The Brookswood Bobcats snuffed the Yale Lions' dreams of a provincial title on Thursday evening, knocking off the Abbotsford squad 71-50 in the quarter-finals of the B.C. AAA high school girls basketball championships.
"We started okay, but we got into some foul trouble and lost some focus – myself included," head coach Euan Roberts admitted. "We were too focused on the refereeing, and when you do that against a good team like Brookswood, you get in trouble."
Yale had opened the provincial tourney with an impressive blowout win over New Westminster, but the Bobcats are B.C.'s No. 2-ranked team for a reason. They built a 20-point lead as the Lions found themselves in the referees' bad books.
Yale worked hard to get back into it, but Brookswood would not be denied on this night.
Lions forward Sara Kurath scored 15 points, and was named her team's player of the game for the second straight outing. Hailey Kendall added 10 points, while Kendra Arnold and Hannah Klassen led the way in the rebounding department with 10 and eight boards, respectively.
Yale moves on to face the Claremont Spartans of Victoria in consolation-side action on Friday at 5:15 p.m. at Capilano University in North Vancouver. While a medal is now out of the question, Roberts said his team is focused on finishing as high as possible.
"We were disappointed (to lose to Brookswood), but to the girls' credit, they were smiling when they left the gym," he said. "They just want to compete hard, and compete against the best."