Heading into the bronze medal game at the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference women’s basketball championship, the Briecrest Clippers were already as battle-tested as they could be.
A massive comeback to win their first game, another huge comeback to nearly pull off the victory in their second. As a result, they were more than ready for whatever the bronze medal game against the St. Mary’s Lightning would throw at them.
Now they’re coming home with the first-ever women’s basketball medal in team history -- and it was once again in the most dramatic of fashions.
Trailing 54-46 heading into the fourth quarter, the Clippers would claw their way back to tie the game 62-62 with two minutes to play, That set the stage for one last drive and one last chance with things tied 64-64, eight seconds on the clock and Briecrest possession under the Lightning basket.
Clippers second-year guard Dori Sunderland would drive the length of the court and into the paint before dishing off to Eve Duerksen on the right side, and the Briercrest rookie would make no mistake, putting down a rebound in traffic for the 66-64 lead and one second left on the clock.
St. Mary’s couldn’t find a miracle on the inbound, and Briecrest had their medal.
As she has all season, Amber Fichtner led the way on the scoreboard, putting up 15 points and 11 rebounds, while Brooklyn Martens put up 14 points and added 10 rebounds. Maddison Beattie also had 15 points. Sunderland’s assist was her fourth of the game.
The Clippers men's hockey team saw their season come to an end Sunday afternoon with a 2-1 loss to the NAIT Ooks in the third and deciding game of their best-of-three quarter-final series.
Scoring details for Game 3 from the Barkman Arena were unavailable as of press time.
The loss marked the second straight game NAIT defeated Briercrest 2-1 after winning by the same score in Game 2 on Saturday night.
Nursing a 1-0 lead after Daine Milgate scored with 5:02 to play in the second period, the Clippers would see NAIT score twice in the third -- including the game-winner with 2:11 to play -- as the Ooks pulled off a 2-1 win.
Joshua Lazowski scored both goals for NAIT.
Dominik Tmej turned aside 33 shots in the loss.
