One berth in provincials had already been claimed. One was still there for the taking. In a true cat fight, the College Heights Cougars ripped it away from the Columneetza Cougars.
In the junior girls basketball zone championship tournament, College Heights defeated Columneetza 30-17 Saturday afternoon at Duchess Park. In the eight-team tournament's second final, College Heights led just 14-10 at half-time but outscored a weary Columneetza crew 16-7 in the last two quarters.
Columneetza, from Williams Lake, was playing its second game of the day and fifth overall, while College Heights was rested and playing its fourth tournament game.
The other factor in favour of College Heights was improved play as the game against Columneetza progressed.
"We weren't doing a lot of things right in the first half -- a lot of mistakes," said coach Jeff Goodrich. "We made some changes to our defence [in the second half] and decided we'd come out a little more aggressively and it caused them to turn the ball over a lot."
Priya Badial scored eight points for the winners and Quinn Cassie had seven.
Morgan Redding, named a first-team all-star for College Heights, gave credit to her Columneetza opponents for the level of competitiveness they showed.
"They gave us a run for our money at the beginning of the game," she said.
The victory qualified College Heights for the provincial championship tournament, March 8-10 at the Langley Events Centre. Sixteen teams will vie for the B.C. title.
Earlier at zones, College Heights beat the Kelly Road Roadrunners 45-18, downed the Nechako Valley Viqueens 40-33 and then, in the first final, lost 57-23 to the Duchess Park Condors.
The Condors, the zone champions, will be the top seed from this region at provincials. At zones, they also defeated the PGSS Polars 78-13 and dumped Columneetza 64-7.
"I think we did really well," said Duchess Park's Carlee Rerick, who was picked as a second-team all-star at the end of the event. "We played tough on defence and had a really good offensive weekend."
Against College Heights in the first final, the Condors used a new zone defence and that different look was a big part of their victory.
"That was kind of our secret weapon," Rerick said.
Other local first-team all-stars were Carly Frenkel, Shanna Olson and Riley Brennan, all from Duchess Park. Other local players who made the second team were Julia Babicz of College Heights and Dani Brbot of Kelly Road.
Emily Holmes of Duchess Park won the top defensive player award and teammate Alexis Schlick was the MVP. Unfortunately for the Condors, Schlick won't be available for provincials because, just days before the tournament, she will be leaving for Germany as part of an exchange program.
"Without Alexis, our big post, [provincials] will be more of a challenge," said Condors coach Bruce Ballantyne, whose team is undefeated against northern competition this season. "When you lose the most valuable player in the zones you've lost an important cog. But we have balance. We've treated the entire year as a learning experience. We've set goals to make it to provincials and we think they will be just another huge learning experience."
