The Vanier Towhees went undefeated (3-0) to win the Isfeld Ice senior girls basketball tournament this past weekend.
Vanier opened Friday with a 75-33 win over Shawnigan in a game where Shawnigan couldn’t handle the Vanier press.
“Everybody on the team played, we had good rebounding and teamwork,” said Towhees’ coach Heidi Zirkl. High scorers were Sienna Barth and Bernadette Enriquez both with 14, Hope Lewis 12, Sloan Hofmann 10.
Saturday morning’s semifinal against Brentwood College from Mill Bay was a closer game with Vanier up 48-42 at halftime. “Our fast break and defence wore Brentwood down, with the final score 68-49,” Zirkl said. Top scoreRs were Barth and Lewis 15, Patri Creicis 12.
In the final, Vanier took on Credo Christian of Langley, the top-ranked A level team in B.C. “Credo was much taller with good three-point shooters and a team that played very efficient give-and-go situations. We pressed and ran our fast break,” Zirkl explained.
The halftime score was 39-25 as Credo was worn down with Vanier playing good match-up defence on their top shooters and dominating on the rebounds.
The final score of 81-56 saw all Vanier players in the game including rookie Spanish international student and birthday girl Laura Gomez. Top scorers for Vanier were Lewis 20 points, Hofmann 19, Chloe Speed 16 and Barth 12.
“Many thanks to Isfeld coaches Hugh MacKinnon and Grant Ashley for organizing and coordinating the tournament, plus thanks to the Isfeld girls for scoring and timing the events and thanks to the parents of Vanier and Isfeld for cheering the girls on and being the best fans,” said Zirkl.
