Riverside Rapids won 25 straight games before losing in the final of last month's Centennial Centaurs' Top-10 Shootout tournament.
The team they finally lost to was Langley's Brookswood Bobcats. On Saturday, the Rapids made sure it didn't happen again.
Natalie Carkner drained 16 points, including three treys, and Megan Sherwood recently came back from injury to add another 12 as the Rapids shut down the Bobcats 55-42 in the final of the Fraser Valley AAA senior girls high school basketball championships hosted by Abbotsford's W.J. Mouat Hawks.
"Our defence was the key... everyone contributed to that," raved Rapids head coach Paul Langford, whose team has been ranked No. 1 in the province most of the season and move on as the Valley's top seed to the B.C. championships March 7-10 at North Vancouver's Capilano University -- for the 19th and final time before shifting venues next year to the Langley Events Centre. "We small and we need to be good on details. We have said there are about six teams that win [provincials] so we need to be at our best."
Riverside forwards Laiken Cerenzie and Fiona Beales added nine and eight points respectively, with guard Michelle Spacek netting six more in a well-balanced Rapids' attack.
JR. TALONS TRIUMPH
There have been a lot of firsts of late for the Gleneagle Talons.
The Talons toppled Langley's Walnut Grove Gators 44-40 in overtime Saturday in Pitt Meadows to claim their first Fraser Valley AAA junior boys hoop crown. The Talons, who went undefeated in league play and beat out the rival Terry Fox Ravens for the first-ever time in the process, advanced to the 43rd annual B.C. championships March 8-10 at Vancouver College with a staggering 30-3 overall record.
"This team has a lot of upside with great kids," said Talons head coach Andrew Lloyd. "They are everything that is great about high school athletics."
