The top-ranked Brookswood Bobcats crushed the competition at the 14th annual Telus Basketball Classic.
The Bobcats senior girls basketball team, ranked number one in the province among Triple-A teams, went a perfect 4-0 at the tournament. They outscored their foes by an average of 44 points per game.
“We were very tough on defence, teams turned the ball over lots,” said Brookswood coach Neil Brown.
“(And) we got consistent scoring from Aislinn (Konig), Jessie (Brown) and Tayla (Jackson) — the trio averaged 20 points a game each.”
In the finals on Saturday at UBC’s War Memorial Gymnasium, Brookswood won 83-47 over the Riverside Rapids.
The Bobcats had won the first four editions of the Telus Classic before scheduling conflicts kept them out of the next eight.
They returned to the tournament in 2012.
The Bobcats also defeated St. Thomas Aquinas 79-47 in the semifinals, also on the UBC campus.
The team’s first two games were played at Brookswood Secondary with the ’Cats winning 111-40 over Burnaby Mountain and 99-61 over the MEI Eagles.
Aislinn Konig and Jessie Brown were named to the tournament all-star team.
Brown was also one of 16 Grade 12 players to be awarded a $1,000 scholarship.
The Bobcats, who also beat the Oak Bay Breakers 66-63 at the Tsumura Basketball Invitational at the Langley Events Centre to open the season, are 5-0.
“Our team defence is better than I thought,” said Brown. “(And) our scoring is more balanced this year with more people contributing.”
Brookswood lost just three players to graduation from last season’s team which finished second at the provincial championships.
They also added Konig, who is in Grade 10 and played last season for Canada’s national cadet team.
“The team is learning to play with her and she is learning to play with this team,” Brown said.
