The Elphinstone Cougars senior girls won a basketball game on Monday night and a few bragging rights in the process.
Elphi beat the Chatelech Eagles 49-41 in Sechelt in a defensive but entertaining contest.
Elphi jumped out to a 16-8 lead at the end of the first quarter and threatened to blow the Eagles out of their own gym. But the second quarter proved to be a different story, as Chat outscored Elphi 12-4 to tie the game at 20-20 at the half.
Both teams struggled to score early in the third quarter, with Elphi managing only to hit four foul shots to reclaim the lead. The teams found their shooting touch late in the quarter, with Elphi closing out the third up 35-29.
Both teams traded shots in a close fourth quarter. Chat cut Elphi's lead to 10 at 41-31 with seven minutes to go and had a chance in the final two minutes to make a charge, but the Eagles could not drain a shot.
Danie Proby, who finished with 20 points for Elphi, drained a fade-away jumper with 1:50 to go that sealed the deal.
Holly McCrane finished with eight points, and Kristy Widsten added seven points.
Chat was led by eight points from Tanya Devries and six points each from Casey Baker, Sammi Dixon and Amanda Lynch.After the game, Elphi coach Lynn Moran said she was pleased with the result.
"We have a few key players injured and it was really great to see some of the younger players step up and perform," Moran said. "I had to move Danie to point guard today and I think she did an outstanding job. Holly had a solid first half and Kyla [Scherer] was great on the boards all night."
On the other side of the floor, Chat coach Ellen Thomas said her team continues to show improvement but still has a lot of work to do.
"Our first quarter killed us," Thomas said. "We had no intensity, played poorly on defence, and we didn't shoot the ball well all night. Danie was awesome, and she was a big factor. I think we're getting better in some areas, but we have to learn our systems better and start shooting better. If you can't score, you can't win."
In other girls' action, the Chat junior girls beat the Port Moody Kodiaks 28-24 Monday afternoon.
Jennifer Brown led the way for Chat with 10 points while Sydney Celli and Kellie Gibson each had four points.
"We shot poorly in the first half. I guess that can be expected after the Christmas break," said Chat coach Mark Heidebrecht. "Overall I was pleased with the effort. We're a fairly young team this year, and although our record might not indicate it, we've been playing pretty well. Elphi is very strong, and in my opinion, the class of the Coast for junior girls' basketball. They are a big, skilled team and we've lost to them a couple of times, but it's been good competition for our girls. Jennifer had a great game on Monday and she's been our leading scorer all year."
In senior boys' action, the Chat Eagles travelled to the St. Thomas More Classic last weekend.
Unfortunately, due to the bad weather, Chat played only one game, a close 68-63 defeat to Steveston.
Matt Skei had a great game, scoring 25 points.
"It was a heart breaker to lose because we were close all the way, but we shot ourselves in the foot shooting-wise all game, and it caught up to us," said coach Bruce Haynes. "We went to the foul line 36 times, but we only converted 13 shots."
Chat plays host to its annual Open Water tournament this weekend.
Action starts today (Jan. 14) with Chat playing St. John's of Vancouver at 1 p.m. Elphi plays McNair at 4 p.m. in its first round game. Other games are at 5:30, 7 and 8:30 p.m. tonight with action resuming at 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning. The championship final is slated for 5 p.m. Saturday. Other teams at the event include Pemberton, McNair, Whistler, Thomas Haney and Rockridge.
"Hopefully the community will come out and support this great tournament," Haynes added. "The tournament last year was a great success because of the great fan support."
