R.D. Parker Collegiate’s senior girls’ basketball team suffered their first loss of the season in the final of the South Comes North basketball tournament they hosted in Thompson Feb. 14-15.
The Lorette Scorpions defeated the Trojans 53-50 in front of a loud capacity crowd in RDPC’s Trojan Gym bleachers Feb. 15, scoring the last three points in the final minute to hand the RDPC senior girls their first loss of the season in their 13th game.
The game started slowly before the Trojans established an eight-point lead by the end of the first quarter. The Scorpions outscored RDPC 18-8 in the second quarter, with four of the Trojans points coming on a long-bomb three-pointer by Emma Deibert just before the halftime buzzer. She was fouled on play and made the free throw to make the score 24-22 for Lorette. The Scorpions started the third quarter on an 16-8 run to establish the largest lead of the game with a 40-30 advantage before a three-pointer by Emma Tomchuck and back-to-back baskets by Keashae Masters reduced the lead to two heading into the final quarter.
Masters tied the game at 40 soon after play resumed and teams traded baskets for the remainder of the game, with neither leading by more than two points until Lorette made a free throw with 12.2 seconds left after RDPC missed a pair of free throws in the final minute.
The Trojans beat the Stonewall Rams 79-34 and Sanford 65-26 on Friday to finish first in their pool and advance to the final. Lorette beat the Swan Valley Tigers 70-51 and the University of Winnipeg Collegiate Wesmen 70-37 in round-robin play to finish first in their pool.
Coming into the tournament, the Scorpions were ranked third among AAA varsity girls’ basketball teams in the province while the Trojans were ranked fifth.