It was a great night of basketball at Cowles Stadium to conclude the season for our Division Two teams.
McDonald’s Whelan Division II Final: Villa Maria vs Hagley College
Hagley and Villa Maria played each other at the beginning of the regular season, giving them plenty of time to adjust and scout for this final.
Villa got off to a hot start going on a 14-0 run right from the jump. With a quick basket in their first possession of the game scored by none other than the Finals MVP Alex Robinson.
Hagley turned the blasters on and had a quick pass down the lane for their first points of the match. But that wasn’t slowing Villa down, they answered back with a corner 3 going straight through the net by Cassidy Brunel. Forcing Hagley to call a timeout to figure out how to stop this Villa team from scoring every time on offense.
After a team talk Hagley was able to come in get some steals and force some turnovers. Hagley was able to cut the deficit down to 8 points in the second quarter. Yet no matter what Hagley did it seemed like Villa always had an answer back. At half time the score was Villa Maria 39-24 Hagley.
Once that ball was in play at the start of the third quarter Villa never looked back. Holding Hagley to single digit scoring in the second half. Ultimately leading to Villa becoming the McDonald’s Whelan Division Two Champions.
Hagley’s Eve Tonascia making a push to help her team with a stat line of 21 points and 18 rebounds. Villa had four players scoring in double digits at the end of the game. With Alex Robinson (Finals MVP) leading her team to a win with a double-double (15, 13r).
McDonald’s Thomson Division II Final: Lincoln High School vs Papanui High School
The Thomson Final ended with Lincoln taking home the trophy for the first time ever.
The game started off with a quick low-block hook shot from Kaia Cameron, getting Papanui on the scoreboard in the first seconds of the game. But Lincoln had an answer back with a nice pass from Theo Millichamp down the lane to Jacob Sharp for a bank in. Getting Lincoln right on the board with Papanui.
At the end of the first quarter Lincoln was up by 11 points. Papanui had some catching up to do if they wanted to stay in this game.
And that’s exactly what Papanui did. Winning the second quarter by 22 to Lincoln’s 15 scored that quarter. Lincoln was still up by 4 at halftime but Papanui was able to cut the score down. At halftime the score was 40 – 44, leaving it to be anyone’s game in the second half.
At the start of second half Papanui had back-to-back baskets tying the game up at 44. The whole third quarter consisted of the teams trading baskets. Papanui would hit a three, Lincoln would come down and do the same thing.
At the end of the third with seconds left William Van Noorden made a reverse hook shot putting Lincoln up 65 – 60. Both teams scoring about the same that quarter, Papanui with 20 scored and Lincoln with 21.
The fourth quarter was taken over by Lincoln High School, as they scored 28 to Papanui’s 15. A huge part of Lincoln winning was the Finals MVP Theo Millichamp recording a double-double (27, 12r, 6a).
There were other players on the Lincoln team recording double digits, Jacob Sharp with 23 and Jacob Bennet also with a double-double with 23 points and 14 rebounds.
Congratulations to both Villa Maria and Lincoln winning the Thomson and Whelan Finals, well deserved.
