After a banger season that finished off with a championship win at the ‘AAA’ zones single knockout tournament in Smithers two weekends ago, the Caledonia Kermodes Sr. Girls basketball team is at provincial championships in Langley this week.
That makes it two years in a row that the Terrace Sr. Girls have taken the top spot in the northwest and coach Arnie Pelletier says the team used last year’s team as motivation.
“That’s pretty much what drove the team,” he said. “To get out of the shadow of last year’s team. They worked very hard.”
At zones, the team first tipped off against Smithers, and “came out with a whole lot of energy – almost too much energy,” he said. “We forced a lot of turnovers against Smithers but then couldn’t capitalize just because the girls were so hyped up they couldn’t relax enough to shoot the ball properly. Once they started settling into the game and playing in the moment then that’s when we started hitting our shots.”
Terrace went on to win that game 75 - 38, putting them in the finals against Prince Rupert, the team’s biggest rival.
“It was the most amazing start I’ve ever seen in a basketball game, honest truth,” said Pelletier. “Right from the tip-off we scored like six points within 10 seconds.”
And the team kept up the pressure, eventually winning 68-27, with Carly Davies receiving all star and Khali Pelletier named MVP.
“Carly Davies is always a standout player. She’s a 6’1’’ player that can play a point guard, forward, post player. She’s an amazing athlete,” he said.
And Khali scored three threes and clocked 20 points in the first 10 minutes of the final. “Once that started it was just on a roll,” said Pelletier.
He said the team owes part of its success to the Jr. Boys team as the two teams scrimmaged before zones and that extra bit of play helped focus the team. “I’d really like to thank the coach for his open-mindedness,” he said.
And the team is now at provincials in Langley, along with the Jr. Boys, through the weekend. While the team isn’t going in ranked very high (“We’re never ranked very high because we’re in the north”), with this team, anything can happen and Pelletier said it just depends on “where we get put and who we play first.”
“It’s all about business for them,” he said, of the team. “They’re very dedicated to the game.