Chances are, Rachel Loukes would have made an uncontested layup for an easy bucket.
But with her College Heights Cougars leading the Duchess Park Condors by 50 points and just five minutes left in Saturday’s North Central zone triple-A girls basketball final, she figured why not try a little playground razzle-dazzle.
Running at top speed while dribbling towards the hoop, Loukes spotted teammate Alex Freeman-Idemilih out of the corner of her eye and fed her a perfect behind-the-back pass.
The College Heights bench and the crowd at Duchess Park gym erupted in cheers as Freeman-Idemilih put the ball off the board and through the net, and even the Condors quietly applauded what they’d just witnessed. She also drew the foul and completed a three-point play.
“Rachel has tried that a couple times on us and that was the first time they’ve connected and it was fantastic, it’s always fun watching her play,” said Condors head coach Natasha Cruz.
Loukes, a Grade 11 guard whose off-the-charts basketball abilities will have her playing this year with B.C’s provincial U-18 team, was just having some fun, bringing a little bit of NBA-style flair to the court to cap off a 106-49 win over Duchess Park in her team’s final game of the season on a Prince George soil.
“I’ve been working on it in practice and I was happy to share it with my friend Alex there, that was good, and I’m happy to have the crowd back too, you just feed off their energy,” said Loukes the tournament MVP. “I was just so happy with how we played throughout the game and it was kind of like all our hard work paid off in that moment.
“I thought we played well and really aggressive right from the start. I’m really happy with my team and happy the restrictions were able to be opened up. A lot of the girls are younger and they haven’t had a provincials yet and a lot of us are from the same junior A team who went to provincials two or three years ago and I’m happy we can have one last hurrah with them.”
The Cougars did the expected, winning the zone title handily. They opened with a 100-39 win over the Condors on Thursday and defeated the Correlieu Coyotes of Quesnel 83-16 on Friday. College Heights will represent North Central in the 16-team triple-A provincial championship, March 2-5 in Langley. Duchess Park claimed the second provincial berth, as a result of their 54-32 playoff win over Correlieu Saturday morning.
“I’m just really looking forward to provincials,” said Loukes, whose Cougars are ranked fifth in B.C.
Condors senior guard Jeda Lobo drew the assignment of trying to limit the damage Loukes could inflict during the game. Despite drawing special attention from the Duchess Park defence, Loukes put her speed and deception to find open lanes and leaned on her shooting accuracy to collect 27 points.
“She’s one of my closest friends off the court and I’m really happy for her for being one of those great players out there, it’s honestly making me a better person out there,” said Lobo. “She’s definitely the one out there and everyone knows it and it’s making everyone a better player so we’re happy to play against her.”
Sophia Fuller had a 31-point game and Grade 9 guard Lorenn Caceres picked up 11 points. For the Condors, Mataya Lyons hit for 18 points and Aleksandra Babic put up eight points.
Grade 12 forward Harleen Ghuman said the highlight of the weekend was watching Loukes and her spin-move to sink a layup in their Friday game against Correlieu.
Ghuman joined the College Heights team in Grade 8 and played in the junior A provincials with the Cougars a couple years ago but this will be her first crack at the senior title. She shared the Doug Harshbarger Commitment Award for dedication to the game on and off the court with Correlieu’s Ruby Nicholas.
“I didn’t expect to be here right now,” said Ghuman. “I thought I’d just play Grade 8 and get over it and I just continued playing and I think that was the greatest choice I’ve made so far.
“Our entire team dynamic is great, we’re all really good friends with each other and it’s really fun playing. We all bond off the court as well. It’s always about having fun. Hopefully all this works towards what we’re going to do down in provs and we’re just excited to go down there because it’s been two years. It’s our last year and we hope we’re going to end it off with a big bang and just enjoy it.”
Knowing how strong College Heights has been since the start of the season, Condors Grade 12 guard Jeda Lobo said there was much uncertainty whether her team would make the cut for provincial tournament. That was still in doubt halfway through their game with Correlieu. The Condors were struggling with their shooting and led by only three points at the half, but the shots started to fall frequently in the second half and they pulled away to lock up that second berth.
“We’re really excited because all year we’ve been thinking we only had 1 ½ berths (for the North Central zone) and we’re really excited, especially the seniors, to finally get that one last shot at that whole out-of-town tournament feeling again,” said Jeda.
The Cougars, Condors senior and junior teams and the double-A zone champion Shas Ti Kelly Road Grizzlies girls team will travel together on the same bus to Langley, the site of all the provincial high school basketball tournaments this year.
Lacking competition locally from girls teams in the city, before they hit the provincial court the Cougars plan to play a couple exhibition games against junior A boys teams.
“This was a really good night for the girls and we’ve got a lot of hard work to do when we go down to provincials in about 10 days and we’ll play the junior A boys and try to get a bit tougher,” said Cougars head coach Wade Loukes. “I don’t know how we’ll match up down south because no one’s played any tournaments (because of pandemic health restrictions). We’re all staying at the same hotel and it will be nice break and maybe if it doesn’t feel like we have COVID going on we can have a nice little time.”
The all-star team included Fuller, Cacaees, Lyons, Payton Cruz of Duchess Park and Emma Blair of Correlieu. Kayla Lupul of College Heights won the top defensive player award.
Meanwhile, in the junior A girls zone championship also at Duchess Park, the Duchess Park Condors topped the College Heights Cougars 26-23 in the B-final Saturday. The Condors will join the zone-champion Sir Alexander Mackenzie Grizzlies of Hagensborg at the junior A provincials. The Grizzlies defeated Duchess 47-22 for the zone final Friday.
