For the first time in over a decade, there’s a new team atop the throne of Moose Jaw high school girls basketball.
The Central Cyclones defeated the Vanier Spirits 75-50 in the championship final on Tuesday night at Peacock, becoming the first team other than the Toilers to win the title since the 2010 season.
And they did it in relatively comfortable fashion.
The Cyclones took a 16-9 lead out of the first quarter, led 34-21 at half and never looked back from there on their way to their 25-point victory.
“We had a good pace going, we got a lot of girls in and just kind of played our game and tried to keep it simple,” said Cyclones coach Jonathan McLean.
“Really, the theme this year was just playing basketball. After that big layoff, being back in gyms and every tournament we went to and every game we played, everyone was just happy to be playing. So it was nice for these Grade 12s to be able to have a season, and winning this is a great way to head into regionals.”
Central came into the contest as the favourite, having finished the regular season with a 7-1 record and taken a 67-43 win over Peacock in their semifinal. Vanier finished their campaign at 5-3 and took a 60-49 semifinal win over Lumsden.
Cyclones senior Akuol Riak led all scorers with 21 points and was a force under the basket all night, while Lilly Matthies continued her impressive season with 17 points and Ava Nichols added 12 for Central.
“I think our team worked really well together and we kept pushing the pace,” Matthies said. “It was awesome to come together as a showcase of what we’ve been working on and it was great to finish off all this COVID stuff with a win, especially for the Grade 12s. It was really awesome.”
The Cyclones came out firing after the half-time break and enjoyed one of their best quarters of the season in the process, with Matthies scoring 11 of her points over the 10 minutes. By the time the frame was over, the Cyclones led 58-40 and it was pretty much academic from there.
“Pushing the pace and keeping the momentum going on our side and avoiding the little mistakes was a big thing in the second half,” Matthies said. “We set the tone and kept things working well together and I couldn’t be more proud of this team for how they played.”
Feona Tolentino led Vanier with 13 points, while Ava Kindiak had an eight-point night.
Both teams are in action during the 4A girls regional playdowns this weekend, with the fourth-seeded Cyclones hosting their event beginning Friday afternoon and sixth-seed Vanier travelling to Meadow Lake for their tournament.
