In the final, the Whitehorse Vanier Catholic Crusaders dumped the Whitehorse F.H. Collins Warriors 48-26. “Our team has a lot of brand new players and to see us come this far – and a lot of us have played together throughout high school every year – it’s really awesome to see us come out together and get our first win against F.H., probably ever,” Crusaders captain Kelly Mahoney told the Yukon News. “It’s awesome to finally have a good win against them.” The Crusaders led 18-13 at the half and 29-23 after three quarters. Following a free-throw from Emily Ross, Mahoney hit her second trey to give the Crusaders a 10-point lead. The tournament MVP finished with 9 points. “Kelly has put in so much work to get better and she’s been playing all summer, all fall, and playing with the boys, and just working to improve,” said Crusaders head coach Stefans Jackson. “She deserves this MVP. She’s put in the work.” The Crusaders closed it out with a 9-0 run as Jetta Bilsky notched a putback, Mel Moya stole the ball for a runout for Kathryn Fortune for two and Bilsky hit a 15-footer. Mahoney said “our defence, it was something new. We thought it was something we would try … and we put all our strength into our defence because Jackson told us at the start of the season we will win games with defence and not offence. That really helped us, that when we started to push and that gave the opportunities to get down the floor and have some fast-breaks.” Jackson said “I could not be happier with the way they played defence today, it was just phenomenal. I’m pleased with all the girls, including the ones who didn’t play much. We had one girl with torn ligaments in her thumb and didn’t play, but she was the loudest one on the bench.” Bilsky scored 20, while nabbing 25 boards. Fortune scored 11. Mahoney said Bilsky, a grade 9 student, was “a huge part of our team and we’re so glad to have her play with us this year. She was a major asset.” Jacy Sam led the Warriors with 9. Hanna Wirth added 7. Warriors coach Ann Jirousek said “we were missing two players who were starters this year. It was a different game not having our usual starters out there.”
The bronze medalist Whitehorse Porter Creek Rams:
The silver medalist Whitehorse F.H. Collins Warriors: Jacy Sam; Hanna Wirth; Quynh Ngyuan; coach Ann Jirousek
The gold medalist Whitehorse Vanier Catholic Crusaders: Kelly Mahoney; Kathryn Fortune; Jetta Bilsky; Mel Moya; Emily Ross; coach Stefans Jackson