She has won provincial titles and taken other teams to championship games. Yet, what the McMath Wildcats have accomplished this season ranks near the top of Anne Gillrie-Carre’s marvelous coaching career that began 47 years ago.
Without one experienced starter in their line-up, the Steveston school secured another provincial “AAA” tournament berth and reached the Crehan Cup Lower Mainland championship game for the third consecutive year. The Argyle Pipers played the role of spoilers by pulling away in the second half to hand McMath an 80-53 loss Saturday night. Still, it was hard to ignore what exactly had been accomplished.
The fourth seeded Wildcats pulled out a thrilling 71-63 double overtime victory against No. 5 Lord Byng Grey Ghosts in the quarter-finals, then came up with their biggest performance of the season in a 53-43 upset win of top seed and North Shore champion Carson Graham Eagles.
“With the growth this group has made, it ranks right up there,” said the 62-year-old Gillrie-Carre. “It’s to the credit of their hard work and desire. They want to compete. It’s just the nature of the group. They just go 110 percent all the time.”
The Wildcats look more like a talented junior team in warm-up than one that has proven it can compete with most of the senior heavyweights. They have just two Grade 12s on their roster and not one true post-player. But it’s a whole different story after the opening tip.
Guard Abby Zawada is one of the top pure shooters in the province and showcased her outstanding range with 31 points in the championship game. Martha Melaku and the tireless hustle of Mahara Gibson-Zeinoun provide secondary scoring. Not enough can be said about the courage of 5-foot-8 Grade 9 forward Liz Kennedy who holds her own in the paint, playing tough defence and grabbing rebounds against older and bigger opponents. By the end of this season, she will have over 80 games of experience at the senior level, dating back to her Grade 8 year. There is also plenty of athleticism that is rotated through the other guard positions.
“I think they are disappointed with the result tonight but also realize ‘wow look where we are,’” added Gillrie-Carre. “I don’t think anyone thought they were going to have that kind of potential so soon.”
McMath co-coach Chris Kennedy predicted the Lower Mainland playoffs were going be wide-open with as many as six teams capable of winning the championship. His forecast was spot-on as Lord Byng survived a first round scare from Moscrop (47-43) then gave the Wildcats all they could handle in the final eight.
The Grey Ghosts hit a buzzer-beater to force overtime and it took a last-second shot from Zawada at the end of the five-minute extra session to extend the game. That’s when McMath finally took control, shutting out its opponent in the second OT period.
The Wildcats used their speed and athleticism to overcome a size disadvantage against Carson Graham and surprisingly controlled the game from the outset.
“They are a big team and it should have been a bad match-up for us,” said Kennedy. “Martha and Liz were fabulous on defence and we just ran at them with pressure all night. We only went seven deep but seemed to have more energy. We waited for them to make a run and it just never happened. It was probably our best effort of the season.”
McMath took a 33-32 lead into halftime of the championship game but it was all-Pipers the rest of the way. They turned a couple of early third quarter turnovers into easy baskets then started to heat up from three-point range, outscoring the Wildcats 29-10 in the pivotal 10-minute stretch.
Gibson-Zeinoun and Zawada were named to the tournament first all-star team.
The provincial “AAA” championships take place March 1-4 at the Langley Events Centre.
