It took them a full three minutes to shed their nerves and find their wings but once they got their radar working there was no stopping the Duchess Park Condors.
They pulled the plug on the two-time defending champion Cedars Christian Eagles and their bid for a City League basketball dynasty, winning Wednesday's senior girls final 71-44 at the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre.
"All the league games have led up to this one game and it feels good that it paid off and we got to finish the season with a win," said Condors post Marcie Schlick, who led her team with 16 points,
"We definitely had to end their winning streak. Hopefully we'll play as hard as we can and will win our zones and move on to provincials."
The Condors had plenty of scoring support from Schlick's sister Alexis who hit for 10 points. Nicola Erricson picked up eight points and Madison Landry had six. Hannah Pudlas, one of five Grade 12 seniors for Cedars, shot a game-high 17 points, while Nicole Kragt and Shannon Kragt had eight and seven points respectively.
The Condors delivered everything you might expect from an undefeated team but they faced some major pushback from the Eagles. Down by 15 with only a few minutes left until halftime, the Eagles took advantage of some strong rebounding from Shannon Kragt, Pudlas and Courtney Serup to crawl back to within 10 at halftime, trailing 32-22.
"Duchess is a really good team and I was surprised we stayed with them," said Pudlas. "It's been such an honour to play in the City League final for three years because we're such small school. We lost a lot of girls from last year and it was nice to be in this game."
The Condors started the third quarter with a lot more finish around the net and their top shooters got hot from the field, going on a 14-point unanswered run that stretched the lead to 55-32 by three-quarter time.
"I think we showed our talent in terms of its depth and we had a lot of girls whoa ll contributed and played a great team game," said Condors head coach Al Erricson. "It's nice to have multiple people who can step up and contribute.
"Cedars plays with incredible passion. They were very intense, they were physicals, they dove for balls and you can tell that they've competed over the years and it showed on the floor."
The Condors finished off undefeated a 6-0 in City League play. The Eagles ended up 4-2, their only loses at the hands of the Condors.
In the boys' final that followed, the D.P. Todd Trojans and Prince George Polars clashed for City League bragging rights. That game was still in progress at press time.
n The City League all-stars were introduced to the crowd at the NSC Wednesday. The boys team includes: Joel Molcak, Tanner Stephenson, Raman Bhangu, and Haydn Molcak, all of the D.P. Todd Trojans; Tyrell Laing, Inderpal Bassi and Sonnu Jhander of the Prince George Polars; Quayd Castle and Quinton Hisman of the Kelly Road Roadrunners; and Dieu-Merci Agasaki of the Duchess Park Condors.
The girls all-star team includes: Madison Landry, Emily Holmes, Alexis Schlick and Carly Shaw-McLaren of Duchess Park; Shannon Kragt and Hannah Pudlas of Cedars; Kelsey Videgrain and Issy Bourque of PGSS; Dorian Van Casseale of D.P. Todd; ad Morgan Redding of College Heights.
