Pinning up a new calendar, the New West Hyacks senior girls basketball team hopes the good results and lessons they experienced in the last weeks of 2019 spill over.
With Burnaby-New West league action picking up Wednesday (Jan. 8) when they host Byrne Creek, the team has to reset for a big stretch of action to set the table for the playoffs. Already 2-1 in league play, the Hyacks spent most of the first month trying to mesh as a program that didn’t field a team a year ago.
In the final tournament of 2019, the team got to build those bonds and polish their on-floor chemistry en route to finishing second at the senior girls edition of the Bob Gair Classic.
Although they fell 77-41 to W.J. Mouat – who were ranked No. 9 in B.C.’s 4-A circuit as late as early December – in the final, New West came away feeling good about itself and the progress that's been made.
“(We) played well in the first half of the final, got into foul and (had) scoring trouble in the second half,” head coach Roger Hamerton noted in an email. “When Mouat went on a run against us we didn't have an answer. We struggled to score and break the pressure.”
New West opened up with an 8-0 lead, but Mouat replied with a wave, taking an 11-8 advantage into the second quarter.
Trailing by 10 points at halftime, the hosts ran into foul trouble over the final quarter as the full-pressing Hawks pulled away. Also going against them was the fact the team committed 30 turnovers on the day.
Leading New West shooter was Anja Tjernagel, who cashed in 16 points and five rebounds, while Adit Biar added eight points and nine boards.
“The game was a good test for us,” added Hamerton. “We need games against tough opponents to make us compete at a high level for 40 minutes.”
The Hyacks defeated both Centennial and Maple Ridge to draw into the tourney final.
Just the whole process of hosting the six-team tourney, which highlighted the last Gair Classic in the Massey Gym as the school anxiously awaits the move into the new facility next fall, was a great experience, Hamerton said.
The squad got into the mood early by creating team posters for the participants, and after the last game’s final buzzer, enjoyed a gift exchange at centre court.
Taking on a bigger role after missing part of the first month due to injury was Grade 11 Costanza Sandrini, while Tjernagel was a steady force on both sides of the ball. She would be named to the Gair All-Star team. Kanon Imachi, a senior who was one of the few holdovers from the 2017-18 roster that advanced to the provincials, was a positive source of turnovers and steals during the three-game set.
“Part of our goals are to expand the floor on offense and shrink the floor on defense,” said Hamerton. “For the most part, we aren't running plays, we are looking to attack the gaps on offense. Dribble-drive offense. When (the) defence helps, (we) try to find the open player.
“When players are learning how to play this way and read off of each other, it takes time. … We are now starting to have success, (but it) must carry over to (the games against) teams like Mouat.”
New West has already secured league wins over Burnaby Mountain (65-35) and Cariboo Hill (82-41), with the lone setback a tight battle against up-and-coming Burnaby North, 38-35.
