Mouat opened their season as hosts of the Century 21 Classic, where 16 of B.C.’s elite high school girls teams – including Mouat’s rivals, the Brookswood Bobcats – were to compete to determine the season’s first seedings. In the finals, Brookswood edged out Mouat on their home court by two points to claim the new No.1 seed in the province, as well as tournament hoodies awarded to the winning team.
“They were a completely different team than us,” Sartori said. “They’re a bunch of shooters, small and crafty and we were just a bunch of farm girls. We played the game down low and we were a little bit more aggressive. I mean, people hated playing us. We were a bunch of bruisers out there.”
When it came to skill and depth, Brookswood matched up well with Mouat, so it was a surprise to no one that the Bobcats were a frequent foe throughout the season. “They were crazy, but so were we,” Brink said.
In the Top 10 Shootout tournament held at Centennial Secondary, Mouat earned their second win over Brookswood – the first coming by 11 points at another tournament over Christmas – in a 68-54 victory over the Bobcats in the finals. Mouat only lost two other games the rest of the regular season, each coming against established high-level schools in Riverside and Claremont. The top-ranked Hawks continued their dominant pace, cruising through the first game of the Fraser Valley AAA tournament against Walnut Grove, followed by a quarter-final drubbing of Elgin Park by 31 points and a victory over Maple Ridge in the semifinals.
With their spot guaranteed at the AAA provincial championships at Capilano University in North Vancouver, B.C., a chance at securing the school’s first Valley title since 1995 was within a game’s reach. However, a familiar opponent stood in their way once more in Brookswood.