The Richard S. Fowler Falcons pulled off a rare feat as city champions in junior high girls’ basketball.
Last year’s finalists finished on top for the first time since 2008 by going undefeated in the St. Albert Physical Education Council league.
“It’s pretty big for us. We haven’t won it for quite awhile,” said captain Teagan Gomes after Thursday’s 47-39 victory over the Vincent J. Maloney Marauders in the Tier 1 final at the SkyDome.
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the team’s championship picture.
The eighth SAPEC victory without a loss for the Falcons was also the 19th in 21 games in league and tournament action.
“We practiced really hard this year,” said Aislinn Libich, a Grade 8 post. “We also found out that when we play like a team we play harder and better.”
Libich, Gomes, Alex Black, Izzy Valerio and Kayleena Garda, a U15 Team Alberta selection, are returning Falcons from the 60-43 loss to the Lorne Akins Gators in the 2016 city final.
“We had a lot of players who played basketball outside of school that really helped us push to this point,” said Gomes, a Grade 9 guard. “We also had a very mixed team of Grade 7s, 8s and 9s with very strong people in every position and that’s what helped us succeed the way we did.”
VJM was the only team to beat the Falcons this season and they did it twice in tournaments, including the 35-28 final of the Boston Pizza SAPEC Invitational in January.
VJM’s 7-2 SAPEC record included the 42-34 loss to Falcons in week four of the schedule.
“We knew that it was going to be tough against VJM so we played really hard,” said Libich, who drained 10 points in the big game.
The Falcons trailed 14-9 after the first quarter and 25-21 at halftime before cranking it up.
“We were very nervous. A lot of us were really scared actually but once we started playing better we felt more calm and into the game,” said Libich, 14. “We started catching up to them and then (at the end of) the third quarter it was a tie game and then last (quarter) we won it.
“It feels amazing.”
In the third quarter, Abbey Kornak scored six of the Falcons’ 10 points as the nine-minute period ended knotted at 31 apiece.
Zoe Zurowski of VJM tied it up in the last minute with an offensive rebound after Kornak’s layup put the Falcons on top with 1:53 left in the quarter.
The Falcons rattled off seven points a row in the last quarter before Mimi Sigue’s field goal left VJM trailing 38-33 with 5:52 to play.
A six-point run, highlighted by a pair of Kornak baskets, sealed the deal for the Falcons at 45-33 with 2:15 remaining.
“We picked up our intensity in the second half. Before that we let them get quite a bit ahead of us but we realized that we needed to step up our intensity and get going so we pushed ourselves hard to the end,” said Gomes, 14.
Kornak finished with 10 points, Valerio’s seven points included a three-ball in the second quarter and Jules Froment added six points.
VJM was led by Anelia Ayotte’s 18 points and Sigue chipped in with 12 in the team’s first appearance in the final since winning the 2014 championship.
