A three-pointer by Jazmine Charles on their first possession gave the Cowichan Secondary senior girls basketball team agood start in the final of their own invitational tournament last Saturday, but the Thunderbirds got into foul trouble early in the game and ended up losing to Mark Isfeld by a 58-32 score that didn’t tell the whole story.
“The score was not indicative of the intensity of the game,” Cowichan coach Wendy Charles said. “Both [co-coach] Val Chambers and myself looked up at the scoreboard and thought to ourselves, ‘the score should have been closer.’ The game felt close, which shows our girls fought hard, played some great defence and were in it until the end. Isfeld is a strong, well-coached team, and we are very proud of our girls and how they never gave up.”
Jazmine Charles nailed four threes on her way to a 13-point game, and Emma Dewit added 12, and both players were named tournament all-stars. Tournament MVP Myah Erickson led Isfeld with 19 points in the final.
Cowichan opened the tournament on Friday with a 65-31 win over École au Coeur de L’Ile, led by 18 points from Julia Cutt, 13 from Jazmine Charles and eight from Dewit. Later that day, they defeated Carihi 62-38 behind Charles’s 22 points, while Dewit chipped in with 14 and Julianna McKinnon added 10.
Earning Player of the Game honours for Cowichan over the course of the tournament were Cutt, Joelle Antufeaff, Charles, Gabby Larminay and Dewit.
The tournament also featured a skills competition on Saturday. Cutt won the Run and Gun event, while Carihi’s Emma Skalic won the Three-Point contest.
After taking this weekend off to prepare for exams the T-Birds will return to action with tournaments at Belmont and Shawnigan Lake School over the following weeks, followed by Mid Islands in early February.