In their own minds, the Nechako Valley Viqueens knew they weren't a No. 4 seed. They went out and proved that fact to everyone else at the zone championship tournament.
The Viqueens went undefeated at the senior girls high school basketball double-A zones, held Thursday through Saturday at D.P. Todd secondary. In the final game, the Vanderhoof-based Viqueens beat the Williams Lake Thunder 55-46. With the tournament victory, the Viqueens grabbed the lone north central berth in provincials, March 7-10 in Kamloops.
The Viqueens' ranking for the six-team zone tournament was knocked down when they lost games late in the season to two of their north central rivals, the D.P. Todd Trojans and College Heights Cougars. In both contests, Nechako Valley was short-staffed because of injuries or illness.
"I was a little upset with the ranking but you can't come into a tournament thinking about the No. 1 seed all the time, you've got to take what you get and play the best you can," said Viqueens coach Andrew Sexton. "The last week-and-a-half or so, we've really turned things around. They really wanted to finish together and play hard together and they put it all together at the right time."
In the zone championship game, the Viqueens were led to victory by tournament MVP Sydney Siemens, who scored 17 points. Nechako Valley also featured the event's top defensive player, Julia Steinbach. With support from the likes of all-star guard Sheyanne Sundahl, the sharp-shooting Viqueens were never in danger of falling to the Thunder, a team they had beaten 50-25 earlier in the tournament.
"We stress for the girls to create things off the dribble and off the passing," Sexton said.
"We hit a lot of our open shots and they moved the ball so well to create those shots."
The tournament followed a double-knockout format so the Thunder would have had to beat the Viqueens twice to claim the zone title and the spot in provincials.
The Duchess Park Condors, seeded first for zones, ended up in third place after losses to Nechako Valley (68-53) and Williams Lake (52-41).
"We had some good moments and some bad moments," said Celine Foucher, a Grade 11 Duchess Park guard. "We really came together as a team at the end, I think, which is good."
Foucher said the Condors got a bit of a surprise from the Viqueens in that 15-point loss.
"Last time we played them they weren't as good," she said. "They played really well so they deserved to win."
In Saturday night's closing ceremony, six local players were chosen as all-stars. Stephanie Welch (Duchess Park), Carly Shaw-MacLaren (Duchess Park) and Fiona Raymond (D.P. Todd) were picked as first-team all-stars, while Cassie Rerick (Duchess Park), Dorion Van Caeseele (D.P. Todd) and Chantel Nicholson (College Heights) made the second team.
See Tuesday's Citizen for more coverage of high school basketball zone championship tournaments
