The Burnaby South Rebels wanted a shot at crosstown rival New Westminster, but a first BurWest title banner will do.
Burnaby South raced out to a 13-2 start and then settled for a 66-47 victory over the steadily improving young Burnaby Mountain Lions in the girls' basketball banner final at South on Wednesday.
Manpreet Nijjar led the way with a game-high 23 points, while Grade 9 phe-nom Jacey Bailey topped the Lions with 20 points.
"We wanted New West. Every year we lost to them and we wanted just one moment, but hol-diing that banner is just as good," said Nijjar, who was named a league all-star and was the recipient of numerous setups from fellow all-star Pavneet Brar.
Brar netted 12 points for the Rebels, while fellow senior Stephanie Labbé chipped in with 17 points, including a pair of three-pointers.
The win gave South a bye to the second round of the Crehan Cup Lower Mainland girls' tournament.
In the consolation final, New Westminster broke open a close game in the fourth quarter to defeat Byrne Creek 61-49 at South.
New West was upset 70-50 by Mountain in the semifinals held on Tuesday.
"It was definitely a bit different this year," said Hyacks captain Amanda Zacharuk, who led the Hyacks with 18 points.
Playing without their high-scoring senior guard Meriam Ali, New West outscored the Bulldogs 209 in the final quarter.
"We persevered," said Zacharuk, who punctuated the win with a big three in the final minute-and-a-half. "It does show we're capable of pulling through and putting up a good fight."
Byrne Creek put up a good fight, too, keeping the game within a bucket or two for the first three quarters before running out of gas in the final 10 minutes.
Dina Deng led all scorers with 21 points.
In BurWest boys' semi-final play, third-place finishing Burnaby Mountain upset Burnaby South 71-66 to move on to the banner final against regular season champion and No. 10-ranked Byrne Creek.
The Bulldogs defeated New Westminster 94-69 in the other semifinal.
