They were relentless on defence and created an abundance of scoring chances. Playing such a complete game kept the Duchess Park Condors high above their competition.
Their payoff was a district championship title.
The Condors claimed the junior girls basketball district crown when they defeated the College Heights Cougars 54-21 Saturday night at D.P. Todd secondary. In the game, the Cougars had trouble finding any breathing space against the Condors' man-to-man defence and scored just five first-half points. College Heights had more success in the second half but was too far behind to put Duchess in any danger.
"We always focus on defence first," said Condors coach Louise Holmes, whose squad has now won four tournaments this season. "We pride ourselves on being able to put pressure on so people have a tough time getting to the hoop."
When the Condors set up on offence themselves, they used lightning-quick ball movement on the perimeter to create open shots. Riley Brennan, a Grade 9 guard, took full advantage of her opportunities and scored a game-high 14 points.
"She made the provincial team last summer and her shooting has really come along nicely this year," Holmes said. "She handles the ball well, has nice long arms and is really starting to light it up."
The other advantage the Condors had was height under the hoop and that translated into some easy buckets for players like Alexis Schlick and Carly Frenkel.
"I think we played well," said Schlick, a Grade 10 post who stands five-foot-10. "We knew this game was going to be pretty hard. We hadn't played this [College Heights] team in a couple months and we didn't know how well they had improved."
The Cougars were led offensively by Morgan Redding, who finished with six points.
The Condors started the eight-team tournament with an 82-12 win against D.P. Todd and then downed the Duchess Park B team 51-22.
The Cougars opened with a 43-14 victory against PGSS and also beat Cedars Christian School 37-26.
In the post-tournament awards ceremony, Frenkel was handed the MVP award and teammate Shanna Olson was chosen as the top defensive player.
Districts was a qualifier for this weekend's zone championship tournament at Duchess Park. The Condors and Cougars both advanced. Cedars, which lost to the Duchess B team 27-23 in the third-place game, also qualified for zones because the Duchess B squad isn't eligible. Kelly Road, fourth in districts, will also compete at zones and fifth-place PGSS will get a berth if no team from the northern part of the region attends. Other teams in the draw will be Nechako Valley of Vanderhoof, Correlieu of Quesnel and Columneetza of Williams Lake.
The zone champion and runner-up will move on to provincials, March 7-10 at Langley's Brookswood secondary school.
