The Elphinstone junior boys could be tops in regular season play heading into the North Shore playoffs, which start on Monday, thanks to a final push this week.
The Cougars were 9-1 heading into their final league game last night (Thurs-day) at home against Argyle.
Elphi beat rival West Vancouver at home 49-40 on Jan. 25, blasted Rockridge Monday night 61-17 and topped St. Thomas Aquinas in a first-place battle Tuesday night 57-46.
The Cougars busted out to an 11-0 lead in the first quarter and never trailed in their game against West Van. The closest the Highlanders got was within five points late in the fourth quarter.
Nate Haglund led the attack with 16 points, followed by 15 from TJ Turenne.
Stefan Helyar was high man for West Van with 11 points, while Alex Yoon and Jack Desante each had eight points.
"We came out of the gate really strong, which was a huge key," said Elphi coach Shane Heuring. "We shut them down defensively, but they got back into the game because they were getting wide open lay-ups. But we picked up our defensive intensity and started to take away those lay-ups, so that was also a big key.
"Once we started to run our offense, they couldn't stop it."
On Monday, Elphi blasted Rockridge 61-17.
The Elphi bantam boys were 3-3 in league play heading into their last regular season game Wednesday night at Mulgrave.
The Cougars beat Handsworth 35-27 on Jan. 25, beat Rockridge 38-32 at home Monday and lost to Don Ross 42-34 at home on Tuesday.
After three consecutive losses, the Elphi bantam girls recorded a win over Chatelech Monday, edging the Eagles 14-10 in a game that featured strong defence by both teams. Chat scored first, but the Cougars eventually took a 10-6 lead before the Eagles tied it on baskets by Kylee Hunsche and Kelsey McDonnell.
With about four minutes remaining, lay-ups by Gabby Gunn and Ali Blattler gave the Cougars the narrow victory. Gabby topped all scorers with six points, Ali had four, and Maddie Wrinch and Desiree Bosch also scored for Elphi.
Kelsey had four points for Chat, while Kylee, Rebecca Armstrong and Kyran Neville also scored.
The teams will have a rematch at Elphi Feb. 15.
In a home game last week, Elphi played a strong first half against the visiting Sutherland Sabres, but faded after the break, losing 52-31.
Gabby led the Cougars in scoring with eight, Ali had six, Asha Warehamand Taylor Fiedler five each, Desiree Bosch four and Grace Telfer three.
In a Jan. 18 game against Oceanview of Powell River, the Cougars had their best offensive showing of the season, albeit in a losing effort, as the tall Orcas prevailed 50-40. Gabby was the top scorer again, with 10 points, followed by Ali with eight, Maddie with six, Larissa Hunter and Asha with five each, Desiree with four and Zael Woolliams with two.
The Cougars will travel to Vancouver today (Friday) to play St. John's.
The Elphi juvenile boys lost 52-21 to Windsor on Jan. 25 and dropped a 55-19 decision to West Vancouver on Jan. 30.
The Pender junior girls lost 28-25 to Rockridge on Monday to finish up the regular season at 1-5. The playoffs start Feb. 7. All seven teams in the division will make the playoffs. Pender's opponent has yet to be determined.
The Elphi senior girls split their past two games to sit at 3-7 in North Shore league play.
The Cougars beat Rockridge 44-34 on Jan. 24 and lost to STA on Monday night, 79-45.
Ellen Fallis led the team in scoring with 23 points in the win over Rockridge.
Elphi was also at the West Point Grey tournament last weekend.
The Cougars easily won their first game 64-27 over Carver Christian. Ellen led the way with 20 points and Nicole Kinne had a good game, chipping in with 12 points. Lauren Sanders played her best game of the season, scoring eight points, and was voted player of the game.
Coach Lynn Moran said Elphi played their best game of the season, albeit in a loss 66-42 to Mulgrave on Saturday morning.
Ellen had 27 points, including three three-pointers, and was chosen player of the game.
Saturday afternoon the girls worked hard, but just didn't have the energy or intensity they had in the earlier game and dropped a 52-35 decision to the host WPGA team.
Ellen had a tough time scoring as she was tightly checked, but still led all scorers with 11 points, and Gillian Sanders shot well adding 10 points. Nicole was outstanding defensively, scoring a couple of long threes and aggressively pulling down many rebounds. She was most deserving of the player of the game award. Ellen and Clare Lyle were voted tournament all-stars. Clare was the most consistent player throughout the tournament, averaging seven points per game and dominating the boards at both ends of the court.
The Chat senior girls dropped to 0-9 in league play following a 82-15 loss to Mulgrave on Tuesday night.
The Elphi senior boys dropped to 0-7 in league play following a 80-33 loss to Rockridge on Tuesday.
