Condors one win from zone title
The Duchess Park Condors are in the driver’s seat.
After defeating the Prince George Polars 83-57 Friday afternoon at Duchess Park the Condors know if they win their next game at the north central zone triple-A boys basketball championship they will be provincial tournament-bound.
The Condors’ strategy to focus on team defence kept the Polars in check throughout Friday’s game, which opened up scoring opportunities at the other end of the court. Soren Erricson was a frequent flyer taking the ball to the hoop for Duchess Park and finished with a game-high 21 points, and he had plenty of support from Colburn Pearce with 16 points and Cody Boulding, who finished with 14.
Ameer Dhillon responded with 17 points to lead the Polars. Gabe Black collected 13 points and Asher Bourque had a 10-point effort for PGSS.
The Condors led 45-30 at halftime.
“I wanted us to do it on the defensive end and I felt all of our players bought in today and it was awesome to see,” said Condors head coach Jordan Yu. “I was really happy with them.
“(Today) will be one of those tough games when you have to play a team two times in a row and beat them. It’s always the second one that’s tough to get up for and we’ll have to think of ways to keep our energy going and just get into the flow of the game.”
Duchess Park opened with a 119-29 win Thursday night over the Correlieu Clan of Quesnel.
The Condors, ranked No. 6 among triple-A teams in the province, advanced to the double- knockout zone tournament final, which will be played today at either 3 p.m. or 8 p.m. That depends on what happens in the morning game today at 9 a.m. between the Clan and the College Heights Cougars.
If the favoured Cougars win, they will likely not have enough players available to play in a 3 p.m. semifinal against PGSS. Several College Heights players are involved in a club volleyball tournament this weekend at the College of New Caledonia and the Cougars have told tournament organizers they would be forced to forfeit the afternoon game.
If Correlieu beats College Heights this morning, the Clan will play the Polars in the semifinal at 3. But if the Cougars win that game and can’t play in the semifinal, the Condors would take on the Polars for the zone championship. In that scenario, if PGSS beats Duchess Park, a second final would be played at 8 p.m.
Correlieu returned to Quesnel after Thursday’s game and their travel plans to return to Prince George early Friday morning to play College Heights in the afternoon were scrapped as a result of heavy snowfall which kept the Clan grounded.
I wanted us to do it on the defensive end and I felt all of our players bought in today and it was awesome to see.
— Condors head coach Jordan Yu