The Duchess Park Condors kept up their mid-February tradition.
The City League senior girls basketball championship trophy bears the name of their school more than any other team and the Condors hoisted the cup for the sixth straight year after a 72-25 win over the College Heights Cougars in the final Wednesday night at the Northern Sport Centre.
The Condors have dominated the City League for nearly three decades, winning the title 15 times since the inaugural year, 1990-91.
Nobody had to remind Brynn Dergousoff of her team's success in the annual game to settle city bragging rights for the next 365 days. The Condors' Grade 12 forward is now a four-time City League champion and was one of the primary movers and shakers Wednesday, collecting a game-high 22 points.
"It's been an extraordinary experience, I started as a Grade 9 so the training through all that and watching all the girls grow, and playing with a lot of different girls, has been really cool," said Dergousoff, who's entertaining offers to play post-secondary ball next season at Winnipeg or Simon Fraser University.
Standing a shade more than six feet tall in her Nikes, Dergousoff and her vertical advantage gave the Cougars a persistent headache. Dergousoff hit three triples in the first half and had 14 of the Condors' 35 points as they headed to the locker room leading by 27. That earned her a seat on the bench in the second half as coach Wade Loukes leaned on his bench players to protect their healthy lead.
"We didn't try to run the ball a lot, our team has always been known to just run the ball and push the ball," said Dergousoff. "We wanted to key on Isabel Fuller, she's one of their best shooters, so she would have to pass the ball to their role players. We just kept moving the ball, that's what we do best."
Fuller, a City League all-star, led the Cougars with 12 points and Laura Olson turned it on in the second half, scoring all of her 10 points in the final 20 minutes. The Condors had four all-stars on the floor Wednesday, including Dergousoff, Rebecca Landry, Jasmin Schlick and Hannah Loukes.
The six-foot-three Schlick deflated the Cougars' air attacks just by putting her arms up and her quickness pressuring the ball forced turnovers her teammates converted to points.
Landry, a UNBC Timberwolves recruit for next season, finished with 11 points, playing in her third city championship.
"A couple of their Grade 12s are good shooters and we've got some height on them, so we tried to make it difficult for them, force them to put the ball on the floor rather than give them open shots and that makes them work harder," said coach Loukes. "Our girls really showed up tonight and played good defence. (Schlick) is six-foot-three and can dunk a tennis ball and she's very active playing good perimeter defence and the other girls really helped out and did a great job. We've got some momentum heading into zones tomorrow."
The Condors, ranked seventh among double-A teams in the province, went 4-0 in the City League and beat the Prince George Polars in the semifinal round last week. College Heights went 3-1 in regular-season play, then dispatched Kelly Road in the playoffs.
"At the end of the day, they're more talented, they're more skilled and we were hoping we could compete a little longer but they are just a better team," said Cougars head coach Sharon Minhas.
The Cougars lost all three this season to Duchess Park but will get another crack at them in the six-team North Central double-A zone tournament which starts today at College Heights. Just one berth is available for the provincial tournament in Langley, Feb. 26 to March 2.
Duchess Park downs D.P. Todd in boys final
The clash of the titans in the City League senior boys basketball championship had all the ingredients to build a barn-burner and that's exactly how it turned out.
Two of the best teams in the province - the Duchess Park Condors, ranked No. 4 among B.C. triple-A teams, and the D.P. Todd Trojans, the fifth-ranked double-A squad in the province, left it all on the floor in Wednesday's final at the Northern Sport Centre.
In what turned out a tense thriller from start to finish, the Condors put the wraps on a 64-55 victory, winning the title for the fifth straight year.
Connor Lyons led the Condor cause offensively with 18 points, while Jackson Kuc had 12 and Caleb Lewis shot 12. Cameron Sale put up a game-high 19 points for D.P. Todd while Shane Sandhu hit for 13 and Chris Magrath had a 10-point game.
The teams traded blows in a third quarter that had four lead changes. Trojans forward Magrath, whose knee troubles made him a questionable starter for the final, gave his team a scare when he came up limping off his wonky hinge less than two minutes into the game. But until late in the contest when he had to retire to the bench in pain, he only missed a couple shifts and was dominant under the hoop, utilizing his long reach to generate timely buckets.
Sale and Emir Zejnulahovic did their part finding the net to keep the Trojans close, with Condors guard Kuc finding his range from three-point territory. The back-and-forth quarter ended with a buzzer-beating three from Condor senior Soren Erricson, much to the delight of the Condor supporters who erupted in appreciation for their team's 53-47 lead with a deafening roar.
The heavyweight duel persisted in the fourth quarter and Lyons continued to inflict damage. He connected on a trey and later scored one off the glass for a 60-52 lead with three minutes on the clock but the Trojans refused to go away. Sandhu's long shot cut the gap to five but that's as close as it got for D.P. Todd.
Lyons was the Condors' most reliable shooter in the first half, collecting 11 points, while Lewis sunk eight. Sale put up nine points in two quarters of work and Sandhu had 10 after 20 minutes, hitting for three triples. The Condors led 30-29 at the half.
The Condors held a 3-1 edge in the season series but the Trojans came into the game knowing in their most recent clash with their cross-town rivals, Jan. 20, they beat Duchess 76-69.
Duchess Park went 5-0 in the City League regular season while the Trojans went 4-1.
The Condors will play next weekend in the North Central zone triple-A boys tournament at Prince George Secondary School. The Trojans are hosting the double-A boys zone championship, starting next Thursday.
City high school basketball all-stars 2019
Senior girls
Rebecca Landry, Duchess Park
Brynn Dergousoff, Duchess Park
Haley McCormack, D.P. Todd
Jasmin Schlick, Duchess Park
Isabel Fuller, College Heights
Julia Kreitz, PGSS
Naomi Dugdale, Kelly Road
Hannah Loukes, Duchess Park
Nina Gagic, PGSS
Jenna Korolek, Kelly Road
Senior boys
Cam Sale, D.P. Todd
Soren Erricson, Duchess Park
Holden Black, D.P. Todd
Ameer Dhillon, PGSS
Jordan Foster, PGSS
Connor Lewis, Duchess Park
Dan Zimmerman, Duchess Park
Randy Sandhu, D.P. Todd
Jack Kuc, Duchess Park
Harrison Faryna, Kelly Road
