It took five minutes longer than expected, but the George McDougall Mustangs girls’ varsity basketball team claimed the Rocky View Sports Association’s divisional championship, last weekend.
The Mustangs used a last-minute free throw to tie the game in regulation and a late three-pointer in overtime to beat the Springbank Phoenix 62-58 in the RVSA divisional final at Cochrane High School, March 5.
Mindy Van der Borgh led the Mustangs with 21 points, while Grade 12’s Morgan Schultz, who made the free throw to force overtime, and Quinn Diaz, who made the clinching three despite playing with a broken finger, added 12 and 11 points respectively.
The win completed a 12-win undefeated regular and playoff season for George Mac. The Mustangs moved on to face Springbank again March 9 in the South Central Zones quarterfinal (results too late for press time). The winner moved on to the Zones semi-final against Brooks, in Olds, March 10.
“This is step one, as our eyes are after the banner at provincials,” said Mustangs associate coach Ashley Van der Borgh after the divisional championship win. “Despite us missing our shots and not getting the execution we typically get, they dug in their heels, played with grit, worked hard and out-hustled them. We hung on in the end and made a few lucky shots.”
Springbank opened a 14-5 lead after the first quarter, but the Mustangs responded with an 11-1 run to open the second, sparked by the rebounding of Van der Borgh and Diaz.
“They were pretty aggressive, but I think we played through it,” Mindy Van der Borgh said.
Diaz said winning the rebound and turnover battle was essential in the tight, physical game, as it provided increased possession time.
“Even though our shots weren’t on, or going in, we still got more opportunities to shoot, so I think it kept our game more alive,” she said. “At the beginning of the game, I think we all thought we’d have it, because we beat them two times before, but when it went into overtime, it put more pressure on us.”
George Mac had a seven-point lead going into the fourth quarter, but Springbank’s Maya Parker made a series of three-pointers to bring the Phoenix back.
“We’re definitely working on improving our shooting percentage for the next game,” Ashley Van der Borgh said. “You want to motivate the girls and don’t want to bring them down at that point, especially when the other team has a momentum change with a big three-point shot. You want to encourage them to go out there with level heads. We knew their key players were getting into foul trouble; there were a lot of flagrants and pushing, so we were hoping they would foul out before the made any key shots. But when it did happen, you don’t get excited and try to just stay calm.”
Springbank was up 54-53 with 11 seconds left when the Mustangs won a jump ball and Schutlz was fouled with 6.7 seconds left – forcing a must-have free throw chance.
“I kind of just zoned out and focused on the shot,” she said. “The second one wasn’t as important, but I still would have liked to make it.”
The teams then traded free throws in the overtime session before Diaz got the ball with 8.5 seconds left and a chance to win the game.
“It was one of the only threes I’ve made all year, so I was pretty excited,” she said.
The Cochrane Cobras won the boys’ varsity, boys’ junior varsity and girls’ junior varsity divisional titles, while the Bert Church Chargers boys’ and girls’ varsity teams and George Mac boys’ varsity team all lost in the preliminary rounds of the tournament.
