer to the provincial championship after the first day of the 2012 Junior A Girls' Zone tournament.
The top-seeded Condors posted a dominating 78-13 victory over the eighth-seeded Prince George Polars as the eight-team tournament tipped off Thursday at Duchess Park. The Condors play Columneetza from Williams Lake today at 9 a.m.
Condors' coach Bruce Ballantyne said it's tough to play in such lopsided games.
"The hardest thing is to maintain defensive intensity but at the same time not run up the score."
Duchess Park has posted a 27-9 record this season, which includes four losses against senior girls teams and losses at tournaments in Edmonton and Kamloops.
"It's one of the reasons we had to travel this year - to take them to task a few times," added Ballantyne.
If the Condors win this morning they'll play for the zone title and the first, of two, north-central berths in the junior A championship March 8 to 10 at the Langley Events Centre.
Before the Condors pulled their starters from the game Shanna Olson put up 10 points, Alexis Schlick had 19 and Carly Rerick had 15.
Columneetza earned a semifinal berth against the Condors with a 42-35 win over the fourth-seeded Correilieu Clan of Quesnel, while the second-seeded College Heights Cougars beat the seventh-seeded Kelly Road Roadrunners 45-18.
The Cougars will play the third-seeded Nechako Valley Viqueens of Vanderhoof in the other semifinal at 9 a.m. today. Nechako Valley beat the Cedars Eagles 31-27.
Cedars had trouble finding the hoop early falling behind 9-2 after the first quarter and despite pulling within a single point several times in the second half the Viqueens always came back to hold onto their lead.
Teigan Miller-Gauthier had nine points for the Viqueens including a pair of third quarter baskets to stop the Eagles' momentum. Alannah Hedges led the Eagles with nine points.
The Eagles play the Roadrunners today at 10:30 a.m., while the Polars and Clan square off on the other court. The winners move on to play the losers of the semifinal games at 5:30 p.m., with the winners advancing to play Saturday at 10 a.m.
The winner of the Saturday morning game will play the loser of the zone championship game for the second provincial berth at 4 p.m.
