It's never boring when the Duchess Park Condors and PGSS Polars junior girls basketball teams take to the floor.
On Saturday at College Heights secondary, the two local rivals collided in the final game of the district championship tournament. At the final buzzer, the Condors celebrated a one-point victory, 41-40.
In late January, Duchess and PGSS went to triple overtime in the College Heights Cougar Classic and the Condors emerged with a 45-44 win.
"Every game between these teams is pretty exciting and my girls get really pumped up and nervous to play them," said Condors coach Natasha Cruz.
"[The Polars] have a really good core of girls and we have a good core of girls," Cruz added. "Every other team has maybe one or two players that are pretty good. But PGSS has Kelsey Videgain and Jill Cole and Alycia Goudy and they've got two big posts and so we match up really well against them. If any of those five are left open, they are pretty sure to hit an open shot. We have to check them at all times so it keeps us true to what we practice and it always sends us back to the drawing board every time we play them."
In the district final, the Condors got a huge three-pointer from Cassie Rerick and a key lay-up from Alexis Schlick as time was ticking down. Also, Carly Frenkel drained three of four attempts from the free-throw line in the last couple minutes of the contest. The Polars, meanwhile, weren't as successful from the line and didn't capitalize on some other quality chances.
"A couple shots were kind of around the rim and out, so that's what it comes down to," said PGSS coach Ray Bourque. "It was exciting. I thought the girls played pretty hard, especially the second half. We were kind of flat the first half."
The district tournament was a qualifier for zones, which happen this weekend at PGSS. And yes, there's every reason to expect that the Condors and Polars will meet for zone gold. Cruz said she would welcome another game against the Polars.
"Every time that we get to play a good team, it makes us better and shows us what we need to work on," said Cruz, who, as a player, helped Duchess Park win a senior girls basketball provincial title in 1995. At that time, her last name was Johnson. "I'd rather have more of these games before provincials than go down to provincials and just get blown out of the water."
The zone final is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Saturday. The loser will play again at 4 p.m., for the second available B.C. berth.
Other teams that qualified for the zone championship are Cedars Christian, Nechako Valley, Williams Lake, South Peace, College Heights and Duchess Park B.
