The Cedars Christian Eagles soared to their first tournament win of the high school basketball season on the weekend.
The senior girls squad defeated Fort St. James 59-57 in Saturday's final of the Kelly Road Secondary tournament to land the gold medal.
It capped off a 3-0 performance for the Eagles, as they also downed the College Heights Cougars 62-57 in the semifinal after opening with a 54-33 victory over the D.P. Todd Trojans.
The tournament was a pre-cursor to the Prince George High School Basketball League opening tipoff on Wednesday.
The Trojans will host the Eagles at 6:15 p.m.
"D.P. Todd has a nice group of players, are well-coached and were fun to play," said Cedars Christian head coach Randy Strybos. "I know they will improve and be tougher to play on Wednesday. It will be a good test for us to see how much we can elevate our game as well."
The Eagles have been perennial contenders for a medal at the B.C. High School single-A girls provincial championships for the last four years.
Last season they won the bronze medal, after winning silver in the previous three previous years.
This year, Cedars Christian is ranked first overall in the B.C. single-A senior girls' rankings.
Fort St. James is ranked eighth overall.
"Predictions are always difficult so early in the season, but if we can keep making small strides all season, I think we will be ready to contend with the best of single-A," said Strybos, who takes over the Eagles' reins from former head coach Al MacDonald. "It's a huge help for us to be invited to play against such great local teams."
The Eagles' lineup this season includes three returning Grade 12s (Alannah Hedges, Sarah Vaale and Courtney Serup), two Grade 11s (Miranda Nikkel and Jewel Wilson) and five Grade 10s (Jenna van Delft, Kyla Giesbrecht, Taylor Rowland, Danae Koopmans and Alanna Koopmans).
Van Delft tallied 21 points against D.P. Todd and 22 points against College Heights at the Kelly Road tournament, while Hedges was the top scorer with 22 points in the final against Fort St. James.
"Our three Grade 12s will bring key leadership and experience," said Strybos. "Kyla and Jenna bring scoring and ball handling. It's a young team but has a solid core of veterans."
Missing from the team is guard Hannah Pudlas who graduated in the spring and now suits up as a rookie for UNBC's women's squad. Pudlas was named tournament MVP at the provincial championship in March.
"While we lost a great player in Hannah Pudlas, we have added depth at all positions with our [Grade] 10s and 11s moving up to play senior this year," said Strybos. "Al MacDonald did a great job last year of giving those girls a taste of what high level basketball was like. They came to camp ready to compete."
In other senior girls action Wednesday, College Heights visits PGSS at 6:15 p.m.
On Dec. 17, Kelly Road hosts Cedars Christian (6:15 p.m.) while PGSS travels to Duchess Park and College Heights visits D.P. Todd.
