That sound you heard Saturday was the Whaler girls celebrating their new North Island title.
Ballenas Secondary School’s Jr. Girls basketball team went 3-0 last weekend and locked up first place at their North Island playdowns to earn the best of four berths to the Islands.
The blue and white opened the tourney with a 42-20 win over Vanier, then clipped the Ice from Mark Isfeld 42-37 in the semifinal.
Brittany Britz led the Whalers with three 3-balls and a game-high 15 points. Chelsea Hoey added 12 and Chloe Dodd, 10.
Against Alberni District Secondary School in the final on Saturday, the Whalers won handily, 51-36. Hoey had the hot hand that game, pouring in a game-high 20 points. Dodd dialled up 12 and Britz had 10.
BSS teacher/coach Daryl Britz said, “overall our defence won us the championship.”
He pointed to the outstanding defence of Megan Bell and Josie Jennett, “who always guard the other teams’ two best players.”
There were no individual tournament honours handed out, but Britz made the point, “if we had an MVP it would have been Chelsea (Hoey) She was a dominating force on the boards averaging 18 rebounds a game.”
Britz said going into the tournament “we were just hoping to qualify for the Islands because we just missed out last year by one spot.
Also in the mix were the Kondors from Kwalikum Secondary School who won their district title on home court the week before. The two local teams never met at the North Islands, and the Kondors also advanced to the Islands by way of a fourth-place finish.
GAME ON
The Island finals are slated for Thursday through Saturday 23-25 at Mark Isfeld in Comox with the top two teams advancing to the B.C.s in Langley.