The twin towers of the South Kamloops Titans were too much for the Brookswood Bobcats.
The Titans scored a 59-49 victory on Saturday at the Langley Events Centre, in the championship final of the senior girls B.C. AAA provincial championships.
It was the second straight provincial title for South Kamloops.
Brookswood was fourth at the 2012 tournament.
Emma Wolfram scored 16 points, while grabbing 18 rebounds and swatting away seven shots. Wolfram tied the tournament record with 32 blocked shots over the four games. She finished the tournament with an average of 14.5 points, nearly 18 rebounds, and eight blocked shots per game.
Maya Olynyk chipped in with 15 points and a dozen boards, as well as four steals.
Wolfram won both most valuable player honours as well as the tournament’s most outstanding defender. She was also the South Kamloops player of the game in the final. Olynyk was a first-team all-star as was Brookswood’s Sydney Williams.
Williams was also the Bobcats player of the game in the defeat, scoring a game-high 17 points to go along with seven rebounds, five steals and four assists.
Williams also hit four three-pointers.
“One hundred per cent credit to the kids,” said Titans coach Ken Olynyk.
“Last year, we weren’t expected to win, but this year, we were the favourites.
“They came out to pretty much Brookswood’s backyard and won.”
South Kamloops lost just one game all season against Canadian competition, and that was against Brookswood back in early December during a tournament.
This was the fourth meeting between the two teams, with South Kam winning three times.
“They are a tough team,” said Brookswood coach Neil Brown.
“They can get out and guard you hard because they have (Emma) Wolfram in the post. If you beat your man, you have to beat her next and that is a hard thing to do.”
The Bobcats were also crushed in the rebounding department, as the Titans hauled down 66 boards, including 29 on the offensive end. Brookswood had just 37 rebounds.
Brown did call into question the officiating.
“We need them to call fouls and they weren’t going to call fouls tonight,” he said.
The Titans had just eight fouls while Brookswood was whistled for 18.
South Kamloops took control in the second quarter, holding Brookswood to five points while expanding their lead from three points to eight.
“I give credit to Brookswood, they played real tough today,” Olynyk said.
“Neil gave them a great game plan. We were fortunate, we made some shots when it counted.”
The second half was much more even with South Kamloops extending the lead by two points, to 43-33. Brookswood did cut the lead to as few as six points in the fourth quarter, but the Titans hit their foul shots down the stretch to win 59-49.
This was the smallest margin of victory in the team’s four games. They opened with a 101-18 win over Mount Baker, beat Riverside 84-44 in the quarter-finals and then defeated Oak Bay 58-32 in the semifinals.
Brookswood opened with a 72-51 win over Claremont, rallied to beat Argyle 71-60 and then knocked off Maple Ridge 63-49 in the semifinals. Maple Ridge had defeated the Bobcats two weeks earlier in the Fraser Valley finals.
Tayla Jackson (second-team all-star) had 10 points and six rebounds, as well as a blocked shot for the ’ Cats against the Titans, while her teammates Jessie Brown and Lindsay Wand had 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Brown was also a first-team all-star.
It was the last games for Williams, Wand and Dani Potesta.
Wand was injured for much of the season, but was able to battle back and play well down the stretch. Potesta missed much of the season with a viral illness.
As for Williams, the coach called her the heart and soul of the team.
“If some of the kids worked just half as hard as she does, we might have won,” Brown said. 
Williams is off to Kamloops next season on scholarship to play for the Thompson Rivers WolfPack, where she will play for former Bobcats coach Scott Reeves.
And Olynyk gave credit to Reeves, who founded the Young Guns program when he moved to Kamloops, pointing out that the Titans players all came through the program.
Gary Ahuja/Langley Times
Brookswood Bobcats’ Sydney Williams was named a first team all-star at the B.C. senior girls AAA basketball championships. Williams scored a game-high 17 points but her Bobcats fell 59-49 to the South Kamloops Titans in the championship game.
