The Brookswood Bobcats very well could have lost in regulation time.
“We dodged a bullet there,” admitted Brookswood coach Neil Brown.
The ’Cats were facing the W.J. Mouat Hawks on Saturday night at Coquitlam’s Gleneagle Secondary in the senior girls Triple-A Fraser Valley final in match-up of both the top two seeds in the tournament and in the province.
And Mouat went to the free throw line, trailing by one point, with four seconds to play.
But the Hawks would hit just one of their two shots from the charity stripe and the Bobcats seized on the opportunity to win 75-69 in overtime. The Fraser Valley title was the first for the Brookswood senior girls program since 2006.
Louise Forsyth hit a clutch three-pointer in overtime to extend the Bobcats lead to four and they never looked back.
“The offence wasn’t flowing, and bang, she hits this contested three at the end of the shot clock and just swished it,” Brown marveled about the Grade 10 player. He felt she could have easily been named to the Fraser Valley all-star team.
The Bobcats were led by tournament MVP Aislinn Konig, who had 34 points. Forsyth finished with 15 while Tayla Jackson — a first team all-star — and Julia Marshall each had 13 points.
Amanda Boettcher also had a huge game on the defensive end, drawing a pair of offensive charges, like she has all season.
This was the fourth meeting of the season between Brookswood and Mouat, and it was back-and-forth, while neither team able to lead by more than a handful of points.
“Every game we played them was tough,” Brown said.
“They are a very tall team and they present us with some match-up problems. The problems we give them is our guards shoot the ball well and they have to guard that.”
Brookswood has beat their Abbotsford rival three out of four times this season and both will be among the favourites when the provincial championships kick off next month (March 4 to 7) at the Langley Events Centre.
“We tell the kids ‘the one seed doesn’t get a better draw than No. 2 or No. 3,” Brown said.
Brookswood is the defending champion and was the runner-up in the 2013 championship game. Both years they were the No. 2 seed.
But Brown did say it is always nice when the program can add another banner to the wall.