The senior girls Hyacks ventured to the warm Hawaiian islands and brought some heat of their own home.
Its the third time the program has headed to Maui in the past six years, with the previous two resulting in a 2-12 record.
This time around, New West produced and finished the tilt of exhibition and tournament slate at 4-1.
The only loss came in the opening match of the King Kekualike tournament against State runner-up Lahainaluna, 56-26.
“We’d never played them before but they were good, and we were playing eight minute quarters and no shot clock,” noted New West coach Doug Woodward. “They knew how to control the ball, and after one quarter we trailed 6-2.”
In that game, the Hyacks lost starting guard Sarah Forgie, who was sidelined after hitting her head on the floor. The Hawaiian schools, Woodward said, have medical staff at the games and Forgie was pulled aside and tested.
She sat out the rest of the tournament.
Despite missing one of their top players, the Hyacks rebounded and defeated both Baldwin, 42-31, and King Kekaulike 40-32 to finish third.
“We are a very young team because we lost five starters (to graduation),” said Woodward. “But this is one of the best teams I’ve had, in Hawaii we used a zone full court (defence) and they played it well, we had (our opponent) pegged.”
The team enters this week’s St. Thomas More senior girls Chancellor tournament with some appropriate jump, he said.
“We look really good, but we’ve got a lot of room to grow.”
New Westminster is also preparing for its own tourney, the senior and junior girls Bob Gair Classic, which runs Dec. 14 to 16.
